Guy Ritchie’s 8-Part Netflix Show Is The Perfect Antidote To Super-Gritty Crime Dramas

It has been a great few years for dark and gritty crime dramas, with some excellent shows performing well on streaming platforms. This trend is showing no signs of ending, with Jo Nesbo’s Detective Hole coming to Netflix, a second season of This City Is Ours in production, and MobLand season 2 likely arriving this year. Still, not all crime dramas have to be as somber.

Guy Ritchie’s best movies and TV shows gained a reputation for combining hard punches and absurd humor, almost becoming a genre of their own. His 2019 movie, The Gentlemen, introduced his most ludicrous idea yet, and the spin-off TV show, also called The Gentlemen, is the crime show that we did not ask for, but the one we needed in a sea of dark dramas.

The Gentlemen Is The Antidote To Crime Dramas Like MobLand

Crime shows like MobLand are generally tension-filled thrillers which often include the occasional moment of violence that makes even the most bulletproof viewer wince. MobLand, which was also partially directed by Guy Ritchie, has moments of psychological torture, including a moment involving nail scissors as intimidation, and a blood-soaked chainsaw murder. That said, the constant brutality can be exhausting, and The Gentlemen is the perfect antidote.

The Gentlemen‘s cast is mostly full of well-known and expressive faces, including Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Winstone, and Vinnie Jones. The series is about a young aristocrat, Eddie Horniman (Theo James,) who returns to the sprawling estate that he has inherited, only to find that its survival depends on the underground weed farming business based underneath the building.

While The Gentlemen is often hilarious, it is still a Guy Ritchie production, and fans of the director will not be surprised that the show has its violent moments. The Gentlemen features raw and unpolished fight scenes in which characters take a major beating, but these are balanced with hilarious one-liners and quotable moments that make the show a comedy as well as a crime drama.

How The Gentlemen Is Connected To Guy Ritchie’s 2019 Movie

The Gentlemen TV show is confirmed to be set in the same universe as the movie, but while the show occasionally drops names and references that fans will recognize from the movie, the two are not connected. People who have not seen the movie can enjoy the TV show without feeling like they are missing something, though both projects are well worth watching.

While some reviews have reported that The Gentlemen movie is better than the TV show, the two projects actually have almost the same Rotten Tomatoes score, with the movie beating the TV show by one single critics’ point. They share a plot, but tell their stories from different perspectives, which was a major creative risk, but one that paid off.

Guy Ritchie remade his own story in The Gentlemen TV show, which was an unexpected success. It is not easy to retell a story, especially when the original movie is only seven years old. Still, his change in approach is noticeable. Ritchie’s signature style is explosive, but the TV show allows him to build tension, play with pacing, and give viewers the unforgettable chicken scene.

The Gentlemen Returns To Netflix This Year With Season 2

The Gentlemen season 2 got an exciting update in the form of a BTS video featuring its main cast getting into costume. Season 1 ended with Bobby revealing that his retirement plans had been a test for the core duo, who are getting even deeper into the crime business. This sets the scene for season 2, which is expected to stream in 2026.

Rather than spending all of its time in seedy backstreets and smoky bars as many current crime dramas do, The Gentlemen shows Guy Ritchie at his genre-mixing best. It fills a gap in the crime show market by giving us absurd humor as well as gunshots, and Ritchie’s eight-part series is a must-watch for crime drama fans who want to laugh as much as wince.