The Screen Scribe

So. Yeah. Where do I start? This episode is everything that I have found wrong with this series so far. It is so reliant on coincidence, contrivances, and poor character development, to say nothing of the absolutely abysmal standard of storytelling. My patience with this thriller series is wearing incredibly thin and I find I can’t wait until it ends.

The episode focuses almost entirely on justifying the Jackal’s motivations and behaviour in the present day by submersing the audience in lengthy flashback scenes set during his time in the British Army in 2013, thus confirming (without any surprise) that he is indeed Alexander Duggan. But this is all wrapped up in a poorly written and poorly executed episode that, to be quite honest, was duller than watching paint dry.

Eddie Redmayne continues to perform admirably with the material he is given, but there is only so much the celebrated English actor can do. His scenes are still the best to watch, as Lashana Lynch’s character and performance continue to put me to sleep, but it’s not enough. There also seems to be a theme of anti-British army sentiment prevalent throughout the episode which is unsurprising given the showrunners history with the IRA. But it seems completely out of place in this one-off flashback episode, considering we have had no build up to it at all.

Again, subpar writing coupled with political messaging. When will they learn it just does not work.

I could continue to bash this episode, but I’ll sign off with this: I was genuinely excited for this series, and I’ve stuck with it thus far in the hopes it would reward my excitement. But it has consistently frustrated me by seesawing back and forth between almost decent storytelling, enjoyable action pieces, and admirable acting from Redmayne to mediocre writing, dull performances, and genuinely flat and uninspired action.

I’m looking forward to the end of this series.

1 / 5

The Day of the Jackal is available to watch on Sky Atlantic every Thursday.

The first 8 episodes are available to watch now.