Summary
- The Gentlemen TV series features a new twist on Guy Ritchie's gangster movie.
- The movie boasts star power with Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey, but the TV show shines with Kaya Scodelario's strong performance.
- The movie excels in action scenes and narrative complexity, while the TV show adds depth to the supporting characters.
Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen is a TV adaptation of his own gangster movie from 2019, but it takes a slightly different approach. It isn't a direct adaptation, despite some similarities between The Gentlemen and the original movie. It's an interesting hybrid of a remake and a completely new story. It's still about English aristocrats using their land to farm marijuana, but there are many differences.
Directly comparing the Netflix show to the movie isn't an exact science, because each version has different aims and different conventions of the medium. However, the movie and the show have enough in common that it's interesting to see how they stack up when compared to one another. Guy Ritchie originally intended for The Gentlemen to be a TV show, not a movie, so his choices in adapting his own work reveal a lot about what his original vision was.
The TV show and the movie version of The Gentlemen are available to stream on Netflix in the US.
10 The Movie Has A Great Ensemble Cast
The TV show can't compete with the movie's star power
Guy Ritchie's gangster movies often juggle several big personalities, and this requires actors with great comedic timing and inherent charm.
While the Netflix series has a great cast, the movie's budget gives it access to a higher class of talent, including Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant. The cast of The Gentlemen is important in keeping the audience engaged as the plot switches quickly between different characters and timelines. Some actors don't have a lot of screen time, but they manage to keep things moving at a nice pace.
Hugh Grant plays against type as a scheming, immoral journalist. His performance is a big gamble, but he has the charisma to pull it off with ease. Jeremy Strong and Colin Farrell are also playing outlandish, larger-than-life characters, and they make it work despite other actors playing it straight in a more traditional style for a crime drama. Guy Ritchie's gangster movies often juggle several big personalities, and this requires actors with great comedic timing and inherent charm.
The Gentlemen Show Cast Guide
Despite being set in the same universe as the original Guy Ritchie film, Netflix's The Gentlemen features an entirely new roster of cast & characters.
9 Kaya Scodelario Gives The TV Show A New Edge
The movie doesn't have a female character as strong as Susie Glass
Scodelario is excellent as a no-nonsense operator who puts out fires wherever they start.
The outstanding performer in the cast of the TV version of The Gentlemen is undoubtedly Kaya Scodelario, who plays Susie Glass. Susie is the de facto leader of the Glass family business while her father is in prison, and she guides Eddie into the drug trade, while trying to maintain her grip on power. Scodelario is excellent as a no-nonsense operator who puts out fires wherever they start.
Susie Glass is the female lead in The Gentlemen, and she's a much more compelling character than the movie's equivalent. Michelle Dockery plays Rosalind in the movie, Mickey's wife and business partner. She does a good job with what she's given, but her character isn't as dynamic or compelling as most of the male characters. Ritchie's gangster movies have frequently been criticized for their hollow female roles, so Scodelario's part in the Netflix series is a big improvement.