User Reviews

Hugo Blick is an idiosyncratic writer and director. An auteur with his own style.

Having seen his previous shows. The Shadow Line, The Honourable Woman, Black Earth Rising. Blick goes for an epic canvas, disparate storytelling which eventually comes together.

So I expected the first episode of The English to be dense and even difficult to get into.

Basically the opener concentrates on two people. Set in 1890. Lady Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt) arrives from England to find the man responsible for her son's death. She arrives in a remote place in Kansas where she is immediately attacked by Richard Watts (Ciarán Hinds) who is under orders to kill her.

Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer) is a Pawnee native and a scout for the US cavalry. He has left them to stake a claim for some land in Nebraska. Before he leaves the army he is told that he will be treated despicably by the white man.

Lady Cornelia sees Eli being held bound and tortured by Watts. He plans to rape her, kill her and then blame it on Eli.

This is a moody revisionist western. It focuses on how Lady Cornelia and Eli meet as he bursts in to save her life and wreaks his own vengeance. It promises to be a complex story, both characters have seperate goals and want their own brand of justice.

Shot in Spain, it looks good and it is very much in the mode of The Power of the Dog, a revisionist western shot in New Zealand.

Production value is great so it got two stars. And im Totality in to the Native American character. He deserved 10 stars. What a great actor and portrayal. Then she came along. I love Emily Blundt! In everything! But in this....nope. The character is such an idiot that I can't deal. I just can't root for Morons. It's a character flaw of mine, (or is it?).

She is traveling alone through the wild wild west, which I thought ok, cool! A smart determined woman, and in Pink, love it. Then she sees the indigenous man beaten and tied up...ok, so anyone with an IQ of 46 would look around and notice, "I'm alone with a bunch of men in the middle of F all, and they've beaten this man just for existing...if I'm gonna help him I better be darn Clever!" That's what I'd think in Ohio in 2022 much less in a time before cell phones and lawyers! But not her, she then gets real not clever. She saunters over and tells The boss man she'll pay them to clean him up and let Him go. So she's just insulted the guy and let Him know she has cash on her. THEN! Her un locked or even latched bag just happens to fall open and cash Blows all over. Do you mean she has a huge bag of lose cash??? Not even wrapped up in anything?!?! Oh, I thought, "So, she's a moron"-ok, different story than I thought, but ok. (Again, dumb move in Ohio, or LA, or even Brunei) THEN he punches her in the face and knocks her out, which she had coming of course if you've ever seen a western (or done something as stupid in bum F Ohio).

So then she's going to be killed by the dude and she tells Him (and us) she was going to kill the man who killed her child. Huh??? With what?!?! Harsh language? So now I'm rolling my eyes. Welp, she sure didn't make none too far.

THEN! She tells the man she's gonna also kill HIM! Ok, so now she's stupid and delusional. Of course, the indigenous man comes back and saves Her. I like him! But I just don't think I can invest my time in to watching a stupid delusional woman, (who should be dead but for the writers and she's number 1 on the call sheet), on some revenge quest when she didn't even bring a butter knife to a gun fight.

The writers and directors Could have done so much better, and Emily as she's not dumb and an EP, by simply showing the dude who punched her, or a toothless lackey, taking a gun out of her garter belt when she was unconscious. We could at least feel for her, knowing she at least had a gun! If they wanted us to root for her they could have also had them find all her HIDDEN cash in her luggage!

Gun. Hidden cash in locked bag would have made her minimally smart. And also Brave! Then she's a chick who's been hurt badly but has moxy and nothing To lose. But she must not die before she kills the man who killed her kid. Now that's a series!

They didn't need for her to be dumb as punch as the dude had Been hired to follow and kill her apparently. She couldn't have seen that or the punch coming. (Also I had to turn on subtitles to understand what the heck they were saying in their testicles (?) dinner scene, and the Writing was still trying way too hard to make total sense, but I got the gist)

I hate dumb protagonists and i Really hate dumb women protagonists. I then start rooting for natural selection. If Emily's name hadn't secured financing, her character would have been worm food by Ep 2, as that's how they wrote it and it Would have followed how nature works at least.

I'll never know, but the main reason writers usually make someone that dim witted is to make the largest transformation arc for the character possible. Something that will entice actresses of her caliber to sign on or even co-write/produce it. (That's how you get an Emmy). So if I'm right, by the end she ain't in pink and can Shoot a gun and kill Without flinching. Yawn.

I wanna forget about writers, producers, Emmy's, and call Sheets when I watch a show. Unfortunately, they upstage the story and everyone but the Indian.

I'm out.