What’s it rated? TV-MA
When? 2024
Where’s it showing? Peacock
Ronan Bennett (Public Enemies, Top Boy, Gunpowder) created this spy thriller loosely based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel of the same name. It follows The Jackal (Eddie Redmayne), a ruthless assassin, and Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch), the relentless intelligence officer determined to catch him. It’s quickly established that The Jackal is a preternaturally skilled marksman with a very specialized custom-made weapon, which Pullman believes was made by underground Irish gunsmith Norman Stoke (Richard Dormer), offering her a lead.
The Jackal’s current target is ultra-rich tech bro Ulle Dag Charles (Khalid Abdalla), who’s preparing to release a computer program called River, which will make transparent how money flows through society, ending up in the hands of the rich at the expense of everyone else. A cabal of richie-riches led by Timothy Winthorp (Charles Dance) arranges to pay The Jackal $10 million if he can assassinate Ulle Dag before he releases River.
What follows is a smartly written cat-and-mouse with a romantic side story about The Jackal’s Spanish wife, Nuria (Úrsula Corberó), who’s become suspicious of the husband she knows as “Charles Calthrop.” Redmayne is terrific as the morally complex killer, whose backstory helps explain his casual callousness. (10 approximately 1-hour episodes) Δ
This article appears in Dec 19-29, 2024.