WATCHED - The English ( Series from 2022)

 

Another fine series from Writer & Director - Hugo Blick ( The Honourable Woman, Black Earth Rising, The Shadow Line ). This has all the usual gorgeous stylistic polish and uniqueness of his productions. Set in 1890's mid western America, with all the background of mythic pioneering and entrepreneurial ventures one finds in stories set in this era. The English, however, takes you on a very unusual journey through it.

Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer) has ceased being a scout for the army. He hopes that he now can buy a homestead and land, to be left to live the rest of his life how he wishes. There is pain in his background, civil war atrocities, the loss of his wife and son. Realistically, no whiteman would ever let him own anything, nor leave him alone to live out his dream. But, still he has hope.

Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt) is an Englishwoman, initially a bit out of her depth in the mid west. She is searching for her former boyfriend Thomas Trafford (Tom Hughes), who is out here running his own cattle ranch. She knows him to be in some danger from David Melmont (Timothy Spall) his former business partner. Cornelia, however, has her own pain that she carries with her, the locket of hair from her recently deceased son. A talisman that only gains in significance.

Cornelia and Eli hook up with each other, because each finds themselves without a home to go back to. But somehow this unlikely pairing of Indian Scout with an English Lady brings out the fighting spirit in both of them. As the series progresses the real reason why she is here in the free wheeling mid west looking for Melmont emerges, and the emotional bond with Eli grows ever deeper. As both their past histories converge on the same place and the same man.

This series holds it's hidden secrets tightly to its chest, that are then allowed to arise slowly into awareness. It is a compelling watch. I don't think I've seen Emily Blunt act better, as she gradually blossoms out of her inhibited crushing loss into this fully fledged vengeful vigilante. Chaske Spencer plays Eli with aloof mystery, amid this regret filled life history that weighs so heavily down upon him. The real delightful surprise was Timothy Spall, so often cast as the genial lightweight, here gives us a truly monstrous creation in Melmont, about whom nothing good could ever be said. Without giving anything away, the ending of The English, is just truly gut wrenchingly tragic.

CARROT REVIEW - 6/8

Available on BBC I Player & Amazon Prime.