The Western genre waned in popularity in the 1980s, but 21st-century cinema still has the occasional film that harks to its heyday. Most of these are genre hybrids, like Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” or S. Craig Zahler’s “Bone Tomahawk,” while others, like “Meek’s Cutoff” or “Slow West” attend to the genre’s classic nuances.
Now, Amazon & BBC will bring their take on the Western to Prime Video this fall with an all-new limited series. “The English” stars Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer on a classic journey/chase Western narrative with a violent, murder mystery twist in 1890s America.
Here’s the show’s official synopsis, courtesy of Amazon Prime Video:
An epic chase Western, The English takes the core themes of identity and revenge to tell a uniquely compelling parable on race, power, and love. An aristocratic Englishwoman, Lady Cornelia Locke, and a Pawnee ex-cavalry scout, Eli Whipp, come together in 1890 mid-America to cross a violent landscape built on dreams and blood. Both of them have a clear sense of their destiny, but neither is aware that it is rooted in a shared past. They must face increasingly terrifying obstacles that will test them to their limits, physically and psychologically. But as each obstacle is overcome, it draws them closer to their ultimate destination—the new town of Hoxem, Wyoming. It is here, after an investigation by the local sheriff Robert Marshall and young widow Martha Myers into a series of bizarre and macabre unsolved murders, that the full extent of their intertwined history will be truly understood, and they will come face-to-face with the future they must live.
Alongside Blunt and Spencer, “The English” also stars Stephen Rea, Valerie Pachner, Rafe Spall, Tom Hughes, Toby Jones, and Ciarán Hinds.
UK TV/film veteran Hugo Blick writes and directs all six episodes of “The English.” Blick’s previous TV shows include 2018’s “Black Earth Rising” and “The Honorable Woman.” He also serves as co-executive producer for the series with Blunt and Greg Brenman through Drama Republic.
“The English” hits Amazon Prime this November following its UK premiere on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. Take a peek at the first-look photos for the show below.
