32/34
A remake of The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Synopsis
The Jackal is an elusive assassin who makes a living carrying out hits for the highest fees. He soon meets his match: a tenacious British intelligence officer who tracks him down in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe. The novel was set in 1963 and involved an assassination attempt on then-President Charles de Gaulle of France. The show moves the setting to the present day. Espionage/spy/assassin movies have always been my favorite, from my earliest memories of James Bond to Mission: Impossible and Jason Bourne, films like Shooter, Day of the Jackal (original) and The Jackal, Leon the Professional, and the list goes on.
The entire cast seems to flow together really well…except one
This is just another great series in a long line of great shows. With Eddie Redmayne at the helm, and seriously, he is phenomenal, this show is great. I’ve worked with guns most of my life, been around guns all my life, and personally hold firearms licenses – it’s very clear that they brought in subject matter experts and military personnel to consult on this show. It definitely creates authenticity…which is a really cool thing to see. I first saw Lashana Lynch in the most recent James Bond and to be honest, I didn’t think her performance was anything special.
But 5 episodes in…she sucks
In fact, I thought she was terrible. Unlike the black actresses before (if that was the intention), and come on, she fell way short of the mark compared to the exquisite Halle Berry or even the legendary Grace Jones. She seemed wooden, bland, uninspired, frankly unworthy and untalented, but I thought maybe she just sucked at James Bond, “give her another chance”. I don’t know what her job was before acting, but she might want to get back into it. I think the casting for Lashana Lynch was downright bad.
Hell, and Thandiwe Newton, SHE IS AWESOME!!!
Personally, Idris Elba would have been an extremely good choice as an MI6 agent. If you need a black British woman, Christine Adams is great! So many great choices and they cast a cardboard cutout. If you can ignore the completely desperate Lashana Lynch, the show is great. It’s a shame this is a miniseries and not a multi-season show which would have been something special.
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I think Eddie Redmayne should seriously consider other spy movie TV shows as he is fascinating to watch and this show would get a 10/10 if it weren’t for the terrible casting of Lynch. It’s one of the biggest TV and streaming premieres of this month.