If you're familiar with Guy Ritchie's movies you know what you're getting yourself into. His stories are about eccentric British gangsters who use convolute language, violence and a lot of swearing. That sums up most of this series, inclusive of cool characters, fast editing, atrocious soundtrack and occasional visual tricks.
The saving grace are the interpreters of main characters Eddie (the Duke) and Susie (the Boss' daughter), who have believable chemistry, luckily without any sentimental strings attached. Ray Winstone as the Bobby the Boss is also good, albeit playing it too cool.
The Duke's family lives in a beautiful estate - slightly too grand and with way too much staff - and Eddie's mum is straight out of Lady Chatterley's lover, inclusive of liaison with gamekeeper Geoff and illegitimate offspring, even if both mum and daughter totally irrelevant to the plot, but someone must have told Ritchie a feminist touch was needed, so the daughter is single, pregnant and proudly parading her belly. What's got to do with the plot? Whatever...
Eddie's brother is the idiotic Freddy, I guess a parody of the useless, addict, degenerate aristocrat, but a very annoying character. On the criminal side, the annoying counterpart is Jimmy, a silly pothead who in real life would be terminated ASAP, but in the show he is the "comic relief" (Hint: he's not funny, just annoying as hell). However, the rest of criminals all seem more or less caricatures, starting from the demented Scouses to the suave but tax-evading Johnston, the spillover from Breaking Bad. The show includes the inevitable boxing scenes, gambling, car chases (green Lamborghini, nonetheless!) and Eastern European gangs. However, the criminal world seems to be more fun than aristocratic parties.
One glaring mistake: the Belgian character is a Flemish named de Groot but he speaks French! Ritchie's team should research better, since Belgians are very sensitive to this type of things and even I not being Belgian but having lived there several years, noticed the incongruity of a Flemish character who speaks French. That would NEVER happen.
On the whole it's entertaining enough even if very predictable with each episode creating a previously unforeseen problem to be solved and the introduction of a truckload of characters.
The saving grace are the interpreters of main characters Eddie (the Duke) and Susie (the Boss' daughter), who have believable chemistry, luckily without any sentimental strings attached. Ray Winstone as the Bobby the Boss is also good, albeit playing it too cool.
The Duke's family lives in a beautiful estate - slightly too grand and with way too much staff - and Eddie's mum is straight out of Lady Chatterley's lover, inclusive of liaison with gamekeeper Geoff and illegitimate offspring, even if both mum and daughter totally irrelevant to the plot, but someone must have told Ritchie a feminist touch was needed, so the daughter is single, pregnant and proudly parading her belly. What's got to do with the plot? Whatever...
Eddie's brother is the idiotic Freddy, I guess a parody of the useless, addict, degenerate aristocrat, but a very annoying character. On the criminal side, the annoying counterpart is Jimmy, a silly pothead who in real life would be terminated ASAP, but in the show he is the "comic relief" (Hint: he's not funny, just annoying as hell). However, the rest of criminals all seem more or less caricatures, starting from the demented Scouses to the suave but tax-evading Johnston, the spillover from Breaking Bad. The show includes the inevitable boxing scenes, gambling, car chases (green Lamborghini, nonetheless!) and Eastern European gangs. However, the criminal world seems to be more fun than aristocratic parties.
One glaring mistake: the Belgian character is a Flemish named de Groot but he speaks French! Ritchie's team should research better, since Belgians are very sensitive to this type of things and even I not being Belgian but having lived there several years, noticed the incongruity of a Flemish character who speaks French. That would NEVER happen.
On the whole it's entertaining enough even if very predictable with each episode creating a previously unforeseen problem to be solved and the introduction of a truckload of characters.
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