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.
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.
Dialogue, sometimes pleasingly, sometimes eyeroll-inducingly, evokes phrases you might find on a fridge magnet: “The difference between what you need and what you want is what you can put on a horse,” intones Whipp. Thank God for Blunt, who punctures the gnomic atmosphere with some much-needed scepticism and just-there sarcasm. Whenever the stares become a little too long, the silences a little too heavy, Blunt wields her trademark tone – the kind you will recognise from talk show appearances and her turn as sardonic fashion assistant Emily in The Devil Wears Prada – and the show snaps to attention. It can be disconcerting, Blunt’s mannerisms sometimes seem too modern for this particular period, but once you embrace the rhythm, you’re away, off into the deep orange sunset.
It wouldn’t work without Spencer and Blunt's chemistry; their conversation is frequently heavy (they really like talking about death!) but also surprisingly playful (a back-and-forth about star signs recalls two millennials on a first date). A starry cast populates this landscape. Ciarán Hinds provides our first bitter taste of the West’s prejudices – a racist, misogynistic, dangerous man. Hinds makes for a convincing villain, even if his arc is a little underdeveloped. Tom Hughes brings a sinister volatility to proceedings.
Blunt has, over the last couple of decades, emerged as one of our best all-rounders, cutting her teeth on rom-coms, period dramas and more recently, on action films (Sicario, The Edge of Tomorrow) and horror-thrillers like The Quiet Place, which was popular enough to prompt a sequel. But as accomplished as she is, none of those latter roles really combined action chops with her wry sense of humour. Perhaps, in this entertaining, thoughtful Western, she has finally found that role.
‘The English’ airs on BBC Two in the UK (all episodes are available to watch on iPlayer) and on Amazon Prime Video in the US
Henry Wong is a senior culture writer at Esquire, working across digital and print. He covers film, television, books, and art for the magazine, and also writes profiles.
