Line #24 Series/TheGentlemen


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1000008584.jpg]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:Mind your manor...]]
7
8	''The Gentlemen'' is a television series created by Creator/GuyRitchie. It is a spin-off of Ritchie's [[Film/TheGentlemen 2019 film of the same name]].
9
10	Eddie Halstead (Creator/TheoJames) is the second son of the Duke of Halstead and has chosen a career in the British Army. With the old Duke on his deathbed, Eddie returns home to help his mother Lady Sabrina (Creator/JoelyRichardson), his older brother Freddy and younger sister Charlotte. When the Duke dies, everyone is shocked to find that Freddy has been cut out of the will and the title and estate goes to Eddie instead. Eddie is subsequently approached by Susie Glass (Creator/KayaScodelario) who reveals to him that the Halstead Estate is part of a marijuana growing empire and offers him a lot of money to continue the arrangement. Eddie now has to navigate an unfamiliar criminal underworld and try to keep himself and his family safe.
11
12	It was released onto Creator/{{Netflix}} on March 7, 2024.
13
14	!! ''The Gentlemen'' provides examples of
15	* ActorAllusion:
16	** [[Creator/GiancarloEsposito Stanley Johnston]] [[Series/BreakingBad is the kingpin of a meth empire who poses as a legitimate businessman]].
17	* AdolfHitlarious: Episode 4 has UpperClassTwit and aspiring actor Max revealing he has collected not only Adolf Hitler's paintings but even his legendary missing nutsack. As it happens, Max claims he isn't a Nazi, he's just convinced if not for that injury, Hitler would have become one of the greatest artists of his time and thinks he can somehow "absorb" that greatness. It doesn't end well for him.
18	* AffablyEvil: As the title suggests, most of the characters act as Gentlemen and are rather polite and friendly - namely [[{{Eagleland}} Stanley Johnston]], [[TheDon Bobby Glass]], [[TheQueenpin Susie Glass]] and Eddie himself after he embraces the criminal lifestyle - despite being gangsters. They contrast the more traditional street level gangsters like Sticky Pete, Mercy or Toni Blair.
19	* AffectionateNickname: The Halstead siblings regularly use these with each other. Edward is teased with “Edwina” and “Eduardo”, Charlotte is called “Chuckles” by both of her brothers, and Freddy is referred to as “Fredward”.
20	* AlwaysABiggerFish:
21	** Many of the bit players that Eddie encounters are actually backed by much more powerful criminal organizations.
22	** Tommy Dixon is part of the Dixon Clan, led by John "The Gospel" Dixon.
23	** Mercy is working for TheCartel
24	** Sticky Pete learns his lesson and aligns himself with TheMafiya for protection.
25	** Henry Collins is so brazen because he is backed by [[spoiler: Stanley Johnston.]]
26	* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: When Eddie and Suzie negotiate with the Travellers, JP, their leader makes it clear that he does not care that Eddie is a duke and that it holds absolutely no sway with any of his people. We then see JP's mother fawning over Eddie and being absolutely thrilled that a member of the upper aristocracy is sitting in her caravan and having tea with her son.
27	* AnimalMotif: An interesting and {{Invoked}} example with Freddy and chickens, Tommy Dixon forces him to dress up as a chicken as a form of mockery because he deems it a fitting symbol of his LethallyStupid UpperClassTwit nature, but also to psychologically break him down as “repentance” for failing to repay his debt. Like a chicken Freddy is not particularly smart on his own and tends to not think his actions through which causes plenty of problems for Eddie and Susie throughout the series. And of course he wears a ridiculous chicken outfit during the end of episode 1 and the start of episode 2.
28	-->'''Tommy Dixon''': There’s a reason I didn’t ask you to get dressed as an eagle. Eagles don’t dance. They soar. Through the air. But a chicken’s the bottom of the food chain. You’re a chicken, aren’t you, Freddy? You had to get bailed out of a debt you couldn’t repay. But you can repent. My brother’s a big fan of repentance. And a proportion of this debt is his. He sees this dance as a parable. Therefore, you don’t just pretend to be a chicken. You’ve got to actually be a chicken.
29	* AxCrazy: Freddie has his moments though is more of a downplayed example crossing over into PsychopathicManchild ([[AddledAddict though mainly when he has snorted cocaine]]). Mercy Moreno is a more literal PlayedStraight example going so far as to murder two characters loudly with a machete.
30	* BadGuyBar: The underground boxing match is attended by every GenericEthnicCrimeGang in the region, seemingly also being a TruceZone based on the comment about Russians and Ukrainians sitting side by side.
31	* BattleButler: Geoffrey, the manors groundskeeper played by Creator/VinnieJones.
32	* BecauseImGoodAtIt: PlayedWith. Over the course of season 1, Eddie wants to leave the business behind. But it's undeniable he's very good at being a criminal (he's constantly told so by others) and it's clear he enjoys some parts of the "job". In the end, he willingly becomes part of the Glass family's business, but he doesn't do it solely for fun although that may play a part here.
33	* BelligerentSexualTension: Eddie's and Susie's partnership frequently verges into this, despite Eddie's attempts at evoking TeethClenchedTeamwork from working with a criminal that is a potential threat to his family. Many characters, such as Jack, wonders if they are a couple or aren't at least sleeping together. Susie even {{Lampshades}} this when she brings Eddie back home drunk from a party, telling him she "[doesn't] fuck the help". In Episode 5, the morning after they partied and drank with the Travellers, JP states they both were "wild" on the sofa, and the flashback montage shows them sitting together and their faces close, but whatever they did is not elaborated upon. The ship is seemingly [[ShipSinking sunk]] by [[spoiler:the events of Episode 6 and its aftermath in the last two episodes]], but the series end with them locking eyes [[spoiler:as Eddie kills Henry Collins]].
34	* BigBrotherInstinct: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. The series starts with Eddie trying his damndest to help pay off a debt Freddy has with a drug cartel, not because of a NoodleIncident the latter keeps bringing up about saving Eddie from drowning as child, but because they’re brothers. And while he agrees to Tommy’s offer to cut down out the interest in exchange for an embarrassing video of Freddy, he quickly gets sick of Tommy putting Freddy through further humiliation with an impromptu rehearsal where he belittles Freddy constantly and tries telling him to get it over with.
35	** PlayedStraight in Episode 3 when Freddy refuses to leave Eddie behind at the car heist, despite being scared out of his mind and Eddie repeatedly telling him to leave. [[YankTheDogsChain Eddie escapes without his brother's help, and Freddy ends up being captured]], but its the thought that counts.
36	** When Susie's brother is hospitalized, she either remains by his bedside or goes out to kill whomever she holds responsible for much of the next episode.
37	* BillionaireWristband: Stanley Johnston wears a Petek Philippe. But not just any Patek Philippe, but one previously owned by Winston Churchill.
38	* TheBore: Rick, a criminal accountant, is well paid and smart but his true gift is that he truly loves the ins and outs of numbers to the point he will go on and on, becoming so boring that his bosses barely care anymore about what he does as long as it works. One boss openly says he's kept at arm's length "because he's so fucking boring."
39	* CallBack: Several to [[Film/TheGentlemen the original movie]].
40	** Tommy Dixon wants to humiliate Freddy by filming an embarrassing video of him set to "Old Macdonald Had a Farm". Much like the Toddlers did to Big Dave (thankfully it doesn’t lead to [[BestialityIsDepraved the same level of humiliation]]).
41	** Eddie and Susie have Florian de Groot poisoned in order to extort information from him before giving him the antidote upon his compliance. Mickey did the same to Lord George, both doing so to show their victim that they could get to them anywhere.
42	* CarryingTheAntidote: How Susie and Eddie extort [[spoiler: the name of TheMole]] from Florian de Groot.
43	* ChurchgoingVillain: The Dixon crime family of cocaine dealers, lead by SinisterMinister John "The Gospel" Dixon.
44	* TheClan: The Dixons, and The Wards.
45	* CleanupCrew: Felix makes bodies (and living witnesses) disappear on behalf of Susie Glass.
46	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Jimmy, the marijuana farmer working for Susie.
47	* DaddysLittleVillain: Susie really loves and adores her father who's role as head of the drug operation she gladly fills while the latter serves his prison sentence.
48	* DeathByIrony: Tommy Dickson, in exchange for waiving the debts interest, wants to utterly humiliate Freddy by having him dress like a chicken and do a chicken dance while singing a song calling himself a cock and filming it, and proceeds to belittle him during the rehearsal session he forces, wanting to outright emotionally break him into a chicken. When Freddy, having took some drugs earlier to hype himself up, gets sick of this treatment and points a shotgun at him, Tommy's last words of "Fucker" end up sounding a lot like a chickens panicked "buckaw".
49	* DidNotThinkThisThrough:
50	** Thanks to his addictions and idiocy, Freddy shows this all the time. Take when he throws away a phone ''before'' thinking it's better to see who the guy was texting a warning to and that said text suddenly breaking off would be suspicious. Or trying to push an idea to mix crack and weed together, ignoring that's scientifically impossible.
51	** Susie's father tells her off that her RoaringRampageOfRevenge against [[spoiler: everyone responsible for her brother being beaten into a coma]] is incredibly short-sighted as killing so many people in broad daylight only gets attention and especially means that Collins knows she's coming. He points out that Susie is thinking with her emotions and not considering ''why'' Collins is so confident making this move as he clearly is being backed by someone else and all Susie's actions are doing is making it harder to figure out who and leaving the family vulnerable.
52	* DidntSeeThatComing: In Episode 6 [[spoiler: Susie is thrown when money launderer and promoter Henry Collins demands to take over her operation. She's brushing him off only for Collins to reveal the "fixed" fight Susie's brother Jack is taking part in is really against a monster boxer who beats him down. Susie soon realizes someone is playing a dangerous game against her.]]
53	* TheDon: Susie’s father, ([[MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll somewhat]]) incarcerated [[LondonGangster crime lord]] Bobby Glass.
54	* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
55	** The series opens on Edward cooly resolving several disputes between civilians at a border crossing, showing he’s a flexible ReasonableAuthorityFigure.
56	** Freddy is first introduce as seemingly calm and solemn, managing the estate in the wake of his father’s death. Then he learns he’s been passed over for the inheritance, [[SpoiledBrat and throws a temper tantrum.]]
57	* EvilIsPetty: After Susie negotiates with him, Tommy agrees to waive the interest on Freddy’s debt and cut the amount owed back down to four million, on the condition that he gets to record him dressed like a chicken doing a silly dance while calling himself a cock. And he even goes as far to try and have him do it twice, the first time to make sure it’s worthy of recording, and belittles and insults him the entire time because he wants him to do a perfect performance. [[spoiler: This backfires when a drug-fuelled and thoroughly pissed off Freddy grabs a shotgun and shoots his head off.]]
58	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Eddie clearly is doing his best to not only hold the family together but keep them alive while his drug-addicted, short-tempered and frankly idiot brother Freddy would have them bankrupt and/or dead in no time.
59	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In episode 1, Freddy is seen practicing shooting with a shotgun. [[spoiler: He uses it to kill Tommy Dixon by the episode's end.]]
60	* FriendToAllLivingThings: Geoff adopts many hurt animals, even ones he is supposed to kill for his gamekeeping job.
61	* FromCamouflageToCriminal: the reluctant arc of Eddie, a former peacekeeper who finds himself deeper and deeper in the criminal underworld. Boxing promotor and money launderer Henry Collins is also a veteran, specifically [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous a paratrooper]].
62	* GargleBlaster: JP, the head of the clan of Irish Travellers carries around a bottle of spirits made from apples and antifreeze, that is tradition to drink to seal deals.
63	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Eddie wants to spare Jethro, the money counter who witnessed Freddy kill Tommy Dixon, but Susie arranges for Felix to kill he leaves England by boat.
64	* InadequateInheritor: Freddy is the older brother and, by tradition, is supposed to inherit the title and the estate. However, he is a cocaine addict and has incredibly poor judgement. The old Duke decides to leave it all to [[TheDutifulSon Eddie]] instead.
65	* InLoveWithTheMark: Gabrielle first gets involved with Jimmy to take advantage of his involvement in the weed trade, but their relationship gets deeper than that to the point that she is at least affected by a threat to his life.
66	* InstantMessengerPigeon: Bobby Glass gives Susie pigeons to give the different prospective buyers of their operation as a way to communicate their offers to him.
67	* LandPoor: The Dukes of Halsteads own a huge estate with a large mansion but on its own it is not profitable and it costs a lot of money to maintain. The old Duke realized that the family was going broke so he entered into the deal with Bobby Glass to use part of the estate as a marijuana growing facility.
68	* LethallyStupid: Freddy's stupid actions routinely put not only himself but also Eddie and the rest of the family in mortal danger.
69	* LoanShark: Freddy's big problem is that he did not borrow money from just any standard loan shark but from Tommy Dixon, a [[AxCrazy crazy]], [[HotBlooded vicious]] drug lord. Tommy not only wants his money back with outrageous interest but also thinks that Freddy insulted him and wants to psychologically destroy Freddy for it.
70	* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Neither Eddie or Freddy had any idea of their father's drug business until after his death. Their mother knew but kept it quiet.
71	* LondonGangster: The Glass family.
72	* LuxuryPrisonSuite: Taken to absurd lengths with the treatment of Bobby Glass. We see him lounging outside, having barbeque prepared for him by a Japanese gourmet chef, who is even allowed to have knives laying around in a prison. A nordic sauna and a swimming pond are also mentioned.
73	* MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll: Aside from the LuxuryPrisonSuite accomodation, Bobby Glass can freely hold meetings with his daughter, and even her new criminal associate with no guards in sight, and has access to an InstantMessengerPigeon coop.
74	* MyNaymeIs: "Stanley Johnston, with a T".
75	* NamedAfterSomeoneFamous: [[UsefulNotes/TonyBlair Toni Blair]], the Kosovar gangster that deals with Susie Glass. A TruthInTelevision moment in that Tony Blair is actually a somewhat common given name in Kosovo for his involvement with the 1999 Kosovo War.
76	* NouveauRiche: Stanley Johnston as an example that [[PlayedWith plays with]] the usual stereotypes a little bit - Rather than spending his money on flashy ConspicuousConsumption, he does everything he can to appear to be a refined aristocrat, but the ridiculous amount of money he's willing to spend to do so causes him to come off as tasteless and superficial anyway.
77	* OopNorth: The Dixon crime family, hailing from Liverpool.
78	* OpenSecret: By the halfway point of the series, it seems like most of Europe knows about the "secret" weed farms.
79	* PlotTriggeringDeath: The death of Eddie, Freddy and Charly’s father the Duke of Halstead is what leads to the plot of the series.
80	* PragmaticVillainy: The Glass family steers clear from the cocaine business, not for any moral reason, but because the business attracts crazy and dangerous people, and want nothing to do with Jonston's meth business for the same reason.
81	* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Eddie starts the series as a peacekeeping soldier and aristocrat who doesn't want to have anything to do with the illegal business of the Glass family and only cooperates with them to repay his brother's debts. He spends most of season 1 trying to get out of the business, only to realize he's very competent as a criminal. In the season finale, he finally embraces this side of himself and willingly takes part of the drug business.
82	* TheQueenpin: Susie Glass, with [[TheDon her father]] in jail at the moment, and [[TheCartel Mercy Moreno]].
83	* ResignationsNotAccepted: Eddie wants his family out of the drug business, but quickly realizes that the Glass family might not be happy with losing access to the Halstead Estate and the profits it brings. It finally comes to a head in Episode 6.
84	-->'''Eddie''': When will you let me and my family go?\
85	'''Susie''': Never.
86	* RobbingTheMobBank: Eddie is tasked with stealing a Lamborghini from a dealership, which unbeknownst to him, is also full of cocaine, and the dealership is staffed by Colombian cartel members working with [[TheQueenpin Mercy Moreno]].
87	* RuthlessForeignGangsters: Mercy, and her [[TheCartel Colombian associates]] revel in brutality, and insist making the brothers and Susie watch as she executes Toni Blair with a machete.
88	* ShipTease: Eddie has two instances with both Rosie and Susie.
89	* ShownTheirWork: In the UK, the inheritance rules of hereditary titles are set in stone[[note]]Priority goes to the title holder's legitimate sons by order of birth. If none are available then the next-closest, legitimate, blood male relative inherits the title. If none of those are availalble, then the title is considered extinct.[[/note]] and making exceptions for established title requires drawn-out petitions and royal assents that none can be bothered to make. However, it is possible to ask for special exceptions to be included in letters patent when new titles are gifted, as the Halstead family lawyer mentions to explain why Eddie, the second son, inherits the Dukedom instead of Freddy, the first son.
90	* SinisterMinister: John "The Gospel" Dixon, who is the head of a cocaine empire staffed by his brothers, and is shown to read the bible to people they torture and kill.
91	* SmugSnake: Sticky Pete, who as the name suggests is a bit of a slimeball.
92	* SmugglingWithDolls: JP and the Travellers use statues of the Virgin Mary to smuggle marijuana to continental Europe for Susan and Eddie
93	* SpannerInTheWorks: Freddy can be this to Eddie with his impulsiveness and stupidity. A good example is how Eddie's initial plan to pay off the debt is marred when Freddy takes the money in the safe to bet on a "sure thing" boxing match, which turns out to be a fixed fight scam and put them deeper in the hole.
94	* SpareToTheThrone: Eddie is the second son and everyone expects the title and bulk of the estate to go to Freddy. Eddie never expected to inherit much and was planning to return to the Army after the funeral. He even refers to himself as "the spare".
95	* ThoseWackyNazis: Max, the new Lord Basington wears an SS signet ring, owns a German Shepherd, a secret basement full of Nazi memorabilia including functioning guns, paintings by Adolf Hitler [[spoiler:and Hitler's missing testicle]].
96	* TotallyNotACriminalFront: Mercy's car dealership deals in high-end sports cars [[spoiler:and cocaine smuggling]] but has just a bunch of cheap cars sitting in the lot.
97	* UpperClassTwit: Freddie is a textbook aristocrat who hasn't had to put in a days honest work in his life, and has been conned by fellow UCT Sticky Pete, who is more crafty but still also an arrogant twerp who counts too much on his wealth and status to protect him. The young Lord Basington also is an out-of-touch aristocrat.
98	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: When casing the dealership to steal a Lamborghini for Toni Blair, Freddy and his wife pretend to be Russian oligarchs, complete with an ear-grating fake Russian accent.

Context Series / TheGentlemen