The Gentlemen Season 2 Review: The Godfather Parallel Explained

The Gentlemen Season 2 returns bigger, darker and more ambitious, with Guy Ritchie expanding his Netflix gangster universe beyond the English country estate and into a much more dangerous criminal world. Theo James has become increasingly convincing as Eddie Horniman, Kaya Scodelario remains excellent as Susie Glass, and Daniel Ings somehow manages to make Freddy Horniman both one of the funniest and ultimately one of the most tragic characters in the series.

But underneath the guns, tailored suits, cannabis empire and elaborate criminal schemes, Season 2 appears to be telling a surprisingly familiar story. The parallels between The Gentlemen and The Godfather are becoming difficult to ignore. Both stories concern a respectable younger son who becomes unexpectedly adept at running a criminal empire. Both contain an older brother who feels he has been overlooked in favour of his younger sibling, and both brothers eventually betray the man who has surpassed them. Most strikingly, those two brothers are called Fredo and Freddy.

The Gentlemen Season 2 Review

Season 2 takes everything that worked about the first season and expands it without losing the strange mixture of brutality and comedy that makes The Gentlemen so enjoyable. The criminal operation becomes larger, the locations more ambitious and the consequences significantly more serious. Eddie is also a very different character from the man we met at the beginning of Season 1.

Originally, Eddie appeared to be the respectable Horniman brother reluctantly dragged into a cannabis empire concealed beneath his newly inherited estate. His objective seemed straightforward: disentangle himself and his family from the criminal organisation operating on their land. That version of Eddie has largely disappeared. By Season 2, he is no longer trying to escape the criminal world. He is attempting to expand within it.

That transformation gives Theo James considerably more to play with. Eddie remains charming and controlled, but there is now something much colder underneath the surface. This is where The Gentlemen Season 2 starts looking remarkably like another famous story about a respectable younger son discovering that he was born to run the family business.

The Gentlemen and The Godfather: Is Eddie Horniman Becoming Michael Corleone?

The strongest parallel between The Gentlemen and The Godfather is the transformation of Eddie Horniman and Michael Corleone. When Michael first appears in The Godfather, he deliberately distances himself from his family’s criminal empire. Then circumstances pull him inside. What makes Michael Corleone’s story so powerful is that he does not simply become involved in the family business — he discovers that he possesses exactly the characteristics required to control it.

Eddie’s evolution follows a strikingly similar trajectory. He begins as the apparently respectable son. Yet once Eddie is forced into the Glass family’s criminal world, those apparently respectable characteristics become extremely useful criminal qualities. His intelligence becomes strategy, his confidence becomes authority and his emotional control becomes ruthlessness.

The Michael Corleone comparison is not entirely new. British GQ described Season 2 as Guy Ritchie’s take on The Godfather, specifically highlighting Eddie’s increasingly Corleone-like transformation, and Theo James himself was discussing the connection long before the second season arrived — in a 2024 interview, James said that Michael Corleone’s evolution from a man of moral standing into someone whose soul is corrupted was a “touch point” both for him and for the show’s writers.

Freddy Horniman and Fredo Corleone: The Most Obvious Godfather Parallel

The comparison becomes even harder to ignore when we look at the brothers. In The Godfather, Michael has Fredo Corleone. In The Gentlemen, Eddie has Freddy Horniman. Both men believe that their position within the family should have given them greater importance. Both find themselves overshadowed by a younger sibling who is calmer, smarter and considerably more capable. Both suffer the humiliation of watching that younger brother become the dominant figure in the family. And eventually, both betray him.

Daniel Ings has played Freddy brilliantly because the character initially appears to exist mainly for comedy. He is reckless, insecure, self-important and frequently ridiculous. But beneath those qualities has always been something much more dangerous: resentment.

Why Does Freddy Betray Eddie in The Gentlemen Season 2?

Freddy Horniman’s betrayal follows remarkably similar emotional logic to Fredo’s. Like Fredo, Freddy lives in the shadow of his younger brother. Eddie has inherited the estate Freddy expected to own and subsequently becomes increasingly powerful in a world in which Freddy struggles to establish any authority of his own. That resentment leaves Freddy vulnerable.

By The Gentlemen Season 2 finale, we discover that Freddy has helped Gospel John in the conspiracy that ultimately results in Bella’s death. Once again, the person trying to attack the powerful younger brother finds an opportunity through the resentful older sibling. Both stories have essentially constructed the same family triangle: a powerful younger brother, an insecure older brother and an outsider who recognises that insecurity as an opportunity.

Lady Sabrina and Kay Corleone: The Women Trying to Stop the Men Becoming Monsters

There is another, subtler Godfather parallel in the finale, and it comes through Eddie’s mother, Lady Sabrina. Once Eddie discovers that Freddy was involved in the plot that killed Bella, Sabrina pleads with Eddie not to surrender completely to vengeance and tries to make him recognise that Freddy is weak, damaged and easily manipulated rather than simply evil.

In narrative terms, Sabrina occupies a role remarkably similar to Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather — positioned outside the criminal logic, representing the ordinary moral perspective against which the transformation can be measured. That makes Eddie’s decision not to shoot Freddy especially significant. Sabrina does not stop him seeking revenge, but perhaps she prevents him from becoming Michael Corleone completely.

The Gentlemen Season 2 Ending Explained: Why Eddie Doesn’t Kill Freddy

The ending of The Gentlemen Season 2 offers perhaps the most interesting difference between Eddie Horniman and Michael Corleone. Michael eventually decides that Fredo’s betrayal cannot be forgiven. Fredo dies. Eddie discovers that Freddy has participated in events that led to the death of his wife, yet he cannot bring himself to kill his brother.

Instead, Eddie forces Freddy to kill Gospel John. It is an extraordinarily cruel punishment because Eddie is effectively punishing both men simultaneously.

Eddie allows his brother to live, but living may itself be part of the punishment. This distinction may also reveal where Eddie currently sits on the Michael Corleone trajectory — some boundary remains. The question is whether that boundary represents the part of Eddie that is still fundamentally decent, or whether Season 3 will simply show us the next stage in his transformation.

Is The Gentlemen Based on The Godfather?

It would be too strong to say that The Gentlemen is simply based on The Godfather. Guy Ritchie’s series has its own tone, mythology and distinctly British criminal world. But the dramatic architecture is increasingly familiar: the respectable son unexpectedly entering organised crime, his growing discovery that he possesses a natural talent for power, an older brother whose insecurity increases as the younger brother rises, an outsider exploiting that resentment, and eventually the revelation that the greatest danger to the family came from inside the family itself.

Then there is the name: Fredo and Freddy. It is difficult to imagine writers working within the gangster genre being unaware of that connection.

The Biblical Story of Issachar in The Gentlemen Season 2

There is another fascinating element running through The Gentlemen Season 2: its reference to Issachar, one of the twelve sons of Jacob and therefore one of Joseph’s brothers. That immediately places the reference inside one of the Bible’s great stories of sibling jealousy and betrayal. Joseph is favoured by his father Jacob, and his brothers resent both that favouritism and Joseph’s apparent belief that he will eventually rise above them. Their jealousy ultimately becomes violence, and the brothers conspire against Joseph and sell him into slavery.

The central mechanism is therefore remarkably similar to what we see in The Godfather and The Gentlemen: one brother appears elevated above the others, resentment develops within the family, and that resentment ultimately turns into betrayal.

Joseph, Fredo and Freddy: The Same Story Across Thousands of Years?

In Genesis, Joseph’s brothers resent the position he occupies in their father’s affection. In The Godfather, Fredo resents Michael’s authority within the Corleone family. In The Gentlemen, Freddy resents Eddie inheriting the estate, title and eventually the position of power that Freddy believes should have been his.

The details change, but the emotional mechanism remains recognisable. It is not really about money, and it is not even entirely about power. It is about one brother looking at another and thinking: that should have been me. That is why these stories endure — family rivalry is particularly powerful dramatically because love and resentment can exist simultaneously.

The Gentlemen Season 3: What Happens Next?

With The Gentlemen Season 3 already confirmed, the most interesting question is no longer whether Eddie will remain involved in organised crime. That question has been answered: he will. The more interesting question is what kind of man he becomes as his power increases. If Season 1 was about Eddie entering the criminal world and Season 2 was about Eddie beginning to master it, Season 3 has the opportunity to explore the cost of that transformation.

The Freddy betrayal is particularly important because it forces Eddie to choose between family and power for the first time in a truly consequential way. Michael Corleone made that choice. Eventually he chose power. Eddie has not gone quite that far yet.

Where to Watch The Gentlemen Season 2

Anyone searching for where to watch The Gentlemen Season 2 can find all eight episodes streaming on Netflix. The second season premiered on September 3, 2026, with Theo James returning as Eddie Horniman, Kaya Scodelario as Susie Glass, Daniel Ings as Freddy Horniman and Ray Winstone as Bobby Glass. For more of the biggest current Netflix hits, see our guide to the best shows on Netflix right now.

Is The Gentlemen Season 2 Worth Watching?

Absolutely. Season 2 is bigger and darker than the first season without abandoning what made the series entertaining in the first place. There are elaborate criminal schemes, beautifully designed locations, absurd characters, sudden violence and the unmistakable rhythm of Guy Ritchie dialogue. But the family story gives the season greater weight — what initially looked like a stylish television spin-off from Ritchie’s 2019 film is developing into something more substantial: a story about inherited power, ambition and the strange ability of families to produce both absolute loyalty and extraordinary resentment.

The Freddy storyline is central to that evolution. Once you recognise the Fredo Corleone parallel, it becomes difficult not to see The Godfather sitting somewhere behind the entire season. Michael had Fredo. Eddie has Freddy. And perhaps the most interesting connection does not begin with The Godfather at all. It begins thousands of years earlier, with Joseph and his brothers.

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