The English

[Nanalisa60]

Just binge watched it on BBC iPlayer one of the best story’s I have watch in a long time, really really good.

Well, I'm not going to binge-watch it but the first episode was so slowly spoken that I could understand what was going on, and I have looked at the synopsis and see that a baby turns up next week, so I intended watching more. I know Emily Blunt but I don't know the actor who's playing 'the man'. Nice to know that someone gives it a good recommendation.

Existing thread here. But maybe this could be the spoiler thread for those who have binged watched?

www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4674236-the-english-new-bbc2-drama-with-emily-blunt-starts-thursday-10-november-2022-9pm

I wasn't entirely gripped by the first episode, but having watched the whole thing I thought it was excellent. And very moving.

Bingeing now! And I don’t usually binge, but it’s so good!

It’s one of those programs that needs to be binge watched, probably the best thing I have seen this year , just such a amazing story, a fantastic tail.

Forgot to say cried my eyes out very moving

@Nanalisa60 It’s one of those programs that needs to be binge watched, probably the best thing I have seen this year , just such a amazing story, a fantastic tail.

a fantastic tail… so there’s nudity??

Sorry I’m dyslexic 😂

I am worried its going to be really violent. Is it so bad?

I am worried its going to be really violent. Is it so bad?

It is very violent and some quite distressing scenes.

I’ve not heard of this but love Emily Blunt in stuff so will check it out

Wholeheartedly agree. It's an amazing story and my goodness but the women characters were made of steel and great to see in a series.

I cried too. I'm going to watch it again as I sometimes missed nuances regarding the timeline.

Sorry! Wasn’t trying to correct you, I assumed autocorrect…

I cried too. I'm going to watch it again as I sometimes missed nuances regarding the timeline.

Yes I think I will watch it again. It took me a while to work out the time jumps and one or two other things.

I disliked 'cowboy' films intensely as a child but certainly found this one of the best things I've watched on TV in a very long time. It is violent (as unfortunately befits the era in which it was set) but is about so much more: loss, love, pioneering spirit and redemption. The main characters played by Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer are flawed, bitter, emotionally wounded and vengeful for sure but also brave, on a mission and mystical - kindred spirits. Although from very different backgrounds, they have much in common and develop a rare type of love. Ultimately it's a very poignant love story first and foremost.

The Sister Brothers (book and film with a great cast) is also very good.

I'm enjoying it so far on episode 3.

The actor who's plays Eli is from twilight movies.

I binge watched this the other night and totally LOVED it. I did love westerns as a child (lots of Saturday afternoon ‘80s telly) and have always been fascinated and moved by the story of the American indigenous tribes. The filming and cinematography is excellent and it pays homage to those westerns that actually told something of the persecution of the indigenous tribes. The marriage of Wild West exploration and the genteel world of Cornelia in a contemporary, fresh way is just brilliant.
In The English, there is a certain violence of the bloody shooting, scalping kind but the really horrific stuff that characterised the colonisation of the US is mostly implied rather than shown in a graphic way, and it is all the more powerful for it.
It is refreshingly and notably free of bad language, or gratuitous sexual violence against women. So again, it is an implied threat, and the rape is very chilling but I can cope with that and it felt more respectful of women, rather than the way (I feel) it can be glorified or used to titillate in series such as Game of Thrones.

And yes, the female characters are just brilliant, and believable.

I’m starting it now, anybody else?

Stick with it, try to remember who all the characters are because some of them seem quite random at first and the story line jumps about through time, but it all ( sort of ) falls into place in the end.

And the scenery is glorious, wonderful vistas and skies.

Well I thought there was quite a lot of bad language, thanks mostly to Mr Spall who was excellent but evil, and some real and described violence against women which although not all of it was graphically depicted ( some was) was clear and quite distressing.

Just finished it and loved it.

Utterly brilliant

I’m really not saying it was Anne of Green Gables 😆. Rather I’m holding it in comparison to a lot of other contemporary adult Netflix stuff/hit series that I have mostly swerved, that seem to have no qualms enacting rape and SA gratuitously to the extent of over reliance, rather than more subtly referencing or implying without graphic reenactment.
I’m not denying that there was violence in The English, there was a lot of imagery and symbolism (yes, tons of bloody scalps), more that to me, when it came to VAWG, it seemed to rely less on graphic depiction and violence for violence’s sake and more on inference which was ultimately more effective and impactful on the viewer. It was definitely distressing, but without relentless gore.
I’m trying to convey the difference I perceived in how it was handled, as compared to a lot of other stuff that tries to shock and traumatise.
Eg The Clearwater Creek massacre. We didn’t see that enacted. They could have done that, and it would have been awful, awful to watch. Instead it played out in the valley below while the others stayed put until the murderers passed back through and it was conveyed via Spall’s bloody torso… his mania … the machine gun. That was chilling, especially the latter when it resurfaced later on. So that imagery was extremely powerful, more so I think because we are given room to imagine the horror.