This Thursday, March 30, on Canal+, Emily Blunt take you with The English in the great American West, legendary, wild and violent. The English actress, wife in town of actor and director John Krasinski and for the first time producer with this series, is indeed the heroine of this western (after Django, the channel is therefore making a new foray into this genre highly codified). She shares the limelight with a perfect and hard-hitting cast: the charismatic Chaske Spencer (seen in the film franchise Twilight), the unrecognizable Rafe Spall (which you will hate here to the depths of your entrails), the too rare Stephen Rea, Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds (which joins season 2 of the series The Lord of the Rings, broadcast on Prime Video)… Beware of sensitive souls, all the same: irrigated by violence and crossed by images with high traumatic potential, the captivating and moving The English is not necessarily to be put in front of everyone’s eyes!
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The English (Canal+): what is the series about with Emily Blunt?
Late 19th century. The aristocrat Lady Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt) lands in the wild United States. Far from her native England, she is out for revenge, looking for “he who killed his child.” This intimate odyssey will lead her on the path of Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), an Indian from the Pawnee tribe, a former scout for the American cavalry and himself haunted by a tragic past. This incongruous pair, with a chaotic relationship before becoming gently moving, then embarks on this bloodthirsty trail…
The English (Canal+): should you watch the series with Emily Blunt? Our opinion
Without ever reinventing the imagery of the western, the staging knows how to make the most of large spaces, often surprising in its way of playing on perspective, the entrances or exits of shot and the composition of the frame. Another imposed figure of the genre, the shootings are as effective as they are angry, releasing graphic violence that is never gratuitous. As for the antagonist, he turns out to be an absolute vermin, sufficiently well characterized, developed and interpreted (a metamorphosed Rafe Spall and a far cry from his charming image in the film English wedding or series Trying) so as not to encroach on the caricature.
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Beyond the vengeful quest of growing tension, The English is also a story of deliverance, that of Lady Locke (Emily Blunt, whose emotional palette here is as vast as the wide open spaces depicted) seeking to soothe her pain by repairing the harm done to her son, that of Whipp (Chaske Spencer, immense!), tormented by all the past violence and longing to reclaim its future. The series also tells, with great finesse, delicacy and even humor, a love story. This romantic melodrama takes its time to hatch. A moving slow combustion made even more beautiful and moving by the final episode…
