Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen on Netflix: 2 key money lessons to learn from the series

What if you inherited a home, a title and all the underhanded business that has been going on for years? You’ll do everything to get out of the shady business innit?

So a British peacekeeping soldier Edward Horniman (played by the handsome Theo James, whom you last saw in The White Lotus) loses his father and earns a Dukedom which his father has willed to him and not his older brother Freddy. He realises that Freddy is in debt and his father has been leasing out their ancestral lands to Susie Glass and her father who run a business of growing weed. 

The family groundskeeper and the Duke’s mother know the goings on but have done nothing because upkeep of the estate needs the money. The upright, freshly minted Duke needs to get out of the weed business, but he also needs to pay off his brother’s debts. Will he get out of the family business?

Family businesses are hard to deal with, especially if you, dear investor, are not interested in it. Here are the two really important money lessons you need to learn from this awesome, fun, bloody (it is a Guy Ritchie series, after all!) show on Netflix.

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It’s tough to exit family businesses

The new Duke is a calm, unruffled man. He knows that allowing marijuana cultivation in his lands is not right, and he tells Susie Glass (played by the saucer-eyed Kaya Scodelario) that he wants out. But Susie can help with money and connections to that bad men who will kill Freddy if his loans aren’t paid, so the Duke gets embroiled in the business. 

One thing leads to another and you end up sympathising with his situation, once you begin to deal with the illegal business, it is impossible to get out. His drunk, drugged out brother - of all people - offers the Duke the best advice: You are not cut out to be a slave to the marijuana trade, take a chance and own it. 

It’s a great lesson to learn in life too. Before you suddenly inherit properties, farms, and even poorly made long term investments made by a parent who stubbornly believed they did not need your advice, sit down and have a family meeting and talk about living wills and inheritance and taxes that will surely put a huge dent in your life savings. 

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It’s best to know your associates

Susie Glass works for her father who operates his marijuana empire out of a fancy prison. The wandering community (calling them Gypsies is an offence today) can steal at will and Edward cannot do anything because they have ‘hundreds of cousins’. Gospel John has a gang that will kill in the name of God and he’s still searching for his missing brother and the money counter Jethro.

 Freddy killed the said brother in a cocaine-fueled rage because he had to dress in a chicken costume (an Oscar win worthy glorious costume!) to apologise. Besides these, the Duke also has to deal with Sticky Pete, Blanket, Mercy, King Zog, Chucky and other gloriously named bad characters. And yes, you cannot forget the bigger enemy - Mr. Johnston, with a ‘T’ - who is a constant threat to the Duke and Susie.

The business of investing your money is a matter of trust too. The best way to negotiate this jungle of people, financial institutions, laws connected with these needs you to work like a trapeze artist. When it comes to investing your hard earned money, you must educate yourself - just like the Duke does - about everything. Only then will you know how to come out on top and raise a toast to success.

Manisha Lakhe is a poet, film critic, traveller, founder of Caferati — an online writer’s forum, hosts Mumbai’s oldest open mic, and teaches advertising, films and communication. She can be reached on Twitter at @manishalakhe.