The English is about the English, but it’s also about the Russians. And Europeans. Anyone, in short, who has settled in America’s West, where BBC and Amazon’s sweeping six-part series is set. We learn all this in the opening voiceover from the first episode, and it’s a helpful signpost for how this show proceeds: one where you’re immersed in an unfamiliar habitat, and forced to pick up, and adjust to, local customs immediately. The English also refers to an Englishwoman, singular: Cornelia Locke, who has arrived in 1890s Wyoming with a bag full of cash and a thirst for revenge.The English Season 1 Download
Emily Blunt plays Locke, an aristocrat whose soldier father was gifted “half of Devon”, who’s hoping to track down the man she believes is responsible for the death of her son. How, why and even where her son died is unclear. A Pawnee scout named Eli Whipp, played by Chaske Spencer, best known for his role in The Twilight Saga franchise (perhaps The English will edge that qualification out), crosses path with her and – inevitably, adorably, sometimes-bloodily – they become friends. Whipp is also on his own mission to reclaim land; a mission complicated by his contentious relationships with almost everyone he meets. Whipp soon teaches Locke how to handle a gun and her enemies, two skills the Englishwoman picks up fairly quickly.It’s not always an easy show to watch. Heads are blown off, hearts are shot through with arrows. Locke first sees Whipp hanging outside a hotel, alive through the might of his tip toes. Directed and written by British filmmaker Hugo Blick, who created 2018’s Black Earth Rising starring Michaela Coel, he lingers on the mechanics of these confrontations, giving the scenes a dry, almost unbearable tension, appropriate for the scorched surroundings. The vast, quite beautiful landscape – the show was filmed in Spain – provides some respite, though you know danger is always around the corner.