I encountered this series by accident and initially thought it was the Guy Ritchie film and therefore ignored it because I have already seen that. Later on I dug in a bit more heavily and found out it is actually a massive-budget series that Guy Ritchie is very involved in and it revolves around the same concept as the film.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode and about half of the second, but then my interest started to wane for some very good reasons that I'll attempt to detail without giving away spoilers as much as possible.
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If you saw the movie you already know that the underlying plot of the movie was about marijuana grow operations that exist literally underground at the estates of various royals who no longer can afford to maintain their properties. The arrangement is simple: The lords and ladies get a bunch of money annually to turn a blind eye to the fact that there is an illegal weed operation going on under their land. It's a nice concept but doesn't really touch base on how something like this could be constructed without attracting a bunch of attention. I guess them being royals and all would allow them some extra privacy as far as what goes on with their property but I always found this aspect of both the film and the series to be a bit far-fetched especially considering the amount of surveillance that takes place in the UK. Suspend your disbelief for this part though, because it is a major part of the overall plot.
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In the film, we were primarily focused on the owners of the grow-ops and the criminal elements of that but in the movie they instead mostly focus on one of the lords who inherits the land from his recently deceased father. "Eddie" is now the Duke of the estate as per his father's last will and testament and this entry into the criminal world is a far cry from what his previous profession as a member of the military is concerned. He is thrust into this position by someone who comes to visit him while he is on a walk who points out to him what is going on his land, and the arrangement that the organization and Eddie's father had.
This is not a spoiler, it is all in the trailer and if you saw the movie you would know that this was going to be part of it anyway.
Ritchie does a good job of introducing his usual brand of outlandish criminal types and that part of the series is a lot of fun and something I think Guy Ritchie specializes in, in a way that no one else can. The series also features a bunch of things that end up written on the screen to fill in the blanks for us, the viewers, and this helps to keep our attention and also keep us up to speed on the rather complicated and fast-moving story.
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Eddie quickly discovers that he has exactly the right skill sets to be not just a silent partner like his father was, but to be more actively involved in the overall operation. I suppose this was necessary in order to make a scheduled 8, 1-hour episodes and this is where I start to have a problem with the overall show.
You see, this concept was perfect for a 2-hour movie but in order to make it 8 hours+ long, they have to throw a lot of side-missions and other in-depth plot twists into the mix on a regular basis. While this is still a lot better than most of the series available to us, I find it a bit strange for a Guy Ritchie production to be this long. Each episode is already starting to feel a bit formulaic. They introduce some major barrier standing in the way of their overall objective at the beginning of the episode, then they spend 40 minutes achieving that objective. Then, once that objective is complete in whatever way was necessary, it is thrown out and not talked about again. Sure they might circle back to these characters at a later time but mostly each episode seems like its own movie to the point where the overall plot kind of starts to get lost in the fray.
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This isn't to say that the series is a flop. It is far from it. I just don't know if this was "necessary." Perhaps Guy Ritchie was shown an "offer he couldn't refuse" from Netflix much like Adam Sandler's $100 million exclusive contract with the streaming service. I'm sure he and his story didn't come cheap!
Should I watch it?
I think that you absolutely should, yes. It is a return to the Guy Ritchie style that I think most people prefer over his recent attempts at doing "other stuff." Ritchie excels at comedic crime productions and that it precisely what this is. Many of his actors and actresses from previous hit movies like Snatch and Lock Stock make appearances in this and that is part of the fun. I spent a bit of time saying to myself "is that Vinny Jones" and yes, yes it was. The music if good, the direction for the most part is excellent, and the only problem I have with it is that at times the "side missions" seem to detract from, rather than enhance, the overall story. It can't be easy to come up with 8 hours of a story and this becomes a bit evident at points. However, it is still one of the best series available on any streaming network at the moment and therefore I think it is worth a look if you have the time.
Currently the only legal way to watch this is to stream it on Netflix
I tried to watch this a few weeks back and episode 1 for some reason would not load and you cannot skip the opening episode. I have been watching Shogun instead and it has been brilliant thus far.
Shogun is an absolutely excellent series. I watched the latest two episodes last night. Since I think Shogun is better than Gentlemen, maybe it is ok that it didn't load.