Guy Ritchie, the British film director, made his name with blackly funny movies, like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, about the grimy criminal underworld. But, given he was raised among the aristocracy (both of his parents remarried peers of the realm), it was perhaps only a matter of time before he combined his fantasy with his personal history. That vision is The Gentlemen: a show that invites us to believe that a hereditary peer is actually hard as nails. Somehow, that rarefied premise has resonated with viewers, and the show returns this week for a second season on Netflix.
The Duke of Halstead aka Eddie (Theo James) and Susie (Kaya Scodelario) are now running the empire of her incarcerated father, Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone). But is it enough for a member of the British aristocracy to be a mere lieutenant? “It’s been diminished, year after year, generation after generation,” Eddie laments of his own privilege. “I want it back.” His big scheme involves an Italian crime lord and his own elevation to the House of Lords. For the former, he needs mafia boss Marco Moretti (Sergio Castellitto) and, for the latter, he requires the support of Dickie (Hugh Bonneville). But most of all, he needs his partnership with Susie to endure, even as he starts to expand his horizons beyond the Glass family.
