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There’s a great show hiding inside the convoluted plots otherwise obscuring “The English.” From writer and director Hugo Blick (“Black Earth Rising”), Amazon Prime Video’s new limited series taps Emily Blunt (also an executive producer) and Chaske Spencer to play Cornelia and Eli, an especially odd couple who forge an equally unlikely and unshakeable bond out in the dusty, unforgiving deserts of the American West. Together, these two characters and actors alike prove more than enough to drive the series forward — and yet, Blick continually throws more and more complications into the mix, packing the season’s six episodes with easily 10 hours worth of material.

From her first blazing scene to her melancholy last, Blunt brings her singular combination of warmth, wry humor, and flinty determination to the role of Cornelia, an English noblewoman hellbent on seeking revenge for her dead son. As conflicted Native American Eli, Spencer...