Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Prime Video’s The English.For years, the Western genre has relied on some traditional formulas to tell its stories. Whether it be the local sheriff wearing the white hat protecting the town from miscreant outlaws, or bank robbers on the run from a newly-formed posse, most Westerns stick to a tried and true narrative. So when something completely original and fresh likeThe Englishon Prime Video comes across our radar, we take notice.
Starring the always fantasticEmily Blunt(A Quiet Place,The Girl onTrain) andChaske Spencer(The Twilight Saga,Banshee), this epic miniseries about a proper but vengeful English woman and a prideful ex-Cavalry scout looking to reclaim his family’s land is a wonderful change of pace for the genre. Sure, you still have all the guns, horses, and panoramic landscapes that we love about Westerns, but the non-traditional main players and their performances are what makeThe Englishwork so well.
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The Show’s Sweeping Prairie Views Are Breathtaking
One of the first things that immediately stands out aboutThe Englishis the bevy of beautiful, sweeping wide shots of the open land and big skies. It has all the trappings of a big screen offering with its wide shots and first-rate orchestral musical score. While the story is told as a tale of a Midwestern United States journey at the turn of the 19th century,the beautiful sunsets and wide open plains were actually shot on location in Spain.
While the crew would have preferred to shoot in the States in 2021, Covid restrictions made a Spanish shoot a better choice for filming, and we’re not complaining. From the very opening scene of a setting sun on the distant horizon, the cinematography is resplendent and was a more than suitable replacement for the American amber waves of grain of Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Each episode has at least a handful of broad landscape shots that look more like an Andrew Wyeth painting than the Spanish countryside outside of Madrid.
The performances of its leads liftThe Englishto heights rarely seen in the modern Western of today. We’re introduced to Lady Cornelia Locke (Blunt) and Eli Whipp (Spencer) in a spot of bother as they cross paths at the rundown hotel of Richard M. Watts (Ciaran Hines), who is but the first of the many scoundrels that are scratching out a living in the newly formed states of Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Wyoming in 1890.
Cornelia arrives in decadent fashion, stepping onto the wind-swept plains from a stagecoach dressed to the nines. It is clear she is a proper English woman of means, but she is going to find out very abruptly that the Wild West doesn’t recognize the status of a foreign woman traveling alone. By chance, hotel owner Watts is in possession of a beaten and strung-up Native American of the Pawnee Nation that had the nerve to walk into his establishment and ask for a drink (and have brown skin). The two manage to come to each other’s rescue whereby he is freed from further torture, and she is spared the offensive advances and potential harm of the loathsome Watts. From that point on, the decadent English woman and the quietly intense ex-Cavalry scout start their journey north together
Lady Cornelia learns very quickly that the virtually lawless West is no place for the meek. It begs the question of why such a refined woman is willing to cross the Atlantic to arrive in New Orleans only to put herself into the lion’s mouth of the unsettled states.Blunt spoke of the initial culture shock, saying,“She shows up in this brutal, masculine dust bath of a world and seems unprepared for the journey ahead. There are so many incredible questions that hit you.”
It turns out few things motivate more effectively than revenge, and Cornelia is burning with it. David Melmont (Rafe Spall), an Englishman boomer who left for the burgeoning opportunities in the new States, is who she’s chasing down. Melmont ostensibly handed her a death sentence back in England by infecting her with syphilis, which she then unwittingly passed on to their newborn son who later succumbed to the heinous disease. She carries a lock of his hair in a locket around her neck as a constant reminder of what keeps her thirst for vengeance so viscerally palpable. For former army sergeant and scout Eli Whipp, it is the search for 60 acres of land he was entitled to by birth. What he seeks is little more than a place to call home to live out his years in peace. Spencer’s quiet intensity plays incredibly well off of Blunt’s wide-eyed and inquisitive Cornelia, as the two face a gauntlet of hucksters, corrupt lawmen, and cold-blooded killers that lurk behind every dusty pass. As their near-deadly trials by fire serve to strengthen their connection, it’s really more of the candid conversations about their pasts that reinforce their unlikely bond.
Are Cornelia and Eli a Star-Crossed Duo?
Cornelia proves to be a quick study as she is packing heat within just a few hours into their journey to Wyoming. She was already adept with a bow and arrow from archery lessons back home, and she wastes little time taking to a rifle. Again the dichotomy of her naïveté and Whipp’s battle-tested inherent knowledge of the land and its people is a terrific dynamic that has never been explored the way directorHugo Blick(The Honourable Woman,Black Earth Rising) does it inThe English. As the two face off with deadly charlatans, ruthless bushwhackers, unscrupulous cattlemen, and the difficult elements, it’s a pleasure to watch not only the relationship grow in intensity, but the overall character arc of both protagonists flesh out with each episode.
Eli is definitely impressed by the way Cornelia has taken to unfamiliar surroundings so deftly and admires her perseverance and dedication to the memory of her son. At the same time, she can’t help but take notice of his commitment to his native roots, survival skills, and strength in the face of danger. But Blick is measured in how far he is willing to take their relationship. While there is a clear physical attraction, Cornelia carries with her the secret of her terminal illness and Eli is still processing the loss of his first love from illness. Although they cherish each other’s friendship very deeply, the two part after she accomplishes her mission and returns to her London home where she deals with her ongoing health issues. It turns out their connection was never meant to be more than what it was: a fascinating tale of two unlikely souls that cross paths long enough to find a metaphorical home in the form of a friendship that is far greater than any potential romantic relationship.
