Six-part series The English (Blick, 2022) is streaming on Prime Video NZ
We watched this during the summer break and at the time I didn’t have anywhere to talk about it so … it sort of got forgotten. But that does it a great disservice as we were entranced throughout and then hurtled towards the finish line with a very late night viewing of the final episode.
The English is a BBC/Amazon co-production created by Hugo Blick, best known for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Honorable Woman (2014) and It has the great advantage over so much television these days in that it tells a complete story in a few episodes – no cliffhanger!
Executive producer Emily Blunt plays Cornelia, a well-spoken English woman travelling across the states of Kansas, Wyoming and Nebraska searching for the man she believes caused the death of her son. On her journey she encounters Pawnee scout Eli (Chaske Spencer) and for a while they travel together – he towards what he hopes will be land and peace and she towards revenge.
Full of vivid supporting characters (Black Eyed Mog played by Nichola McAuliffe is an unforgettable example), some excellent twists and turns and a few classic western set-pieces given some fresh perspective, The English is one I feel sure you will be recommending to others once you’ve seen it.
Further listening
Last Friday night I appeared on RNZ’s Nights (with Mark Leishman) to suggest some weekend viewing.
