On November 8th the new series The Day of The Jackal will be released on Sky and NOW. It is a ten-episode spy thriller starring Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne who plays the role of the “jackal”, the iconic hitman born from the mind of Frederick Forsyth and played on film for the first time by Edward Fox in the award-winning 1973 film “The Day of the Jackal”. Before this contemporary reinterpretation of the iconic ’73 thriller, Bruce Willis had also lent his face to the “jackal” in the 1997 adaptation where he starred alongside Richard Gere.

Now, however, all eyes are on the new version of Eddie Redmayne’s jackal but also on the two actresses who will join the actor from The Theory of Everything in this modern adaptation of a story that has now become a classic of the big and small screen: Lashana Lynch (Bob Marley: One Love, The Woman King, No Time To Die) and the international star Úrsula Corbero (La Casa de Papel).

But how is The Day of The Jackal? What should we expect from this series written and adapted by showrunner Ronan Bennett, creator and screenwriter of the acclaimed Top Boy and directed by Brian Kirk, the name behind Game of Thrones, Luther, Boardwalk Empire? Let’s find out right away but, in the meantime, let’s brush up our memories on the plot of the series.

The Day of the Jackal: the plot of the series

At the center of this story is a man, a solitary assassin who works in total anonymity and without leaving traces: known as the nickname The Jackal. He is silent, elusive and a very skilled chameleon who completes his goals without ever making mistakes, at least so far. The jackal has a family he loves but who does not know his true identity, he earns his living by killing on commission and believes he has everything under control until he finds himself facing an unexpected adversary, the British intelligence officer Bianca who will start a manhunt around Europe with the sole objective of capturing the jackal and revealing his identity.

A textbook spy thriller series but…

The Day of The Jackal is the series that spy thriller lovers should see. Compelling, profound and with an excellent cast, this modern version of an old story of good and evil, right and wrong, victims and executioners knows how to leave its mark.

Eddie Redmayne represents, without too many surprises, the best part of this Sky title. With his silences, his looks and his attempt to maintain perfect control over two distinct lives, that of a loving husband and father and that of a killer for hire, Redmayne does an exceptional job of entering body and soul into the role of the “jackal ” and manages to convey to us every facet of his contrasting emotions without ever exceeding in forced or out-of-place expressiveness. The development of her storyline is interesting, just as the character of Bianca is interesting, whose concept of good and evil becomes more and more blurred with the passing of the episodes, transforming in the end not so much the antagonist of the jackal but, perhaps, more into his alter -ego.

Ursula Corbero is also good and we see her in a very different version from the one we usually see on TV and she made us fall in love with her as an actress. Here, in fact, “Tokyo” from La Casa de Papel plays the role of a quiet woman, blindly in love, at times insecure, but above all a person who has the courage to trust her man, her instincts, her choices.

After having seen the first five episodes of the series we can say that we have witnessed a textbook spy thriller series, which is an advantage but also a potential flaw for a TV series. What seems to be missing, in fact, at least at the beginning of the series, is a bit of colour, a bit of dirtying, those imperfections in writing and direction that make a story less aesthetic and more human. In this case, however, we are faced with a perfection of direction and photography that in some ways destroys the sense of reality, making everything seem very glossy and at times soulless. But we are sure that, going forward with the vision of The Day of the Jackal, this series will be able to give us wonderful surprises and we can’t wait to discover them.

Rating: 6.8