With my sister’s one month subscription to Peacock nearly ending, I managed to squeeze in this British crime-thriller just before time ran out. And boy was The Day of the Jackal worth it!
I’ve really only seen Eddie Redmayne in dramatic films, so seeing him as this ruthless assassin was really, really cool. He plays the titular “Jackal,” where in his everyday life spent intermittently with his family, he goes by Charles. But it’s clear that almost everything in his life is a lie. He’s lived a few different lives under several different names, all in the sake of making some serious cash. I also think somewhere along the way he learned that he really liked that he was so good at doing something.
Despite all of his success, he actually does love his family, so when a new and dangerous contract comes through, Charles makes sure it’s for enough money that he won’t have to work another day in his life. The only thing is, his last job that involved killing a far right politician in Germany, causes some unintended blowback that ends up putting MI6 on his tail. Their paths don’t cross for quite some time, but the mess is putting his new contractors on edge. They are ruthless in their own right. They’ve got their sights set on some tech guy who’s about to unveil an app exposing all of the richest people in the world. Those nasty people do not want that to happen, so he’s got to go by way of the Jackal.
MI6’s eventual involvement causes unexpected errors on Charles’ part, causing him to be gone longer than expected. It doesn’t help that his wife caught him in a little white lie and then went scorched earth with that information. She’s found him out and she’s both furious and terrified. That means Charles has to keep an almost constant surveillance on both her and the rest of her family. They cause problems that further complicate Charles’ anonymity. All of this is making MI6 agent, Bianca Pullman’s job a little easier. It also helps that she’s as relentless as Charles. In a final scene between the two, they both confess that they like to win. So much so, it seems, that they are willing to risk any personal things in their life for being the best.
This series was full of creative carnage, and the body count is crazy. This is one of those series whose ending in well done. The story for the season is complete, but there was certainly a window of opportunity for more. And Peacock is taking it! Not long after the first season was finished it was renewed for a second. A Golden Globe nomination or two probably didn’t hurt that decision. A must-see!