Television series

The Day of the Jackal

Name: The Day of the Jackal
Genre: Thriller
Released: 2024
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch, Úrsula Corberó, Chukwudi Iwuji, Eleanor Matsuura

Other titles called The Day of the Jackal: the 1973 film.

A cat-and-mouse thriller following a methodical European assassin hunted by a relentless British intelligence officer. Eddie Redmayne is icily charismatic as the Jackal; Lashana Lynch matches him as the agent closing in. It's taut, stylish, and genuinely tense—a procedural thriller that earns its paranoia. For anyone who loves meticulous villainy and the thrill of the chase.

TVMaze rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a patient cat-and-mouse thriller where the fun lies in watching two capable people outthink each other across European cities.

Skip it if you want constant action or a quick hit of thrills, since this one takes its time setting up each move and rarely rushes its patient tension.

What it asks of you: Ten episodes of about fifty-one minutes make a steady commitment, with long stretches of quiet watchfulness and a tone that stays cool and tense.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Le Bureau des Légendes2015

A French spy series with the same exhausting cat-and-mouse intelligence game, trading assassins for espionage but keeping the paranoia, tradecraft, and moral ambiguity intact. Utterly gripping.

But It's in French with subtitles, and genuinely requires your full attention—no half-watching this one. Slower burn than you might expect.

Slow Horses2022

British spycraft with Redmayne's intensity matched by Gary Oldman's weary genius. Puzzle-box plotting, sharp dialogue, and that same feeling of pieces clicking into place with devastating consequences.

But Starts with a double-cross that can feel needlessly convoluted on first watch. Needs patience to pay off.

The Americans2013

Cold War thriller built on cat-and-mouse tension and the slow burn of two sides hunting each other. Exquisitely acted, morally complex, with the same sense that one mistake ends everything.

But It's long—six seasons of mounting dread. And it asks you to care deeply about people doing terrible things.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Day of the Jackal

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Thief1981

Both films center on a solitary criminal genius undone by their own need for perfection and emotional connection. The Jackal meets its match; the thief can't escape his own nature.

Michael Mann's heist masterpiece treats crime as an art form and a curse. Like The Jackal, it's about obsessive professionals bound by code and skill, but it's bleaker—hypnotic cinematography, minimal dialogue, maximum style. The DNA runs deep.

But Made in 1981, it looks and sounds like it. Long, meditative sequences with almost no exposition. Modern thriller audiences may find it glacially paced.

Killing Eve2018

Psychopath assassin meets obsessive MI6 agent in a game that blurs hunter and hunted. Darkly funny, kinetic, and built on the same magnetic pull of two people who understand each other too well.

But The final season loses its nerve. The tone swings wildly from camp to heavy-handed, and it fumbles the ending.

The Spy2019

Sacha Baron Cohen as a Mossad agent in a taut, fact-based espionage series. Real stakes, real tension, and a lead performance that strips away the comedy mask entirely. Genuinely absorbing.

But Only six episodes, and it ends where history demands it to. Not everyone wants their thrillers predetermined by the history books.

Gunpowder2017

Kit Harington hunting conspirators in post-9/11 thriller mode. It shares The Day of the Jackal's obsession with the hunter-hunted dynamic and the same sense of being one step away from catastrophe at all times.

But Only three episodes and feels rushed. Also relies on your interest in the historical Gunpowder Plot, which not everyone has.

Homeland2011

Claire Danes as a CIA officer convinced a turned American soldier is a mole. Paranoia, surveillance, the weight of knowing something no one believes. Gripping procedural with genuine stakes.

But Goes on too long and loses credibility. The later seasons resort to increasingly absurd plot mechanics to maintain tension.

McMafia2018

Glossy, kinetic crime thriller about a London banker drawn into Russian underworld violence. The same cold precision and European geography as The Jackal, but from a different angle.

But Only eight episodes and never got renewed. It ends on an unfulfilled note that will irritate anyone wanting closure.

Bodyguard2018

British political thriller with Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden. Taut, paranoid, and genuinely surprising. Shares that same sense of unseen networks and threats closing in from all sides.

But The final episode twist will feel cheap to some—it reframes everything that came before in ways that don't entirely hold up on rewatch.

Leave the World Behind2023

Both treat surveillance, hidden networks, and the proximity of danger as the real thriller—not plot, but the sensation of being hunted by forces you can't see or understand.

Netflix thriller starring Mahershala Ali and Julia Roberts, built on mounting paranoia and the sense that threats are invisible and everywhere. Stranger-danger meets systemic dread. Stunning sound design and a mounting sense of wrongness.

But The ending frustrates many—it's apocalyptic and deliberately unresolved. Some find it pretentious; others find it honest about how modern horror actually works.