Television series

The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie's world minus Guy Ritchie behind the camera, though his fingerprints are everywhere: skulking gangsters, poncey aristocrats, a plot that folds in on itself with cheerful contempt for chronology. Theo James's blank-slab charm works surprisingly well against Kaya Scodelario's ice-cool menace. It's violent, funny, gorgeously shot country-house crime — for anyone who enjoys watching posh people discover they're in way over their heads.

TVMaze rating7.6

If you liked this

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels1998

This is the source code — the same cockney patter, the same tangle of small-time crooks and big-time trouble, done first and lean. Watch it to see where the show's DNA actually comes from.

But Rougher, cheaper, and far less polished than the show's Netflix sheen — this is early, scrappy Ritchie.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels poster

Snatch2000

More geezers, more guns, more ludicrously tangled plotting, with Brad Pitt doing an unintelligible Irish accent for two hours. Pure, undiluted Ritchie chaos at its most purely enjoyable.

But Style over substance, and some of the ethnic humour has aged badly. It knows it's ridiculous, which helps.

Snatch poster

Peaky Blinders2013

Swap the cannabis farm for razor blades and Birmingham backstreets — same appetite for a criminal family clawing toward respectability, told with real emotional weight and gorgeous period style.

But Six seasons is a serious commitment, and it tips into full melodrama by the end.

Peaky Blinders poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Kind Hearts and Coronets1949

Same premise seven decades early: an outsider inherits a title and estate, and discovers the aristocracy is every bit as murderous as the criminal class — just quieter about it.

An Ealing classic about a disinherited man scheming his way up the family tree by murdering everyone ahead of him, told with the driest wit imaginable and a game Alec Guinness playing eight victims.

But Black-and-white, theatrical pacing, and humour so dry it might not register as comedy at first.

Kind Hearts and Coronets poster
More like this (8)

RocknRolla2008no page yet

Ritchie's other big ensemble crime caper, all overlapping schemes and London low-lifes squabbling over property and drugs. If you like the show's tone, this is the purest hit of it available.

But Convoluted even by Ritchie standards, and it's more interested in cool than coherence.

Kingsman: The Secret Service2015

Same collision of upper-crust manners and shockingly graphic violence, played for maximum cheeky enjoyment. If you liked watching posh boys turn out to be lethal, this doubles down on it.

But Spy spoof rather than crime drama, and its sense of humour is broader and cruder throughout.

Kingsman: The Secret Service poster

Ozark2017

An ordinary family drawn deeper and deeper into a drug empire they never asked for, with the same slow dread of realising there's no clean way out. Superbly tense and acted.

But Grim, joyless, and almost entirely without the show's comic relief — a much colder watch.

Ozark poster

Fargo2014

Anthology crime with the same trick of finding pitch-black comedy inside sudden brutal violence, plus a rotating cast of brilliant weirdos. Every season reinvents the formula somewhere new.

But Its Midwestern deadpan is a very different register from London swagger — quieter, stranger, more folkloric.

Fargo poster

Killing Eve2018

Stylish, funny, unpredictable British crime with real bite and a couple of magnetic performances driving every scene. Great if you want wit alongside your violence.

But It's an assassin cat-and-mouse thriller rather than a gangster ensemble — the connective tissue is tone, not plot.

Killing Eve poster

Ray Donovan2013

A fixer drawn back into his crime family's mess, with plenty of dark humour buried under the beatings. Good if you want the family-business angle played American and gritty.

But Far more soap-opera in structure, and takes itself more seriously than the show ever does.

Ray Donovan poster

Murder Mountain2018no page yet

Strip away the banter and the country house, and this is the actual weed empire the show is fictionalising — same industry, same money, none of the fun.

A true-crime documentary series about California's Emerald Triangle, where weed money and violent disappearances go hand in hand — the real, unglamorous underside of the industry the show plays for laughs.

But No jokes, no charming aristocrats, just genuine grief and unsolved deaths — a sobering companion piece.

A Prophet2009

Same engine — an unlikely figure climbing inside an established criminal power structure — with every ounce of the comedy drained out and replaced by dread.

A young prisoner's calculated rise through a criminal hierarchy, told completely straight — tense, morally bleak, and one of the great crime films of its decade. No wit, no winking at the camera, just consequence.

But French with subtitles, slow-building, and utterly without the show's playfulness — a genuinely heavy watch.

A Prophet poster

People

Cast

Writing

Production