I don’t know about you, but anytime I hear that Eddie Redmayne is set to star in a new project, I react the same way JD Vance does to an awkward donut shop encounter: with unparalleled enthusiasm. In other words, I’m all in, and in Redmayne’s latest pursuit, Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal, he’s all in, too.
The 10-episode series marks a unique deviation for the Oscar winner, who, for the better part of the last decade, has found his calling in major motion pictures that often see him swiftly nominated for every golden statue in sight. Given that his last major television role was in 2012’s Birdsong, his epic return to the medium begs a few important questions: why now, and why this role?
The answers come mere minutes into Jackal’s first episode, when an unrecognizable Redmayne dons the face, clothes, mannerisms, and gait of an elderly German janitor. As he goes to the real janitor’s workplace and shoots a man at point-blank range, it’s clear he’s not just playing dress-up ⏤ he’s an assassin, and someone has paid him a lot of money to carry out this particular hit.
What ensues is exactly what you’d expect from the sort of spy thriller that finds a hit man repelling down the side of a building to escape his pursuers: guns, disguises, car chases, and a cat-and-mouse chase across Europe between Redmayne’s unnamed hit man (later referred to as “the Jackal”) and MI6 agent Bianca, played by Lashana Lynch. This is not your grandfather’s Mission: Impossible, however. Redmayne’s Jackal might wear masks, but they aren’t ripped off in dramatic Tom Cruise fashion. On the contrary, his sharpshooter chips away at his prosthetics in an unhurried montage, peeling back the layers until, at last, we see the man beneath the killer. This unapologetic convention doesn’t only underline the unnerving reality The Day of the Jackal grounds itself in ⏤ it foreshadows how we’re going to learn more about our protagonist: layer by unpeeled layer.
Based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth and the 1973 film of the same name, Jackal pulls a hasty Big Brother in that it invites you to expect the unexpected. If anything is expected here, it’s Redmayne’s ability to churn out another compelling performance in the skin of a character we haven’t seen him play before. The chameleonic actor is at the height of his powers (when is he not?), sliding into the Jackal’s skin as seamlessly as a knife through flesh. It would have been be easy, in the hands of a lesser artist, for this elite sniper to be conventionally stoic and void of nuance, but in true Redmayne fashion, he capitalizes on the opportunity to offer unexpected glimpses of humanity in between taking out a growing list of targets.
And then we have Lynch’s Bianca, Jackal’s foil, and therefore someone we expect to be different from him in every way. This is where The Day of the Jackal reveals its first of many wild cards. Despite their opposing MOs, ⏤ she enforces the law that he unapologetically breaks ⏤ these wandering souls have tricks up their sleeves, and more in common than you’d think. Having previously played the new 007 in No Time To Die, Lynch knows her way around an MI6 operative, but like Redmayne, her Bianca boasts more than a few surprises. Unlike so many stony agents we’ve seen in shows and films past, her Bianca is refreshingly human, comprised of both imperfections and an unapologetic ferocity that moves in and out of sight as she juggles the roles of field agent, mother, and wife. Like the show itself, just when you think you know Bianca, she challenges you.
As Bianca pursues the Jackal across Europe in scenes so gorgeously filmed you can almost feel the Emmy nominations trickling in, the stakes rise in unexpected ways. Secrets are revealed, blood is spilled, and lines are drawn in the sand as the viewer joins the characters in wondering who can be trusted here. With a strong supporting cast and an especially good performance from Eleanor Matsuura as Zina, the storytelling stretches beyond Jackal and Bianca’s visual fete, leading to questions that could not possibly be answered in a single season (despite a rip-roaring length).
As if brilliant leads and stunning cinematography weren’t enough, Jackal takes further care to separate itself from similar products within the genre. It includes ingenious innovations and an impressive dedication to prioritizing the tactile over CGI, something this author deeply appreciates in a medium overrun by deteriorating superhero flicks and city-leveling critters. As you’d hope for in a project of this genre and scale, there are moments that take your breath away, even in their simplicity. If you’re a sucker for the sole Jessica Chastain tear streaming quietly down the cheek, you’re in luck. Moreover, if you’re looking to be shocked, entertained, and utterly immersed, The Day of the Jackal doesn’t just deliver ⏤ it leaves you wondering what just happened, why it happened, and whether or not you really know these characters at all. (Yes, you can expect to ruminate on that moment ⏤ you’ll know it when you see it ⏤ for at least a few weeks.)
If there’s any nitpicking to be done about Jackal, it lies distinctly in the slow burn of 10 episodes with a medium run time of nearly 52 minutes each. While this often leads to moments of great depth for the show’s players, it does occasionally result in the desire to skip ahead and find out how the story ends. Given the nature of the Jackal’s slow and meticulous work, I suspect this was intentional on the writers’ part. To be fair, one of the show’s more brilliant choices occurs when a plot point that could have been pushed to the denouement happens much sooner than expected. Still, and perhaps it’s my own pesky impatience, I wouldn’t have minded an ever-so-slightly tighter execution.
That said, Jackal goes out of its way to pull you in, deliver rapid-fire gut punches, and then allow you a few seconds in between to remind yourself to breathe. I selfishly wish we could have seen Redmayne don even more disguises, accents, and prosthetics given how many episodes he had to spread his scene-stealing wings, but this is yet another trick up Jackal’s sleeve. The showrunners know this is ultimately where Redmayne shines, especially in a character study about a shape-shifting marksman, and when the series earns its swift and well-deserved season 2 renewal, I have a hunch Redmayne will prove that we’ve only gotten a taste of what he and this heart-pounding thriller is really capable of.