The Gentlemen just came back for season two, and Guy Ritchie somehow topped himself

Guy Ritchie has pulled off the rare trick of making a sequel that is actually better than the original.

For anyone who missed season one, the premise is simple. An aristocratic family inherits a country estate and discovers it comes with a very lucrative cannabis farm already built into the grounds.

The Gentlemen season two landed on Netflix on 3 September, all eight episodes at once, and critics are calling it a proper glow up. The show has jumped from a 75 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes for season one to 81 percent this time round, after early reviews briefly clocked it at a perfect 100.

The plot picks up a year after season one, with Eddie Horniman, played by Theo James, and Susie Glass, played by Kaya Scodelario, taking the family business international. They have swapped English country houses for lakeside villas in Italy as they try to expand the criminal empire overseas, with Daniel Ings also back causing trouble.

What has changed is the tone. Season one played the class comedy for laughs. Season two lets Eddie get properly nasty, and Theo James is getting some of the best reviews of his career for it. Screen Rant called his performance emotionally rich, which is not usually a phrase you reach for in a show about a duke selling weed out of his ancestral estate.

Variety went further, calling the new season engaging, devastating and thoroughly entertaining, which is a big step up from the mixed reception season one got for style over substance.

Ritchie co-directs with Eran Creevy this time, with Matthew Read back on scripts, and the tighter focus shows. Fewer characters, fewer subplots, more time to actually sit with Eddie's slide into the family business.

If you bailed on season one because it felt like a two hour Guy Ritchie film stretched thin over eight episodes, this is the one that might win you back. Binge it this weekend before everyone spoils the ending for you at brunch.