The parallels between our present-day actuality and the Netflix political thriller sequence “Zero Day” are main and lots of.
On this dense and talky however dramatically satisfying six-parter from creators Eric Newman (“Griselda,” “Narcos”) and Noah Oppenheim (the previous president of NBC Information), tensions run excessive between america and Russia after a devastating cyberattack on America. An eccentric and controversial tech billionaire is turning into increasingly more politically energetic, conservatives and liberals have by no means been additional aside, and a charismatic and bombastic conspiracy theorist is fueling the fires of divisiveness on his wildly standard TV present. Oh, and the federal government has given itself unprecedented powers to solid your liberties apart within the identify of pursuing justice.
It’s all fictional, however a lot of it feels chillingly doable.
One of many nice pluses in “Zero Day” is the presence of the good Robert De Niro, who nonetheless has a mesmerizing and singularly highly effective capability to hold a challenge from kickoff to conclusion. That is the primary starring TV sequence function for the 81-year-old De Niro — he was sensible as Bernie Madoff within the 2017 HBO film “The Wizard of Lies,” however he’s by no means achieved a multi-episode TV arc earlier than — and it’s Emmy-level work.
De Niro performs the well-respected former President George Mullen, who spends his days going for morning runs on his property (he’s just a little obsessive about a chicken feeder that all the time wants refilling), studying the papers over breakfast and doing all the things he can to keep away from finishing his memoir, although his cabinets are stacked with handwritten notebooks.
There’s just a little little bit of Clinton dynamic to George’s relationship together with his spouse Sheila (Joan Allen, who was so memorable as a vice-presidential appointee in “The Contender” again in 2000), who had her personal profession in regulation earlier than setting it apart to lift a household, however is now a nominee to the federal bench. You get the sense that whereas George and Sheila have a heat and powerful union, they’ve been by means of some issues, and there’s just a bit veneer of frost that surfaces from time to time.
After a nationwide cyberattack leads to hundreds of casualties and infrastructural harm — a cataclysmic occasion dubbed “Zero Day” — Angela Bassett’s President Evelyn Mitchell, a savvy tactician, calls on George to go the Zero Day Fee, which might be tasked with investigating the assault and sussing out easy methods to maintain it from taking place once more. Numerous key gamers are launched to the combo, and it’ll be problem for any sequence this 12 months to provide you with a extra spectacular solid.
Jesse Plemons performs Roger Carlson, a crafty fixer who was one of many few staffers to stay fiercely dedicated to Roger after Roger declined to run for re-election as a result of private considerations, whereas Plemons’ former “Friday Evening Lights” castmate Connie Britton is Valerie Whitesell, who was Mullen’s chief of workers and has returned to his facet on the urging of George’s spouse Sheila, who’s anxious about George’s frame of mind after a few alarming incidents, together with George having conversations with a home supervisor who isn’t there and hasn’t been on the job since retiring 5 years earlier.
Lizzy Caplan performs Alexandra Mullen, a rising younger congresswoman from New York who hasn’t been shut together with her father in years and has a really totally different political outlook, whereas Matthew Modine is the publicity-hungry Speaker of the Home, and Invoice Camp pops in to casually swipe each scene he’s in because the CIA Director Jeremy Lasch, who all the time appears to be lurking within the shadows and warns George that the way forward for the nation is hanging within the stability.
Add to that Dan Stevens because the incendiary TV host Evan Inexperienced, Gaby Hoffman as a Silicon Valley billionaire and Clark Gregg as a serpentine company raider, and also you’ve obtained a sequence brimming with intriguing and complicated characters. (The twists and divulges in “Zero Day” are many, and whereas some are melodramatic and soapy and moderately predictable, there’s by no means a uninteresting second.)
There’s additionally a “Manchurian Candidate” component to the proceedings, with “Who Killed Bambi”? by the Intercourse Pistols turning into a hair-raising needle drop, and we’ll say no extra about that.
It virtually feels as if we’re racing to the end line within the finale, with sure plot factors and characters getting tied up in too-convenient trend, and a few questions nonetheless hovering over the proceedings as we fade to black. Nonetheless, “Zero Day” is a well timed and thought-provoking slice of alternate political actuality, with the good De Niro in commanding type.
