The Gentlemen Season 2 review verdict: Guy Ritchie’s darkly comic crime series returns on Netflix on 3 September in sharper, more confident form, with higher stakes, more brutal action and a surprising structural choice that ends up being one of its best decisions.
The Gentlemen Season 2 review: what has changed?
Theo James is back as Eddie, the 13th Duke of Halstead, who spent the first season reluctantly entangled with the Glass crime syndicate after discovering a thriving weed operation hidden on his family estate. By the end of that run, Eddie and Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) had become an unlikely but effective drug-supplying team, with Susie’s imprisoned father Bobby (Ray Winstone) overseeing things from his improbably comfortable cell.
Season 2 picks up a year on. The business has grown, the ambitions are larger, and Eddie is now angling for a seat in the House of Lords with the help of a brilliantly cast Hugh Bonneville as the easily corrupted Lord Hawthorne, all bouffant hair and moral flexibility. Bobby, meanwhile, continues to treat prison as something between a luxury hotel and a private members’ club, while billionaire Stanley Johnston (Giancarlo Esposito) drifts in and out of the action to offer Eddie the occasional word of wisdom.
The domestic world of Halstead Manor is fleshed out further too. Eddie’s gamekeeper Geoff (Vinnie Jones) remains on hand to quietly deal with any complications, while Eddie’s mother Sabrina (Joely Richardson) and his sister Charlotte (Jasmine Blackborow), now with a new baby, add warmth and texture to the estate’s daily life.
The most talked-about change is the reduced role of drug-addicted older brother Freddie (Daniel Ings), packed off to rehab and largely absent from proceedings. It sounds like a loss on paper, but it is not. Freed from the repetitive cycle of cleaning up Freddie’s increasingly reckless messes, the plot breathes. Eddie and Susie’s relationship develops new dimensions, and the writers find room for a more ambitious set of storylines.
Italy, Lake Maggiore and a welcome expansion of the universe
That ambition extends to the geography. Eddie and Susie venture into Italy, seeking to expand their empire with the help of new acquaintance Bella (Benedetta Porcaroli), and Ritchie uses the opportunity to shoot across some genuinely gorgeous Lake Maggiore locations. Back on home soil, a posh shooting party filmed on Ritchie’s own country estate includes a small supporting role for Maya Jama, and a London car chase gives the season its most kinetic mid-point moment.
The action throughout is staged with real confidence. There are more brutal deaths than season one, the violence is bloodier, and several set pieces at the Halstead estate show the production at its most technically accomplished. Fans of Ritchie’s 2019 film, which AOL reports grossed over $100 million worldwide and laid the groundwork for this series, will find the big-swing energy well intact.
Yet the season’s most affecting passages are its quieter ones. Theo James is given a darker arc for Eddie that deepens as the episodes progress, and his scenes with both Susie and Bella reveal sides of the character that the first season never fully explored. The exchanges between Eddie and Stanley carry genuine weight, and the scenes between Susie and Bobby remain an uncomplicated delight. Ray Winstone delivers even throwaway moments with complete authority.
The true emotional core of this season, though, belongs to Vinnie Jones as Geoff. His past romance with Sabrina and his tentative, growing bond with illegitimate daughter Charlotte are explored with unexpected gentleness. Jones’s performance is gruff on the surface and genuinely moving underneath, and it is the thread that lingers longest once the credits roll on the eighth and final episode.
For those tracking the franchise’s trajectory: The Gentlemen was renewed for a third season in August 2026, just ahead of this season’s premiere, according to Techno Sports. The series is produced by Moonage Pictures, part of ITV Studios, and Miramax Television, and the early renewal suggests considerable confidence in where the story is heading next. On the evidence of season two, that confidence looks entirely justified. Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix now.
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