Guy Ritchie serves up a meaty thriller-comedy series on Netflix with 'The Gentlemen'

When we first meet the hero of Guy Ritchie's new Netflix series, he's not exactly what you'd expect from a Guy Ritchie hero. Theo James stars as the duke, and he says he loved the “idea of a man falling down a rabbit hole and learning to love violence and power and what that means.” James says, “He thinks he knows power because he’s been in the army and he’s part of the aristocracy, but he realizes power comes in many different forms.” “The Gentlemen” has Ritchie’s typical examinations of criminality, but it’s less hyperkinetic and frantic than many of his films like "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” allowing scenes to breathe and characters to deepen. “He’s making the point that the British landed gentry aristocracy really are the original gangsters of the British class society,” says Daniel Ings, who plays the duke's older brother. “There’s kind of like a need to fight for survival in both of those worlds.” The series also stars Joely Richardson, Giancarlo Esposito, Shane Walker and Kaya Scodelario, who plays Susie, a very cool but very non-nonsense underworld captain, who says things like: “Once you start the killing, you have to finish the killing.” {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} “It was one of the rare times where I instantly knew I wanted to play this character with every fiber of my being. “Especially in this world — this Guy Ritchie universe where a lot of times the focus has been on these male characters — I thought would be really fun and interesting to introduce Susie, who can kind of go toe to toe with all of them.” The series — written by Ritchie and Matthew Read and with the first two episodes directed by Ritchie — enjoys refinement with aggression, which is the title of the pilot episode and could be Ritchie’s calling card here.