5 Ways Guy Ritchie's The Gentleman Movie Is Better Than The Show (& 5 Ways The Show Is Better)

May 8, 2024, 10 p.m.

Movies

5 Ways Guy Ritchie's The Gentleman Movie Is Better Than The Show (& 5 Ways The Show Is Better)

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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.

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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.

Related 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.

8 The Movie Has More Exciting Action

Guy Ritchie Lets His Signature Style Shine Through

Neither the movie nor the TV show truly belong in the action genre, but there are moments when the tension erupts into chaos, and the movie has a little more fun with these moments.

One of the things that a bigger budget can buy is more exciting action set pieces, and this is something Guy Ritchie knows how to do very well. His action sequences in The Gentlemen can be very humorous, but they're also genuinely unpredictable. The most memorable one of all is the fight scene on Mickey's farm with the Toddlers, which is filmed like a music video and a snuff movie rolled into one.

The Netflix series also has a few great action scenes, such as when Eddie has to chase Jethro through the woods, or when he fights someone waiting in Jethro's home, but the movie's action is a cut above. Neither the movie nor the TV show truly belong in the action genre, but there are moments when the tension erupts into chaos, and the movie has a little more fun with these moments.

7 The TV Show Gives More Depth To The Supporting Characters

The show has more time to divide its focus

Each criminal faction and each member of Susie's operation gets enough time to develop into more than an archetype.

Although the movie features a great ensemble cast of characters, it doesn't have enough time to explore many of them in depth. Mickey, Raymond, Fletcher and Dry Eye get some detail, but there are many characters which only appear briefly. Lord George, Phuc, Rosalind, Big Dave and Laura Pressfield are just some of the characters who only exist to serve their function in their plot, but they aren't particularly interesting or deep.

The TV series has just as many characters, but the key difference is that it has enough time to develop more of them in depth. Each criminal faction and each member of Susie's operation gets enough time to develop into more than an archetype, even if that is their starting point. This makes the payoff much more satisfying when these various different characters bounce off each other in unexpected ways.

Related The Gentlemen Season 2: Will It Happen? Everything We Know Guy Ritchie's spinoff series The Gentlemen premiered on Netflix in March 2024, but will the tongue-in-cheek crime drama have a second season?

6 The Movie Has A More Satisfying Ending

The Netflix series could set up a second season

There's some interesting political maneuvering in the season finale of The Gentlemen, but it still feels like an anticlimax after the show teases a big shootout at Halstead Manor.

Like with Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, part of the joy of watching a Guy Ritchie gangster movie is seeing all the threads come together in the end. The Gentlemen is no different, as Raymond and Mickey overcome Dry Eye, Matthew and Fletcher all at once. Suddenly, the complex narrative is crystallized succinctly, like the moment when a magician makes their big reveal.

The TV series sets up a similar finale, but it doesn't quite stick the landing. The ending of The Gentlemen reveals that Bobby had never really been planning to sell his business after all. It was just a plot to bring Susie and Eddie closer together. There's some interesting political maneuvering in the season finale of The Gentlemen, but it still feels like an anticlimax after the show teases a big shootout at Halstead Manor.

5 The TV Show Isn't Weighed Down By Complex Narrative Structures

The movie's meta-narrative doesn't always work

The Netflix series tends to stick to a more straightforward form of storytelling. There are still a few stylistic flourishes, but the simple structure makes the plot more engrossing.

The movie version of The Gentlemen doesn't always use linear storytelling. It starts near the end, before flashing back to provide all the backstory about Mickey's attempts to get out of the game. Most of this backstory is provided by Fletcher, showing off to Raymond that he has figured out every little detail of what is going on inside their world. Only the third act takes place without any flashbacks, but it still ends with Fletcher pitching the entire story as a movie, in a strange meta twist.

While there are some great moments in The Gentlemen that can only occur because of the movie's unorthodox structure, this same structure also impedes the flow on other occasions. It can just as easily come across as self-congratulatory and unnecessary. By contrast, the Netflix series tends to stick to a more straightforward form of storytelling. There are still a few stylistic flourishes, but the simple structure makes the plot more engrossing.

4 The Movie Has A More Compelling Villain

The TV show's twist isn't such a surprise

Giancarlo Esposito's reputation means that it isn't much of a surprise when the show reveals that Stanley Johnston isn't the generous, unassuming businessman he first appears to be.

Anyone who has seen Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Boys, or The Mandalorian knows that whenever Giancarlo Esposito shows up, it means the main character is in trouble. His reputation means that it isn't much of a surprise when the show reveals that Stanley Johnston isn't the generous, unassuming businessman he first appears to be. He isn't the only villain Eddie and Susie have to take care of, but none of the others make much of an impact either.

The movie has Jeremy Strong as Matthew Berger in the main villain role. He plays a very similar part to Stanley Johnston. They are both American investors who seem like amicable business partners until they try to drive down the price of the drug empire. The movie's version works more smoothly, as the reveal that he's working with Dry Eye is more surprising. It's also a great reveal when Dry Eye kills Lord George, as it shows that he's more volatile than he seems.

3 The TV Show Uses A More Interesting Perspective

Eddie is an outsider in the drug trade

Eddie's background makes him a total outsider in the drug trade, and his arc over the course of the season is about him getting dragged deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld until he accepts his fate.

Theo James plays Eddie Halstead in the Netflix version of The Gentlemen. He's a British aristocrat working for the UN as a peacekeeping officer until he returns home to visit his dying father. His background makes him a total outsider in the drug trade, and his arc over the course of the season is about him getting dragged deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld until he accepts his fate.

The movie mostly tells the story from the perspective of Mickey and Raymond, a well-established drug kingpin and his right-hand-man. They have both been in the drug trade for a long time, and they aren't surprised by much anymore. Seeing the events of the TV show through Susie's eyes wouldn't be as interesting, because Eddie's journey is more compelling, and he acts as a conduit for the audience when learning about Susie's business.

2 The Movie Is More Tense

There are moments when the snappy dialogue falls away

Due to the complexity of the plot, there are times when the next beat is completely unpredictable, and Ritchie toys with his audience to heighten the tension.

Like most Guy Ritchie movies, The Gentlemen has a script packed full of witty dialogue and a confident sense of style. However, there are still a few moments when Ritchie chooses to cut the dialogue and keep things simple, and this makes for some incredibly tense scenes. Due to the complexity of the plot, there are times when the next beat is completely unpredictable, and Ritchie toys with his audience to heighten the tension.

The director uses dramatic irony on a couple of occasions for a huge impact. For example, the movie opens with a scene that appears to show Mickey being shot in the back of the head, so when he returns to the same location later, it seems as though his fate is sealed, but the movie subverts expectations instead. The TV series has a few moments of genuine peril, but there is nothing that matches the cinematic tension of the original.

1 The TV Show Is More Humorous

The crime comedy leans further into comedy

Vinnie Jones and Ray Winstone are charming in their old-school tough guy acts, and Theo James even gets a few chances to show off his deadpan wit, despite him often having to play the straight man.

Both the movie and the TV show are perfect examples of Guy Ritchie's style of comedy, but the show leans a little further into its comedic side. While the movie has plenty of jokes and witty exchanges, comedy isn't such an important part of the plot. In the Netflix show, some jokes are inextricable from the major beats of the narrative. For example, Freddie kills Tommy Dixon because he's humiliated by being forced to dance like a chicken.

The show features a few guest appearances from popular British comedians, including Peter Serafinowicz and Guz Khan. Vinnie Jones and Ray Winstone are charming in their old-school tough guy acts, and Theo James even gets a few chances to show off his deadpan wit, despite him often having to play the straight man. Both versions of The Gentlemen are a fun blend of crime and comedy, but the TV show is a little bit lighter.

Related Netflix's The Gentlemen Makes Us Want 1 Other Guy Ritchie Show Netflix's The Gentlemen proves Guy Ritchie's movies can lay the groundwork for great TV spinoffs, making us want another movie of his as a show.