Critics call The Day of the Jackal a 'compulsive' if familiar watch

The Day of the Jackal is a modern take on the 1973 film starring Edward Fox, itself an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's novel of the same name, and it has delighted critics who enjoyed the new take.

Starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, the Sky series follows their characters as they develop a tense cat and mouse game with each other that could prove fatal. Redmayne is the titular Jackal, an assassin for hire who is tasked with a new mission that puts him on a collision course with MI6 agent Bianca (Lynch).

For critics, the series was a compulsive watch but one that seemed quite familiar to other espionage thrillers like the original movie, the James Bond films, or Killing Eve.

The Telegraph's Jasper Rees was effusive in praise about the series, writing that it is a "moreish appetiser" of a series and "this Jackal begs for 10 episodes of your time" thanks to Redmayne's fantastic central performance.

"The otherness of Redmayne compels," the critic wrote. "Having played Stephen Hawking and a Danish transsexual, he is a proven master of disguise. Yet somehow, even caked in Latex, there are always the ice-blue pupils and whip-thin frame, the Aardmanesque overbite and Etonian aura. Redmayne’s weird wanderer feels uncannily like an audition to play another ultra-English icon."

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Digital Spy's Rebecca Cook remarked that "Lynch and Redmayne give spot-on performances" but it is the former who stands out for her "dramatically less showy" portrayal of Bianca because she hasn't got "as much background luxury and intrigue to juice up scenes."

While Cook felt the narratives around the Jackal and Bianca's family life weren't as interesting as the cat-and-mouse game at the show's heart "none of that might matter much in the face of The Day of the Jackal's compulsive watchability."

Cook wrote: "This is probably the best-case scenario of the IP-driven media landscape we're stranded in: a modern update on well-trodden terrain that is tremendously well put together. It may not be massively original, but it's a hell of a thrill while you're there."

The Financial Times' Dan Einav commended the series for being "not so much a copycat remake as a slick contemporary take on the assassination-plot premise" because it meant the series could stand out on its own merit.

Einav wrote that the series is "perhaps better thought of as a standalone rather than as an attempt to rework a near-perfect political thriller."

The critic had a similar response to the scenes around the characters' respective home lives, adding: "When the show adjusts its scope from half-baked domestic drama to full throttle procedural thriller, it rarely misses the mark. The series won’t endure for as long as the film but it’s got enough suspense and action to make it an entertaining watch."

For The Irish Independent Pat Stacey it was impossible not to compare the series to the original movie, with the critic writing: "Zinnemann’s film was a gripping thriller, shot in a quasi-documentary style and assembled with the precision of a Swiss timepiece. Not a single scene was wasted. The two-and-and-a-half-hour running time flew by.

"This Day of the Jackal is... well, not. It’s long and it’s baggy, with too many uninteresting characters, too many tedious domestic scenes, and the usual overblown and unbelievable shootouts and car chases."

The Day of the Jackal premieres on Sky Atlantic with its first five episodes on Thursday, 6 November.