Hugo Blick’s western miniseries “The English” is a sweeping, pulsating drama as tender as it is gritty–largely due to the slow-burning chemistry between leads Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer. As an episodic venture, the Prime Video series hits all the right notes–adventure, romance, revenge–but starts to crumble when viewed as one cohesive arc. ..
In The English, the landscape of the 1890 Old West isn’t at all black and white. It’s a dark and gritty country, where the law is, essentially, every man for himself. White European settlers are stealing and killing for land, or else trying to stay out of others’ way as much as possible. Native Americans are boldly defending their home land, while others will do whatever they can just to survive–even if it means betraying their own people. The western sets up a complex setting for examining racial, class, and gender conflict.
As two broken people, our protagonists fit the bill for this morally ambiguous landscape perfectly. They are ex-cavalry scout and Pawnee man Eli Whipp (Spencer) and Cornelia (Blunt), an English lady set on braving a harsh new land to seek revenge on a man responsible for her son’s death. They both want their Nebraska land back, but have to make ethical sacrifices in order to navigate a world unkind to them. This is a unique and powerful story that will leave readers thinking about the consequences of their actions.
The journey Cornelia and Eli take reflects cultural tensions of the period, and the gorgeous, sweeping shots of scenery bring our attention to the centerpoint of that tension: the land. The English is as much a story of this place as it is of these characters, how the sought-after West unites and divides people in mysterious ways. Stunning cinematography invites us to revel in land still largely unlived in, which further leads us to reevaluate American history. “How did the country fall from such beauty?” the show asks, but doesn’t push itself further than half-baked critique of colonialism and capitalism. ..
The English is a beautiful story, but it can be a bit of a crutch. The visuals and intrigue are great, but the story can be slow to develop. The ending left me wanting more from it, both as a revenge story and as a love story.
Cornelia is a woman who has been through a lot in her life, and she’s not content with just living in the present. She wants to know what’s going on in the future, and she wants to make sure that her children have a better life than she has. But as the series progresses, we see that Cornelia may not be able to do this on her own. She needs help from someone who can help her see the world for what it is, and that someone is Eli.
