Guy Ritchie romp The Gentlemen expands its empire of excess in season 2

The Gentlemen wears its outrageousness proudly. Set in the same universe as Guy Ritchie’s middling 2019 film of the same name, season one of the adrenaline-heavy TV series made for enjoyable viewing.  In every sense of the word: This is an entertaining action romp with vivid production design and striking sets. It’s jam-packed with brutal shootouts and fiery combat that’s a lot of bloody fun and, somehow, hardly monotonous. The impeccably styled characters of its world live in lavish mansions, speak in zippy dialogue, and cherish crude British slang. Season two follows suit but broadens the show’s horizons as criminal partners Eddie Halstead (Theo James) and Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario), who simply can’t seem to sort out their feelings for each other, strive to expand their weed empire to Italy, the Middle East, and South America.

Along the way, the second season crams in violence in the form of beheadings and torture scenes, as well as gun-toting thugs who want to team up with or defeat the duo. Eddie and Susie—who run the operation for her calculating, imprisoned, sauna-loving father, Bobby (Ray Winstone)—find their command of Bobby’s enterprise challenged by rivals, loved ones, and each other. The result is a sufficiently thrilling saga that, in typical Ritchie fashion, comes with plenty of flair and ridiculous caveats. If season one was about former armyman Eddie coming to terms with his surprising Dukedom and inheritance—including a 15,000-acre estate and all the marijuana sales and distribution that came with it—then the second sees him rise to the top of a grisly food chain as he leaves dead bodies and broken hearts in his wake. 

At this point, Eddie is no longer trying to get out of his dead dad’s shady business. Why would he when he’s a surprisingly conniving dude with a knack for schemes, lies, and murder? Does all the brutality take a toll on his soul? In these eight hour-long episodes, The Gentlemen finds answers to these questions that are both absurd yet quite meaningful. There’s a darkly funny church confession; Eddie’s mom, Lady Sabrina (Joely Richardson), fears he’s losing his way; and billionaire Stanley Johnston (Giancarlo Esposito) infrequently drops in to talk about Jesus and power. But this isn’t a show about contemplation—it’s not a gritty mob drama like Netflix counterparts Peaky Blinders and Ozark. 

On the contrary, The Gentlemen has a revolving door of ludicrous gangsters who burst into Eddie and Susie’s lives and usually don’t exit with their own. Season two brings back some familiar faces (including an all-too-brief visit by Guz Khan as the money launderer Chucky), along with new ones who test the pair. One episode focuses almost entirely on Eddie and Susie hunting down a rare falcon to help Eddie gain a huge political favor, leading to knowingly convoluted lines like, “Without that bird, we will be short 26 votes, our attempts to Shanghai the House of the Lords will fail, and I’ll be on the hook for $60 million to an Italian crime boss.”