S01.E01: What You Want & What You Need

[AnimeMania]

Eli Whipp, a retired Pawnee scout out to claim his birthright, meets Cornelia Locke, an Englishwoman hell-bent on revenge. Their paths fated to cross, they travel north together.

Premiere Date: November 10, 2022

[Quickbeam]

I wasn’t 100% sure why this woman was in the dusty west but the show is engaging and the cinematography astonishing.

[nomodrama]

This was so good. I am sad that there are no other comments yet, I am so interested to know what others think. I think Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer are amazing in this. I was completely captivated from episode one. 

[Rickster]

Really nice cinematography, but I thought it almost overwhelmed the storyline, like more effort was spent in composing shots than moving the story forward.

Wished there had been more plot development than just shooting and torturing people. Trying to figure out what's the deal with Emily Blunt's character and how old her son could possibly have been.

Very impressed with Chaske Spencer.

[pasdetrois]

I love the American West. Absolutely gorgeous. I watched twice, once for cinematography and again to clarify the story.

Had not encountered Chaske Spencer. He really holds his own against Blunt and Hinds and has a wonderful speaking voice. Glad to discover a new native actor.

My only slight quibble is the notion of this determined native man and Army scout, who wants to go home, quickly altering his plans to accommodate a white woman. I think he did claim he would only escort her a certain distance then be on his way. Perhaps the writers included multiple references to - was it Cain County? - in order to bring the two characters' destinations together.

It will be difficult not to binge this but I will try so that I can soak up each episode.

[dubbel zout]

On 11/14/2022 at 4:01 PM, pasdetrois said:

I love the American West. Absolutely gorgeous.

Spoiler

I regret to inform you they filmed in Spain.

[paramitch]

I liked it. I didn't like the beginning, and felt the voiceover spoonfed us way, way, way too much info.

Poor Ciaran Hinds, once again playing a villain! But a great villain. Good lord, I was stunned when he knocked her out like that.

But with that said, Cornelia exasperated me several times here. Did she really come here with zero awareness of the danger she would be in? She seems impossibly naive. And why is all the money in cash? They had banks in the West, darn it.

Some of Emily Blunt's reactions felt incredibly strange to me, but also in a good way. I like that Cornelia is a really interesting person who doesn't necessarily react to things the way everyone else in her world might.

Chaske Spencer is terrific -- he's so charismatic -- and I already love Eli. And again, I like that he's guarded. He does have the ability to be soft but you can also see why he's careful about revealing that, in this very brutal world.

Agree with everyone that the cinematography is stunning.

@dubbel zout, to keep it vague -- on the plus side, that does lend a nice strangeness to the landscape. So much of the American West has been filmed that there are no surprises. I kind of like that this feels a little bit new. But still beautiful.

Evidently,

Spoiler

It's the same part of Spain where Sergio Leone filmed his spaghetti Westerns, which was cool to discover.

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by paramitch
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