As the first episode of The Day of the Jackal begins, two men talk about having work to do. Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) is shown wearing a disguise. The Jackal has killed a man and taken his identity. In Munich, Germany, the Jackal walks around while Manfred Fest speaks at a press conference. When he arrives at work, they call him Ralf. When he goes upstairs, he learns that Fest and Jennifer are there. The Jackal goes into an office and installs a silencer on a gun. When a woman enters, he shoots her dead. He has to kill the receptionist and others when they find out what he’s doing. The Jackal shoots a man who is fleeing down the stairs. He makes it to the rooftop and sees the police arriving outside. The Jackal uses smoke grenades to try to make his mistake.

The Jackal goes to his hideout and removes his disguise. He looks at a forecast and wind forecast. A news report explains that Manfred will visit his son, Elias, in the hospital this morning. Elias was the subject of an assassination attempt last night. Some have blamed Manfred’s anti-immigration stance. The Jackal tests the wind speed and prepares for a shooting. Manfred is asked if he wants to give a reaction to the latest Ulle Dag Charles story. Manfred says the man whose real name is Suleiman is an attention-seeking fraud. He comes out with new software and promises it will save the world. Manfred claims all he wants to do is destroy it. He believes Ulle Dag Charles is a traitor to the West and its values. Meanwhile, the Jackal gets ready to assassinate someone. He shoots the side of the building. He goes it again and hits the target. Manfred arrives at the hospital.

The Jackal shoots him in the head as he enters the hospital. Authorities begin scrambling to find the shooter. The Jackal walks out of the building with a suitcase and his hoodie up. He drives away in a vehicle. He switched vehicles moments later. When police check his room, they find a bomb which explodes. The car he left behind blows up in the parking garage as well. At MI6 headquarters in London, Bianca (Lashana Lynch) is shown a Russian 2000 MG. As she looks over the gun, they find out about the assassination in Germany. In Nuremberg, Germany, the Jackal looks at chessboards. He tells Herr Martin Krasner (Scott Alexander Young) that he needs to get out of there. Bianca goes home and finds Paul Pullman (Sule Rimi) watching an interview with Ulle Dag Charles (Khalid Abdalla) who is talking about his new software called River.

She asks about Jasmine. They talk about Ulle who thinks he’s God. Paul says the software could show them where all the big money is coming from and where it goes. Bianca is more interested in hearing about the assassination. Jasmine (Florisa Kamara) reminds her that there is a parent-teacher’s evening tomorrow. The Jackal is stopped at the border while going to France. He’s forced to open the boot so it can be searched. The guard asks about the box in the front. The Jackal shows him a Jaques set and explains that is why he was in Nuremberg. After a long delay, the Jackal is finally allowed to pass through. Bianca goes to the office where Damian (Ben Hall) tells her that the report on the Fest shooting just came in. She doesn’t believe the shot was over 3,815 meters. Bianca tells Osita Halcrow (Chukwudi Iwuji) she should be at the Fest meeting. He tells her that Werner Leckner with German Intelligence is there. Bianca walks in and joins the meeting.

She interrupts to ask about the distance of the shot. Isabel Kirby (Lia Williams) listens to her. They watch video of the Jackal leaving and getting into a vehicle outside. Bianca doesn’t think the gun could be kept in his case because it’s too big. She suggests the barrel came in two parts. Bianca says a gunmaker has been trying to do this for years. His name is Norman Stoke and he is Northern Irish. Norman has been on the run since the Stockholm assassination in 2018. Bianca is confident she can find him. The Jackal arrives in Paris before grabbing a taxi. In private, Isabel admits it’d be embarrassing if the gunmaker turns out to be British. She asks Bianca more about Norman Stoke. Bianca says Norman and his brother Larry killed more than a dozen innocent Catholic civilians. Larry went to prison but was released under the peace agreement. He’s an enforcer for a gang of drug dealers.

Norman perfected his craft and made the gun used in the Stockholm assassination. Bianca has an asset, Codename Sparrow, in Belfast who can help find Norman Stoke. Isabel tells Bianca not to let her down. The Jackal goes to an internet café. He uses the dark web to contact someone to say he’s invoicing them for Munich. Bianca calls Paul to say she won’t make it to the parents’ meeting. The Jackal is told to check his account in 24 hours. He receives a message from someone with a job offer. He wants to meet the Jackal. When he says he can’t do that, they offer more money. The Jackal agrees to meet in person for $1,000,000. Bianca meets Alison Stoke (Kate Dickie). Alison asks Nadine what she wants. Alison knows  Larry would kill her if he knew who she was talking to. Bianca asks about Norman.

Bianca threatens she’ll go back to prison if she doesn’t help. Alison says she can’t ask Larry out of the blue. Bianca expects to hear from her tonight. The Jackal remains at the Internet café. He’s told the deposit for the meeting has been paid before leaving. Later, Bianca calls Alison. Jasmine overhears her calling herself Nadine. Bianca says it is an office joke before apologizing for not being there. The Jackal watches and sketches birds before noticing a vehicle in the distance. Zina Jansone (Eleanor Matsuura) meets him and says she wants him to kill Ulle. He tells her what he wants before leaving in a hurry. Bianca still hasn’t heard anything from Alison. She asks her coworkers to get everything they have on Alison’s daughter Emma Stoke (Katherine Devlin). She interrupts a meeting in which Osita says the shooter shot Elias at the office because Manfred wasn’t there. Bianca claims Elias was used as bait to lure Manfred to the hospital.

She says they’re going to have to get creative with her asset who is not cooperating. Alison has a daughter, Emma, who is a student in London. She’s also involved in a radical leftist group. Bianca goes to a protest and tells her partner to just arrest Emma even though she isn’t doing anything. Bianca watches them argue before Emma is arrested. They go to an interview room. Bianca instructs the male officer what to say when interrogating Emma. When Emma asks for a solicitor, she’s told she can call her mother. Emma is put in a cell. The Jackal goes to Spain where he sees Nuria (Ursula Corbero) outside. The police find out that Emma has experienced a medical emergency. Bianca rushes down to the police station to find out what is going on. She gets in the ambulance with Emma. The Jackal hides a gun in a safe. Bianca is told that Emma has arrested. They try to revive her. The Jackal finds out that he hasn’t received the payment yet. They respond cursing him.

 

The Day Of The Jackal Review

The opening episode of The Day Of The Jackal leaves a lot to be desired including an ounce of believability. Based on the first episode, the series is putting style over substance. Lots of the scenes are incredibly drawn out with very little actually going on. For instance, it took the Jackal forever to set up the gun and just as long for Bianca to walk through the street and enter the office.

The episode didn’t do a good job of explaining anything although we can get the gist of where this is going. We know that the Jackal shot Elias and put him in the hospital so he could eventually kill Manfred Fest. Other than that, we know very little about anything else. Bianca is coming up with clues without any explanation of how she is reaching these conclusions and she seems to be the only one investigating anything.

Of course, there are the odd scenes in which she’s bossing someone around and even telling them what to say word-by-word. The series is obviously trying to make Bianca way too perfect here because she’s great at everything and smarter than everyone else. That’d be okay if the character was remotely likable or perfectly acted. Neither of those is true in this case. It’s a cliché character with stereotypical casting.

None of the acting really shines here and the miscasts certainly don’t help matters. The story is farfetched so viewers are going to have to forget reality to accept anything that is going on here. Otherwise, they’re going to be picking endless holes in every episode and probably every scene. For instance, the practice shots were incredibly dumb. Someone would’ve noticed the dust flying and the sound of the impact.

Then, we have Bianca doing the work of everyone, including EMS. Truthfully, this whole thing is embarrassingly bad. The Jackal should’ve just shot everyone and ended this thing and put it out of its misery. The episode scores a 3.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Day Of The Jackal can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

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