‘The Gentlemen’ rolls another number
Guy Ritchie likes a good yarn. His characters often stop in the middle of a scene to tell us about a peculiar idiosyncrasy of this or that personage, leading to a flashback, usually amusing if somewhat horrifying. In The Gentlemen, the Netflix series spun off the 2019 Ritchie movie of the same name, the lordly Halstead manor which houses acres of high-grade hydroponic marijuana fields beneath its pristine manicured lawns is shown from another angle: that of Eddie Horniman (Theo James), a UN peacekeeping soldier and newly appointed Duke of Halstead, as he tries to rein in his loopy, troublesome brother Freddy (Joshua McGuire) and cut a deal with bud entrepreneur Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) to sever ties with the criminal, often violent, weed-growing business. But he has to fend off advances from Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), a billionaire hoping to buy Halstead Manor lock, stock and countless smoking buds.
It’s what Ritchie does best: set some extreme characters in motion, let them duke it out in style. James’ Lord Eddie is the one caught in the middle: trying to live up to his pedigree, but taunted by Susie’s dare to become a perfect blend of well-bred and street-savvy. “Refined aggression,” I think they call it in one episode. Highly entertaining.