The Day of the Jackal

“The Day of the Jackal” is so relentlessly good, with the exception of the music, that you really don’t want to ask yourself the obvious questions—such as “Why am I rooting for this scoundrel?” Well, because his antagonists are so charmless and his talent is so blindingly brilliant. The show is a marvel of editing and cinematography—teams were responsible for both. The actors are first-rate.

Peacock's 'The Day of the Jackal' stuns with its ability to breathe fresh life into the tricky assassin flick genre. Eddie Redmayne's unsurprisingly fabulous performance doesn't just steal the show ⏤ it all but guarantees that a season 2 is on the way.

We're never quite sure if we're rooting for the master sniper to get caught or to succeed. Much of this ambiguity is rooted in Eddie Redmayne's compelling, enigmatic performance. [18 Nov - 8 Dec 2024, p.4]

With the luxury of a 10-episode run, “Day of the Jackal” has room for a number of subplots, but it never feels like the unnecessary padding that occurs in many limited series that should be more, well, limited. In addition to the virtuoso cinematography, the crackling good dialogue and universally terrific performances, the series makes great use of music.

Bennett has created a dynamic drama that’s a cat-and-mouse game between an impeccable chameleon and the law enforcement agent determined to stop him.

You spend much of the series wondering what exactly makes the Jackal tick. Is he simply a monstrous, unfeeling killer? A family man in disguise? A straight-up psychopath? Redmayne is fascinatingly coy — warm one moment and then haunting the next. .... Lynch’s take on Bianca is a stirring mix of impulsivity and cunning. They are the twin engines propelling the plot.

Measured, meaty, modern, “The Day of the Jackal” is a suave espionage thriller that benefits from the luxury to run for 10 hours without padding. It’s dynamic enough to capture the audience, and hold them hostage, until the final shot.

Sometimes you get the impression that Bennett wants to get as far away from Top Boy and the drug gangs of the Summerhouse estate as he can, to the point where you feel you’re indulging in a Mission: Impossible film marathon. Still, for assassin fare, it’s all very classily done, and, like the Jackal himself, takes no prisoners.

This is no doubt one of Redmayne’s finest performances and while his assassin is stoic and unfeeling, his unsettling shapeshifting into multiple aliases allows him to flex every acting muscle he has. When we’re given access to his complex killing set ups – false flag attempts and sniper rifles that fold away to nothing – The Day of the Jackal is a thrill ride all the way to the end.

It’s really only when the Jackal is in the frame — on a job, having a near-miss with suspicious police — that your attention is gripped. And never more so than when calibrating his sights at a watermelon.

It is Slow Horses without the sly sense of humour or taste for the absurd, while Redmayne’s mega-range sniper is a kind of Bond gone bad. But even if it doesn’t quite deliver on its early potential, it’s highly enjoyable, trigger-happy stuff.

Anchored in Redmayne’s chilling yet magnetic performance, this is a thrilling ride that’ll have you wondering why it feels quite so good to be bad.

The cinematography is as stunning as the food is exquisite and familiar. There is no compulsion to reinvent, no needless experimental energy. The series feels instead like a lush and leisurely expansion. But the beats — and the dishes — remains the same. There is one exception. Tita, in Guaita’s hands, is quicker, more volatile and more stubborn than Lumi Cavazos’s comparatively sedate version in the film. Guaita certainly delivers a charming performance.

Even if “The Day of the Jackal” feels stretched too thin in some places, it still manages to be an exciting thrill ride. Credit to Redmayne and writer Ronan Bennett who’ve not only created a compelling anti-hero but also ancillary characters whose fate matters.

It's simple but elegantly crafted, well cast, and capably structured to keep tension, backed by strong performances. Moreover, it's a good, highly watchable thriller series that will keep viewers engaged throughout its main characters' tit-for-tat pursuit.

When cat and mouse are equally saddled with work/life balance issues, the main event of the chase is prone to misfire and mid-story sag. Still, the otherness of Redmayne compels.

Edge-of-the-seat viewing but seat-of-the-pants storytelling. At least both Redmayne and Lynch shine.

We’re expecting a lot of tension and action in The Day Of The Jackal. The performances of Redmayne and Lynch give us hope that the tension can be sustained over 10 episodes, but we’re not sure if the intensity of the first episode can be maintained.

While this isn’t the careful chess match between two titans in their respective fields that many of us may have hoped for, it’s not a total loss either. And Peacock can send a gift basket to Redmayne for that.

The new streaming series starring Eddie Redmayne as an illusive assassin known as the Jackal is not as good as the original 1973 movies but makes for fun viewing.

Redmayne does do a good job of playing a person who feels that he’s nicer than he actually is. .... Lynch’s innate soulfulness softens her character. You may question Bianca’s choices, but the actor is good to watch whenever she’s onscreen. Also shining a light is Úrsula Corberó as Nuria. .... But really, there is nothing as tedious as a psycho killer, except when it’s a song by the Talking Heads.

It gilds the lily with unnecessary backstory and peripheral melodrama allegedly designed to “flesh out” characters, and you’re left with an epic amount of gorgeous, globetrotting Mid TV.

There’s a great two-hour movie in this Peacock series, or possibly even a great four-hour miniseries. But for the six episodes in the middle, the season becomes cougars all the way down, as one digression after another to keeps pulling at the ostensibly fine thread that is the core plot.

Padded with sluggish sequences and uninteresting subplots, this aggravatingly inert affair lumbers its way toward an unsatisfying finish line, in the process squandering a captivating performance by Eddie Redmayne as its chameleonic protagonist.

The makeup, cinematography, and editing all work together to help make the Jackal’s disguises convincing and impressive, and the action scenes are thankfully not too dark to see or too quickly cut together to tell what’s going on. And yet, none of that is what I’ll remember about “The Day of the Jackal.” Instead, I’ll remember how long it felt to sit through it and how painfully it overextended its story.

A prestige thriller that starts promisingly but spins its wheels through its midsection before culminating in a pair of clunky episodes that derail the production even further while threatening a second season.