The Day of the Jackal is now streaming, is it worth the hype? (What critics are saying)

The Day of the Jackal has premiered on Peacock, but is this new thriller worth watching?

The Day of the Jackal was first published in 1971 and was the breakout best-seller by Frederick Forsyth. A 1973 film adaptation followed, quite faithful to the novel, as a pack of French militants hire a mysterious assassin known only as The Jackal to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. 

The new Peacock series updates the story with Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne as the Jackal, hired to kill a tech billionaire. Lashana Lynch is the British agent tracking him across Europe. It takes a different tact than the original story with a focus on the Jackal's personal life, including  a wife unaware of his true actions.

The show just dropped its first five episodes on Peacock, with another five more coming, so what's the critical response to it?

What are critics saying about The Day of the Jackal?

As of the morning of Nov. 14, 2024 the Rotten Tomatoes critical score is 89% based on 27 reviews. Meanwhile, the audience score is 74%. For the record, the critical score for the 1973 movie is 91%. I'd say it's off to a good start.

The RT critical consensus reads, "A globetrotting thriller made eerily plausible by Eddie Redmayne's reptilian performance, The Day of the Jackal turns dark deeds into good fun." That indicates the show is a top thriller doing justice to the original story. And while it can be nice to update and refresh certain tales, most of the time poeple either want the originals to be left alone, or have new adaptations faithful to them. It looks like the Peacock series has done a little bit of both.

There's mixed reviews when it comes to the critics, many of them questioning the story but enjoying Redmayne's performance nonetheless. Most of the praise is for the performances of Redmayne and Lynch, even if some critics say the story is rather formulaic. Nick Schager of The Daily Beast did criticize it as, "Padded with sluggish sequences and uninteresting subplots, this aggravatingly inert affair lumbers its way toward an unsatisfying finish line, in the process squandering a captivating performance by Eddie Redmayne as its chameleonic protagonist."

Several of the reader reviews on Rotten Tomatoes said Lynch "seemed wrong for the role," and Pete E claimed "she was out of her depth." There were also criticisms of the pacing and echoing some critics saying the series is too padded out. However, even the lower-star reviews still had praise for Redmayne. 

Thus, it seems The Day of the Jackal is worth the watch and does justice to the fantastic thriller with some good performances and thrills to overcome the pacing issues. We've only seen half of the season so far, with five episodes to go. So perhaps those will help elevate the show a bit more. We'll see. What do you think of the series so far?

The Day of the Jackal releases new episodes Thursdays on Peacock.