A highlight from 2024 was the fantastic The Day of the Jackal. The Peacock spy thriller is a tense and intelligent cat-and-mouse game between master assassin ”The Jackal” (Eddie Redmayne) and British intelligence officer Bianca (Lashana Lynch), who will sacrifice everything to capture him.

The ten episodes of The Day of the Jackal went by too fast thanks to the captivating performances from Redmayne and Lynch, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t similar stories to enjoy. While viewers wait patiently for a second season of The Day of the Jackal, they can sink their teeth into the following exciting stories about covert ops, hired killers, and the people who love them.

10‘Jack Ryan’ (2018-2023)

Created by Carlton Cuse & Graham Roland

Image via Prime Video/Paramount 

Based on the character created by novelist Tom Clancy, Jack Ryan follows CIA analyst Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) as he transitions into a field agent. Unsteady in a dangerous world he was unprepared for, Ryan must use his intelligence to complete his missions and survive to file the report. From preventing assassinations to averting worldwide catastrophes, Ryan grows as an agent while rising in the ranks of the CIA.

Fans who loved the globe-trotting aspect of The Day of the Jackal will enjoy the international adventures in each season of the Amazon original. Krasinski looks at home in the part of Jack Ryan, a role with big shoes to fill that once belonged to actors like Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford. The CIA operative consistently resonates with Tom Clancy fans, who showed up for all four of its thrilling seasons.
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Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan

Release Date2018 – 2022
NetworkAmazon Prime Video

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9‘Little Drummer Girl’ (2018)

Directed by Park Chan-wook

Image via BBC

In The Little Drummer Girl, attacks on important Jewish figures lead an Israeli spy, Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon), to organize a plan to identify the mastermind behind the attacks. Florence Pugh stars as Charlie, an English actress recruited to serve as a double agent tasked with infiltrating the terrorist organization. As Charlie is sucked deeper into a world of deception and murder, she’ll need to choose her allegiances wisely if she hopes to return to her normal life.

The limited series is a slow-burn affair, so viewers looking for gunfights might not be interested, but others will enjoy the complex narrative. Fans of Pugh who haven’t had the chance to watch Little Drummer Girl should make it a priority to see her do incredible work as an actress thrown into a dangerous world. With only six episodes, Little Drummer Girl is the perfect weekend binge for someone in need of spy drama but short on time.

The Little Drummer Girl

Release Date2018 – 2017
NetworkBBC

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8‘The Blacklist’ (2013-2023)

Created by Jon Bokenkamp

Image via NBC

Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) is starting her first day as an FBI profiler, while at the same time, criminal mastermind Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader) dramatically turns himself into the same bureau. Red offers to help the FBI catch some of the world’s most dangerous criminals with one demand: He must work with Agent Keen. She reluctantly agrees, and the two unlikely partners work together while Keen seeks to uncover Red’s motives.

Red is not unlike the Jackal in terms of his poise and disarming charm, but his interests in The Blacklist are a little more varied than those of the elite assassin. While many modern espionage shows are stoic and serious, Spader’s performance adds dry levity to the spy genre, which is a welcome change of pace. The mystery of how Red came to be the underworld kingpin of legend and what his interests were in new agent Keen kept viewers tuning back in for ten seasons on NBC.

The Blacklist

Release Date2013 – 2022
NetworkNBC

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7‘Mr. Inbetween’ (2018-2021)

Created by Scott Ryan

Image via FX

The Australian set Mr. Inbetween follows Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan), a contract killer who is both respected and feared because of his skills. With a young daughter, sick brother, and developing a new relationship, Ray’s greatest ability is to separate his work from his personal life. When his career involves taking lives, will it ever be possible for Ray to have a normal one of his own?

Ray may not have the skills of the master of disguise, The Jackal, but he does work in the business of killing with a cold efficiency that makes him a leader in the field. Mr. Inbetween is often darkly funny, but the character study of a man with double lives can go to some dark places during its run. Clever scripts and a fantastic performance from Ryan as the man no one wants a visit from led the unique FX show to three memorable seasons.

Mr Inbetween

Release DateSeptember 25, 2018

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6‘Homeland’ (2011-2020)

Created by Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon

Image via Showtime

A POW returns home with dangerous intentions in Homeland. Sgt. Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) is finally back home in America after eight years in captivity, but CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) thinks his allegiance has turned. Convinced Brody is a double agent, while everyone else sees him as a hero, Mathison will have to tread lightly to prove her claim without jeopardizing her position.

Homeland injected soap opera sensibilities into an international espionage thriller that quickly drew viewers into a world where allegiances didn’t last long and emotional attachments were a liability. Packed with shocking deaths and frighteningly realistic violence, Homeland was an unpredictable ride for fans of the Showtime hit. With eight seasons available to binge, Homeland will offer enough global thrills for anyone who missed the show during its original run.

Homeland

Release Date2013 – 2019
NetworkShowtime

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5‘Lioness’ (2023 – Current)

Created by Taylor Sheridan

Image via Paramount+

The war on terror never ends for CIA operative Joe McNamara (Zoe Saldaña) in the espionage thriller Lioness. McNamara heads up the Lioness program that recruits women for clandestine operations requiring undercover work. After losing an asset, McNamara recruits former Marine Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira) to undertake a dangerous mission that will push both women to their limit.

An addictive narrative, along with an all-star cast of Zaldana, Morgan Freeman, and Nicole Kidman, helped Lioness achieve massive streaming numbers when the second season debuted on Paramount+. Similar to The Day of the Jackal, Lioness explores the difficulty intelligence operatives have in balancing a family life with their dangerous and secretive careers. Lioness looks past the mission itself to ask why it was needed at all. Was the directive to serve the country’s safety or personal gain?

Lioness

Release DateJuly 23, 2023
ShowrunnerTaylor Sheridan

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4‘Slow Horses’ (2022 – Current)

Created by Will Smith

Image via Apple TV+

While the best and brightest of MI5 work on the most high-priority missions, the less reliable agents are parked in the intelligence purgatory of Slough House. Slow Horses stars Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the unkempt but brilliant acting leader of Slough House’s band of misfit agents. Although the agents are meant to be swept under the rug, they often find themselves working on life-or-death missions that won’t allow failure as an option.

Slow Horses gives a fresh perspective on the life of a spy, subverting common espionage tropes by showing a team that isn’t precisely perfect at everything they do. Much like The Day of the Jackal, the operatives of Slough House are often faced with the quandary of whether their actions justify the end result with dubious conclusions. Oldman is reliably amazing, with his impressive performance as Jackson Lamb, a large part of Slow Horses being renewed through six seasons on Apple TV+.

Slow Horses

Release DateApril 1, 2022
WritersWill Smith, Mark Denton, Morwenna Banks

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3‘The Americans’ (2013 – 2018)

Created by Joseph Weisberg

Image via FX Network

Appearing as a normal couple to their neighbors, Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) and her husband Philip’s (Matthew Rhys) outward facade hides their true identities as Russian spies in The Americans. Set during the Cold War of the 1980s, The Americans follows Elizabeth and Philip as their false marriage becomes increasingly more real in the face of spy missions that frequently require them to risk their lives. Now raising American-born children they share, the couple must determine if their allegiance is to their country or their family.

The level of deception at play in The Americans is so dense and complicated that it makes the Jackal’s missions appear straightforward by comparison. The scripts demand a great deal from its actors and Russell and Rhys step up to the challenge to portraying a couple whose life is built upon lies and suppressed emotions. The Americans slowly built a fan base that recognized the drama as one of the best series of all time, with a powerful finale to back it up.

The Americans

Release Date2013 – 2017
NetworkFX

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2‘The Night Manager’ (2016 – Current)

Created by David Farr

Image via AMC

Based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré, The Night Manager stars Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, a night manager at a hotel who becomes embroiled in a plot to take down arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). A chance encounter becomes a stressful game of chess between the two men as Pine attempts to use his resourcefulness to stay one step ahead of Roper while also posing as a loyal soldier to the cause.

Fans of the long-running medical procedural House will enjoy (or be horrified) at Laurie playing a ruthless and irredeemable villain, showcasing his range as a performer. The Night Manager builds tension perfectly throughout each episode until the satisfying climax wraps up the dangerous adventure for Pine. The series has been considered a high mark for the genre since its premiere, but it was still surprising to hear a second and third season of The Night Manager was ordered almost a decade after it first aired.

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1‘Killing Eve’ (2018-2022)

Created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Image via BBC

​​​​​​Killing Eve begins with Eve (Sandra Oh) wilting at her desk job in MI5, dreaming of a more romanticized notion of what being a spy would have been like. Elsewhere, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) makes a living by killing those the wealthy have determined must go, one creative hit at a time. When the two women discover one another, a mutual obsession grows that draws the agent and assassin together, regardless of what their given assignments may be.

The cat and mouse between Eve and Villanelle may be more playful than in Bianca’s pursuit of The Jackal, but fans who love a good chase will be hooked. Killing Eve was incredibly popular, with viewers swept up in the chemistry between Oh and Comer and how the next steps of their on-screen relationship would play out. The series may not have ended in quite the way fans expected, but for Killing Eve, it’s about the journey, not the destination.