The thing about super assassin "The Jackal" is that he could be anyone: your neighbour, the Just Eat delivery guy, heck, he could be you and you wouldn't even know it. He is that good.
The only thing we do know is that he isn't any of the people in these three spy shows, although they are each also excellent and very much worth streaming if you're sad that the first season of Day of the Jackal is now over.
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime Video)
One of Tom Clancy's most popular characters, Jack Ryan has been through many different iterations and personifications over the years. From Harrison Ford’s running and pointing to Chris Pine’s bland and pointless portrayal, there have been plenty of Ryans in film – not all of them successful.
However, Amazon's 2020s version is arguably the best. The four season show is action packed, thrilling, mature and intelligent. It has huge production values and ambition, builds huge stories and is never afraid of pushing boundaries.
Well worth a watch.
Bodyguard (Netflix)
Sometimes in life you want an expensive, fancy and well presented meal, and sometimes you want to just eat a dirty burger, at 4am, from a van that hasn't been cleaned in over a decade. Bodyguard is that burger.
Produced and first shown by the BBC before being added to Netflix, this is a show that forgets about things like sense, procedure or logic and just gives the audience big, loud and flashy shoot outs and explosions. Making very little sense and having no real cultural impact, it is however a lot of big stupid fun.
There is a follow up season teased, but for now it's just one and done... very much like that 4am burger.
The Old Man (Disney+)
Proving once and for all that old people can beat up multiple much younger, stronger, trained assailants as long as they have a fantastic stunt coordinator and some very large dogs, The Old Man puts the always amazing Jeff Bridges into the shoes of a crusty old spy. And to great effect.
He plays a retired CIA agent drawn back into action to protect his family and there's plenty of twists and turns along the way. Originally made for FX in the US, the show also lets the world know that Disney means business with its streaming service.
Brutal, well-written and gripping, The Old Man is the definition of a modern TV classic.
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