"The Day of the Jackal" and "The Agency"

Have you been missing James Bond lately?  Well, never fear.  Two recent series about spies and assassins should help tide you over until Amazon gets the next Bond installment rolling.  Both of them feature leading men who might have been good candidates to play Bond at one point or another, and their casts even feature a few actors who have appeared in the Bond franchise.  

First up, "The Day of the Jackal," adapting the Frederick Forsyth novel.  It follows a skilled assassin called "The Jackal" (Eddie Redmayne) in the aftermath of his successful hit on a German politician.  We get to watch his carefully orchestrated escape, his dealings with his clients, and the double life he leads up close and personal.  His wife Nuria (Ursula Corbero) is kept in the dark about his work, though she has suspicions.  At the same time, MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch) and her boss Halcrow (Chukwudi Iwuji) are leading the manhunt, hoping to catch The Jackal before he can completed his next job.

The Day of the Jackal" is a gorgeous looking show, full of lovely European locales, well-staged action sequences, fancy weaponry, and attractive people.  There's a very Bond-esque opening theme, crooned by Celeste, that signals to the audience that we're about to enter a universe where espionage is exciting and romantic.  The Jackal is a sniper who is so skilled that he can make impossible shots with the right weaponry.  The parts of the show that follow him through his precisely planned jobs are thrilling stuff - most of it totally absurd, but in the most entertaining way possible. Eddie Redmayne makes a great baddie protagonist, always slippery, always springing new surprises on the audience, and somehow still completely sympathetic.

When we're not with Redmayne, however, the show is much less appealing.  I generally enjoy Lashana Lynch, but she's not given much of a character here to work with.  Bianca is very much the driven, obsessed detective type who is neglecting her family, and no fun at all to root for.  Also, the segments following Nuria and her terrible brother Alvaro (Jon Arias) as they dig into The Jackal's secrets are regrettable.  However, the lion's share of the screen time goes to the Jackal, and we get enough of him that the show is a thoroughly good time.  I'm glad this is getting a second season, and hopefully the series will be able to fix some of the issues that I had with it going forward.  

"The Agency" is a very different beast, the English language remake of the French spy series, "The Bureau."  It stars Michael Fassbender as a CIA operative, codenamed "The Martian," who has returned home to London after a long assignment undercover in Africa.  Unfortunately, he's not able to shed his false identity completely, having fallen in love with a Sudanese woman named Samia (Jodie Turner-Smith), who mysteriously turns up in London shortly after he does.  Other characters include The Martian's superiors Ogletree (Jeffrey Wright) and Naomi (Katherine Waterston), psychiatrist Dr. Blake (Harriet Sansom Harris), a new operative in training, Danny Morata (Saura Lightfoot Leon), Sudanese operative Osman (Kurt Egyiawan), and The Martian's bratty daughter Poppy (India Fowler).  Several familiar faces drop in for cameos that I will not spoil.

"The Agency" is following the John LeCarre style of espionage thriller - much more grounded and slower paced, with a focus on relationships and political maneuvering.  Following all the twists and turns and geopolitical interests requires far more attention than "The Day of the Jackal."  The big operation this season is trying to get an important intelligence asset, codenamed "Coyote," out of the clutches of the Russian mercenaries who abducted him.  Several other storylines are also explored - Danny being trained to go undercover in Iran, and Martian making increasingly poor decisions to stay in Samia's life - these are clearly only getting started by the time we come to the last episode of the season.  There are the occasional chase scenes and gun battles, but this series doesn't have much interest in spectacle. 

Instead, it's the performances that are the main event, and the cast is stacked with good actors.  Michael Fassbender and Jodie Turner-Smith make a lovely couple in crisis, and I'm happy to keep watching the show for them.  However, "The Agency" is such a slow burn that most of the rest of the cast felt underserved, and I wonder if the audience will have the patience to stick with the show long enough for that to change.  "The Bureau" has had five seasons so far, so "The Agency" doesn't lack material to adapt, but after the first ten-episode season of "The Agency," it feels like they've barely gotten anywhere.  I'll keep an eye out for the second season, but "The Agency" needs to pick up the pace.  

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