Robert De Niro stars as George Mullen in Zero Day.Jojo Whilden/Netflix
In the sea of streaming TV thrillers out there today, Zero Day’s unique selling point is the presence of none other than Robert De Niro.
Believe it or not, the two-time Oscar-winning actor has never had a starring role in a television show before this six-part Netflix series.
If you’re scratching your head thinking that can’t possibly be true, maybe you, too, have young children and watched The Irishman as if it were a limited series over three or four nights.
But no, that very long Martin Scorsese film does not count. Nor do the multiple times De Niro has hosted Saturday Night Live.
Add up all of his cameos as Robert Mueller on SNL – even including the memorable one as himself from this past Sunday night’s 50th anniversary special where he put Debbie Downer in her place – and the number of prior De Niro leading small-screen performances is still officially zero.
In Zero Day, De Niro features front and centre as George Mullen – yes, Mullen, not Mueller – a former president of the United States and a unicorn of sorts widely described as the last such politician in memory able to rally significant bipartisan support. Mullen only served one term, however, not seeking re-election after his son died under circumstances that are gradually revealed.
After a cyberattack dubbed “Zero Day” that shuts down all communications and power in the U.S. for one minute, and leaves thousands of Americans unable to drive to the corner store without Google Maps, Mullen is enlisted by president Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett) to get to the bottom of it because of his sterling reputation. He heads a commission charged with finding the culprits and given unprecedented powers, including suspension of habeas corpus, to prevent a threatened follow-up attack.
The role of the Last Decent President Pretty Much Everyone Liked would be a bit flat for De Niro were it not for all the emotional baggage the character carries so stoically in his chin, and the fact that Mullen’s mental software is experiencing its own unexplained glitches. He is haunted by the strains of a Sex Pistols deep cut called Who Killed Bambi? and experiencing memory holes that allow director Lesli Linka Glatter to put a little zing into the visual style with imaginatively eerie sequences that show him trying to reboot his brain.
Connie Britton’s Valerie Whitesell, right, butts heads Jesse Plemons’s character Roger, Mullen’s long-time right-hand man who has many secret debts to pay.Jojo Whilden/Netflix
With De Niro on board for Zero Day, a prestige cast seems to have been easily lined up around him.
There’s a mini-Friday Night Lights reunion as Jesse Plemons’s character Roger, Mullen’s long-time right-hand man who has many secret debts to pay, butts heads with Connie Britton’s character Valerie, a past chief of staff whose closet is full of its own skeletons.
Meanwhile, Mullen’s family includes Joan Allen as his wife Sheila, who was supposed to get her time in the political spotlight next, and Lizzy Caplan as his daughter Alex, a congresswoman who is part of the oversight committee for her father’s commission.
The cast is, in short, first rate – and the budget is decent enough to allow for the most helicopter rides to and from Manhattan by characters since Succession went off the air.
The material is almost up there – in the initial addictive episodes anyway. Creators Eric Newman, Noah Oppenheim and Michael Schmidt seem to be aiming for smart, civics-infused pulp – a cross between The West Wing and 24.
As suspicion is thrown upon (in no particular order) left-wing hackers, hedge-fund managers, tech billionaires and, of course, the Russians, Zero Day eventually turns into the muddle that few conspiracy thrillers can avoid becoming. Luckily, it’s just six episodes so it’s all over before your eyebrows get tired out from being repeatedly raised.
The attempted topicality in the plot revolving around American polarization does eventually backfire, however.
I sympathize with anyone trying to write a series or movie set in the corridors of American power these highly unusual days. But Zero Day’s conclusion is so desperate to be in conversation with the times, yet so afraid to say anything specific about them that might upset someone’s algorithm, that it ends up comically out of tune.
As the show keeps viewers aware of the timeline through captions that read “Zero Day + 3″ or “Zero Day + 7,” I couldn’t help thinking of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police, that great now 20-year-old puppet-filled satire of American terrorism thrillers such as this, where an impending attack is discussed.
“From what Intelligence has gathered, it would be 9/11 times 100,” says one of its Mullen-esque characters.
“That’s … ”
“Yes, 91,100.”
What would Zero Day times 100 be? Well, it would still be Zero Day, of course.
Zero Day’s cast is first rate, and the budget is decent enough to allow for the most helicopter rides to and from Manhattan by characters since Succession went off the air.Courtesy of Netflix © 2024/Netflix
All six episodes of Zero Day are now available to stream on Netflix.
