Key Takeaways
- The Gentlemen Season 2 dropped on Netflix and viewership jumped 48% in its second week, it’s the No. 1 show on the platform right now.
- Theo James flips the script from season one. Eddie Horniman doesn’t want out of the family crime business anymore, he wants in.
- Critics are split (68% on Rotten Tomatoes) but regular viewers are loving it (83%), and I’m firmly on the viewer side of that gap.
Jump to:
- The Big Flip That Makes Season 2 Work
- Theo James Is Doing Something Different Here
- Why Critics and Viewers Disagree
- Should You Watch It
The Big Flip That Makes Season 2 Work
Season one of The Gentlemen worked because Eddie Horniman wanted nothing to do with the massive weed empire buried under his family’s estate. He was the reluctant duke stuck cleaning up a mess he never asked for. Season two throws that entire premise out.
Eddie likes this now. He’s not the guy getting dragged into the criminal underworld anymore, he’s the guy actively expanding it, pushing the operation into Italy and beyond. That’s a gutsy move for a show to make in its second season, because it means the whole emotional engine from season one is gone. But it works, because watching a guy get good at being bad is a completely different kind of fun than watching him resist it.
Kaya Scodelario is back too as Susie Glass, and the two of them together running an international operation hits different than the first season’s more contained, English-countryside version of this story.
Theo James Is Doing Something Different Here
I’ve liked Theo James in stuff before, but this is the best I’ve seen him. Some critics are calling this his Michael Corleone stretch, and honestly that’s not overselling it. He plays Eddie with fewer sharp edges than the typical Guy Ritchie protagonist, there’s still a moral compass in there somewhere, just twisted toward doing bad things “the right way” instead of not doing them at all.
That’s a harder note to hit than pure villain or pure hero, and James threads it well enough that you’re rooting for the guy even as he does stuff you’d never actually root for in real life. This is basically what MobLand is trying to do with Tom Hardy’s family this season, except The Gentlemen gets there with more charm and less brute force.
Why Critics and Viewers Disagree
The Rotten Tomatoes split here is real. 68% from critics, 83% from audiences. That gap usually means one thing: the show got bigger and busier, and critics dinged it for feeling overstuffed with characters and side plots, while regular viewers just enjoyed the ride and didn’t care as much about the extra noise.
I get both takes. There are stretches where it feels like the writers added three new schemes because they could, not because the story needed them. But I never got bored, and for a show built on vibes and swagger as much as plot, that’s the metric that actually matters to me.
Should You Watch It
Yes. If you liked season one, this is a bigger, more confident version of the same show, and the choice to let Eddie embrace the criminal life instead of resist it gives the whole season a different energy than you’d expect from a straight sequel. It’s currently sitting at No. 1 on Netflix’s Top 10 for a reason.
Just don’t go in expecting the tighter, more contained story from season one. This is Guy Ritchie letting the scope expand, characters and all, and mostly pulling it off.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Gentlemen Season 2 worth watching?
Yes. Viewership jumped 48% in its second week and it’s currently the No. 1 show on Netflix. Audiences are rating it 83% on Rotten Tomatoes even though critics are more mixed at 68%.
What’s different about Eddie Horniman in Season 2?
In season one, Eddie wanted out of his family’s criminal empire. In season two, he’s embraced it and is actively expanding the operation into Italy and beyond.
Is The Gentlemen Season 2 connected to the movie?
It’s set in the same world Guy Ritchie created for his 2019 film, with Theo James and Kaya Scodelario leading a new story rather than continuing the movie’s specific plot.
