Even if it has next to nothing to do with the original novel or movie from which it takes the title, the new streaming reboot of The Day of the Jackal is a very stylish and suspenseful modern thriller. The need to adapt it into TV series format, however, may have resulted in the story being overly padded to fill the episode count.
Designed as a ten-episode limited series, the show has a slightly unusual and confusing release pattern. The first half of the season premiered all at once, first on Sky Atlantic in the UK starting November 7th, and then on Peacock in the United States a week later on November 14th. Subsequent episodes will run weekly, with America a week behind Europe, until the finale, which will conclude in both regions on December 12th. (The U.S. will get the last two episodes together on the same day.) Whether this assassination thriller really needed to be stretched out to ten episodes is still to be determined.
| Title: | The Day of the Jackal |
| Season: | 1 |
| Episodes: | Episode #1.1 Episode #1.2 Episode #1.3 Episode #1.4 Episode #1.5 |
| Total Episodes in Season: | 10 |
| Premiere Date: | Nov. 14, 2024 |
| Watched On: | Peacock |
Ostensibly a retelling/reboot of the 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth, which was previously adapted into a successful movie in 1973 (and less successfully remade in 1997), the new Day of the Jackal retains very little of the original storyline beyond the general concept of a high-stakes manhunt to capture a professional assassin before he takes out his latest victim. The show’s fifth episode also more-or-less directly copies the famous target practice scene from the prior movie (similar camera angles and everything), as fan-service, I suppose.
Beyond that, the details of the plot are rather different, with the new version mostly eliminating the political context from the story. While early episodes do show the assassin eliminating a couple of political targets, he soon moves on from that mission to focus on corporate sabotage instead.
Eddie Redmayne stars as the title character, a supremely competent hitman who goes by the moniker The Jackal. He uses a different name in his personal life, but there’s no way to know whether that has any truth to it. In the first job we see him complete, he makes a difficult shot from an impossible distance never before achieved, and gets away cleanly.
This event draws the attention of British intelligence – specifically of MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch), an expert on guns and snipers. From evidence recovered at the scene, Bianca believes that the killer must have used a custom rifle built by a gunsmith she’s been tracking in Northern Ireland, which would put the case in her jurisdiction. She pressures her informants to give up the gun maker, hoping he can lead her to his client.
In the meantime, the Jackal takes a new commission to murder a famous tech billionaire, whose upcoming software launch threatens to reveal “total financial transparency” into the secret business dealings of the elite classes all over the world. Needless to say, the wealthy powers-that-be who pull all the world’s strings aren’t too happy about that and want it stopped at all costs. A conspiratorial cabal (led by Charles Dance from Game of Thrones, with Eleanor Matsuura from The Walking Dead as his henchwoman) conscript the Jackal to take care of this problem, for an astronomical payday he can’t refuse.
Differing significantly from the original story, this latest version spends a considerable amount of time on the personal lives of the characters, to flesh out their personalities. Bianca’s job puts tremendous strain on her family back home, and even the Jackal has a wife (Úrsula Corberó) who believes he’s a legitimate businessman, but starts to have doubts about how long he spends away from home. While an argument can be made that this adds depth to the story and characterizations, it also detracts from the urgency of the plot. The 1973 film ran nearly two-and-a-half hours with no flab at all, hyper-focused on the details of the manhunt. The extra storylines in this show often feel like filler to stretch the runtime – as do some contrived plot twists (including the cliffhanger that ends Episode 5) that remind me an awful lot of Fox’s 24.
Regardless of these quibbles, The Day of the Jackal remains a compelling international thriller so far. With only half the season available at this writing, I can only hope that it concludes in a satisfying manner.
Video Streaming
In the United States, The Day of the Jackal streams on Peacock in 4K HDR. Despite the softness of my screencaps in this article, which were grabbed off a web browser, the 2.39:1 image is pleasingly sharp and has a very naturalistic application of HDR. The picture is sometimes a little dark (this is a shadowy thriller, after all), but contrast is rich and highlights are well-balanced without feeling overdone.
The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack has a pleasing spaciousness. The musical score and other licensed songs frequently envelop the entire listening area. Dynamic range, if not as hard-hitting as the biggest action movies, delivers some satisfying bass.
The show has occasional foreign-language dialogue. All subtitles are contained within the 2.39:1 picture area and are safe for Constant Image Height display.
The Video File Blog 