Jonathan Millar 
Anil Krishna 
James Oconner 
© Netflix
Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen is back for a second season, and this time Eddie and Susie are taking their criminal business to Italy. The Netflix series has brought in a pretty impressive group of Italian actors too, including Sergio Castellitto, Benedetta Porcaroli and Michele Morrone, but thankfully the change of location hasn’t taken away the slightly ridiculous swagger that made the first season so much fun. If anything, the Italian setting gives Ritchie even more room to play around with the world he created.
The whole thing goes back to Ritchie’s 2019 movie, which was later turned into a TV series in 2024. The show kept the same basic world and attitude, but had much more time to build out the characters and the criminal network around them. Now, more than two years after that first season, the story is moving forward again. Netflix had already renewed the series for Season 3 before the second season even premiered on September 3, which tells you something about how much confidence the streamer has in it.
Theo James returns as Eddie, still looking every bit the part in his expensive suits, while Kaya Scodelario, Ray Winstone and Joely Richardson are also back. This time, though, the cast gets even bigger, with several Italian performers joining the story and bringing their own flavour to the increasingly complicated mess Eddie and Susie have created.
Running a Criminal Empire Gets Messy
Season 2 picks up about a year after Eddie and Susie teamed up to run Bobby’s overseas operation. The opening scene wastes very little time throwing the characters into trouble before the story jumps back three months to explain how things got to that point. And, as you’d probably expect from The Gentlemen, it isn’t exactly a smooth road from there.
Bobby’s increasingly reckless decisions start causing problems, and Eddie and Susie are forced to think about how much they’re actually willing to do to protect what they’ve built. There’s a constant feeling that one wrong move could bring the whole thing crashing down. That question of how far Eddie and Susie are prepared to go is probably the most interesting part of the season, even when the show gets distracted by all the other madness happening around them.
Italy Gives the Show a Fresh Look
With Eddie and Susie’s operation getting bigger, the show also has more characters to deal with. Hugh Bonneville, Benjamin Clementine, Amra Mallassi and Tyler Conti are among the new additions, while Sergio Castellitto, Benedetta Porcaroli and Michele Morrone become particularly important as the story starts establishing the Italian side of the business. There’s a lot of talent packed into these eight episodes, perhaps a little too much at times, because some of the smaller storylines don’t get quite enough room to breathe.
Still, the Italian cast fits surprisingly well into the world of The Gentlemen. They don’t feel like characters who were simply dropped in because the show needed a new location. They bring new tensions and relationships for Eddie and Susie to deal with, and that keeps the second season from feeling like it’s just repeating the first one with a slightly different crime scheme.
And then there’s Lake Maggiore. The change from the English countryside to the Italian lakeside is probably the most obvious visual upgrade this season. The show looks great when it gets outside, and the cameras clearly aren’t going to waste an opportunity to show off the scenery. It’s almost funny how beautiful everything looks considering how many terrible things are usually happening in the same frame.
Is Season 2 Better Than Season 1?
For the most part, yes. Season 1 had the harder job because it had to introduce the world, explain Eddie’s situation and establish all the relationships before it could really get moving. Season 2 doesn’t have that problem, so it gets into the trouble much faster. The opening stretch is particularly strong, although the middle of the season does slow down a little before things pick up again toward the end.
Whether you’ll enjoy it probably depends on how much you already like Guy Ritchie’s style. That’s always going to be the case with something like The Gentlemen. His fast dialogue, sudden shifts, violent set pieces and slightly cheeky sense of humour aren’t going to suddenly win over people who found those things irritating the first time around. In fact, Season 2 leans into all of it even harder.
For everyone else, though, that’s hardly a complaint. If you liked the first season and enjoy Ritchie’s particular brand of crime storytelling, these eight episodes give you pretty much what you’re expecting. It’s fast, messy, violent and occasionally very funny, and even when the plot becomes a bit too complicated, there’s usually enough going on to keep things moving.
The Verdict
The Gentlemen Season 2 is a confident follow-up that takes the franchise somewhere new without losing the personality that made the first season work. The Italian setting looks fantastic, the new cast members fit into the story nicely, and Theo James and Kaya Scodelario remain an entertaining centre for all the chaos.
It isn’t completely free of problems. The middle episodes lose some momentum, and with so many characters and subplots flying around, a few things feel rushed. But the good stuff far outweighs those bumps. There’s plenty of action, dark humour, sharp dialogue and, of course, the kind of stylish criminal nonsense that comes with Guy Ritchie territory. If Season 1 was enough to get you into this world, Season 2 should have no trouble keeping you there.
About the Author
