The Day of the Jackal (Sky) - Review

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

SKY TV’s lavish update of Frederick Forsythe’s The Day of the Jackal may have attracted some glowing reviews but it struggled to convince on many levels.

The modern day setting gave it plenty to explore - from tech giants willing to expose the financial giants running the world to security compromised intelligence agencies - but rather than delivering anything hard-hitting, it opted for grandiose action and family melodrama.

The result lacked the tautness of the original film (starring Edward Fox) and felt overly padded, allowing certain story elements to drift into the silliness more commonly associated with the Richard Gere-Bruce Willis take on the novel.

Part of the problem lay in the decision to spread the story over 10 episodes. In an era where the best shows need just six or even eight get the job done (think Black Doves or Slow Horses), this felt overly generous and the mid section certainly sagged.

But it also gave the central characters too much room to behave erratically.

Case in point: Eddie Redmayne’s central character was far more ruthless and watchable when going about his business and living up to his reputation. The opening episode, for instance, saw The Jackal laying waste to two targets, fairly efficiently.

Yet the creative decision to lumber him with a wife (Ursula Corbero) and son, not to mention a troublesome wider family, allowed his story to get bogged down in petty family squabbles and a cumbersome sub-plot involving their discovery of his real identity and job.

It also gave The Jackal himself room to make too many bad decisions - many involving his family (such as being on the phone to his wife while driving, and subsequently crashing), or leaving too big a footprint for someone supposedly expert at staying under the radar. The show’s decision to cram in too many explosions and car chases negated its central character’s ability to be stealthy, as did his many interactions with wider members of the public he would inevitably have to kill (or risk leaving alive). In such moments, The Jackal felt amateurish.

The same applied to Lashana Lynch’s pursuing MI6 agent Bianca, who had to juggle her covert operations with maintaining a family life with her latest partner and daughter. There was too much time spent on the household stuff and not enough on building the cat and mouse element of the battle of wits between her and The Jackal.

Attempts to mirror their lifestyles (the emotional toll of juggling killing people with raising families) were also clumsily handled and jarring, often derailing the show’s momentum.

The wider conspiracy, meanwhile, involving The Jackal’s employers (led by a typically sinister Charles Dance) didn’t really come into play until the final episodes and were clearly there to set up a second season, which was confirmed almost immediately after the final episode aired.

On the plus side, Redmayne was a suitably engaging lead presence and when left to his professional devices, more often than not provided a suitably cold, calculated presence. A flashback episode late on was particularly good in building a credible back story that showed just how ruthless he could be, while the build up to his big assassination attempt was suitably tense and calculated (showing the dedicated lengths to which he was prepared to go), as was his subsequent flight and final confrontation with Bianca. Redmayne confidently inhabited the role, combining elements of Fox as well as Bond, while bringing something resolutely his own.

Lynch, sadly, deserved much better than the script allowed her, although she built on the good work she did in her Bond outing, No Time To Die, and was suitably no-nonsense and muscular in her action sequences.

But too many other characters were also wasted, either by being poorly written (with contrived arcs) or not enough screen time to warrant their presence: step forward the likes of Chukwudi Iwuji as one of Lynch’s possibly duplicitous colleagues, Khalid Abdalla as The Jackal’s target and potential whistleblower, and Corbero as The Jackal’s wife (whose allegiance swapping was all over the shop).

Given that The Day of the Jackal proved to be a ratings hit, audiences were clearly won over by its mix of exotic locations, explosive action and melodrama. But I felt it could [and should] have been a lot more taut and incisive, as well as morally and ethically complex. The plot beats were often too obvious, both in terms of the betrayals and deaths, as well as the dilemmas it posed its protagonists.

The series was watchable because its pivotal episodes did at least deliver on decent action and Redmayne’s central performance. But there is a lot of room for improvement.