Review by C.J. Bunce
If the momentum built in the first six episodes is any indication, fans of spy-fi have a winner on their hands with Peacock’s new streaming series The Day of the Jackal. An update to the 1971 Fred Forsyth novel, which was adapted for the big screen in 1973 and 1997, this series has every element of a James Bond book or movie except for the regular cocktails (shaken or stirred) or the sex and misogyny. From the international locations, the cinema-level production quality, and some tech gadgets that would impress Q, to a theme song that you’d swear was a past Bond theme, a co-star who played 007 before, and even a supervillain who may make Blofeld look like a blow-hard–it really has it all.
And if you want to go there, it’s not hard to see co-stars Lashana Lynch and Úrsula Corberó doubling as the “Bond girls.”
This is the classiest looking series I’ve seen since the 2011 British series Zen starring Rufus Sewell and Caterina Murino, reviewed here at borg. It’s a similar looking, stylish and classy thriller about an infamous diabolical assassin called The Jackal and a laser-focused MI6 firearms expert named Bianca who is hot on his trail. All the changes and updates to the original movie (which was written by Edgar Award-nominated screenwriter Kenneth Ross) and the most recently seen movie with Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Jack Black all work well. It will have any fan of the films pleased that it keeps up the tension and suspense of the earlier versions, but has the vibe of a completely new and modern story–only the villain’s moniker is the same.
BAFTA-winning actress–and former 007 in the 2021 James Bond movie No Time to Die–Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel, The Marvels) stars as British intelligence agent Bianca Pullman. Yes, like every British tale of a great, steadfast cop or agent–think Luther or Killing Eve–the job of saving the world has a negative effect on Bianca’s personal life. But in this series that doesn’t make the protagonist less effective or determined. Bianca is first through the door on a raid. She’s first to walk into a secret Brit ops meeting she wasn’t invited to. She’s first to take the new boss head-on, confident with her expertise. And she’s first to figure out what the bad guy is going to do next.
The bad guy is the title character The Jackal, played by Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, Fantastic Beasts series). Redmayne has played so many unique characters in so many different films that this kind of archetype–the super-villain–doesn’t seem like it would be his forte. The character in the 1970s novel must have been in part inspired by the myriad methods found by the secretive hero in The Saint, the British spy series starring later Bond actor Roger Moore. Showrunner Ronan Bennett’s script wastes no time showing The Jackal as completely hidden, Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt-style, behind meticulously crafted prosthetic masks.
Back at The Jackal’s lair is his wife Nuria, played by Úrsula Corberó. How did these two get together, get married, and have a son? We don’t know yet, if we ever will. Nuria, who knows nothing about her husband’s day-job as assassin, is suspicious he may be cheating on her when she sees him in a taxicab after she drops him at the airport. The entirety of that exotic James Bond flavor for this series comes from Corberó and the home location in Spain, along with Eleanor Matsuura (The Walking Dead) as a mysterious, unwanted handler of sorts for The Jackal. The script calls for Nuria to keep her cards hidden well into the sixth episode, beyond having her family help her tear open a secret room full of The Jackal’s spy tech. Where did this incredible Spanish mansion come from? What possibly could Nuria think her husband was doing to maintain such a lifestyle? Will he return to kill her and her family to maintain his secret, or is there more coming for this character?
A surprise dose of great fun arrives in the fifth episode with the entrance of master gunmaker Norman Stoke, played by The Watch star Richard Dormer. He is The Jackal’s go-to guy for weapons that can get around security scanners and brings that Q element from Bond to the series. You might just wish you’d be treated to an entire series just about this guy’s backstory. Kate Dickie (Annika, Loki) is a powerful addition as Stoke’s sister-in-law. Chukwudi Iwuji (Doctor Who) is Bianca’s comrade in British Intelligence. The entire supporting cast of players is strong in this series. Keep an eye out for the ubiquitous Charles Dance as one of the men behind the curtain.
This feels like a police procedural at times, but expanded to an international degree, which flips the genre from your typical police show to the Bond movie reference I keep referring to. This is a thriller that feels authentic, thanks to the work of a squad of cinematographers, powerful production design choices, and evocative art direction.
So far it has the intrigue and the suspense. It all works because of the equally balanced one-two punch of good vs bad, Lynch’s Bianca versus Redmayne’s The Jackal, the closest we may see on television to the battle of wits of Spy vs. Spy. Don’t miss The Day of the Jackal, with the first six episodes now streaming on Peacock, and four more episodes, a new episode arriving each Thursday.
