Zero Day review: Robert De Niro’s star-studded Netflix thriller has zero idea how ridiculous it is

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A still from Netflix’s Zero Day.

Mullen has his enemies; the Speaker of the House, played by Matthew Modine, would’ve liked the job himself. The CIA chief, played by a deadpan Bill Camp, comes across as an adversary as well. And then, there are the personal demons that Mullen has to deal with. We’re told that his first term ended on a tragic note; Mullen chose not to re-contest after his son died of an overdose in the White House. His daughter, Alex, is estranged from him. To add to his annoyance, there’s Evan Green, a right-wing nut who runs a ‘news’ outlet from his basement. Played by Dan Stevens, Green is considerably more charismatic than his real-life counterpart, Alex Jones.

Zero Day makes several, rather obvious allusions to real-world politics. For instance, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could justifiably consider legal action based on how her namesake has been portrayed in the show. Played by Lizzy Caplan, Mullen’s daughter has her own reasons for staying away from him. And as if he weren’t under enough pressure already, Mullen seems to be suffering from paranoid delusions. He begins seeing people, and hearing the same song on a loop. There’s an explanation for this, but any attempt at describing it would come across as mockery. And haven’t we done enough of that already? But that’s the sort of show that Zero Day is. Not a single plot line is left open to interpretation. Every (unoriginal) idea that it has is communicated with the brute force of a January 6 insurrectionist armed with a baton.

The intention, as expected, is to draw parallels between fact and fiction. The country is broken, the show declares with the sort of confidence that suggests it thinks it has come up with a novel thought. The central philosophy, odd as it may seem to make this comparison, shares a bunch of similarities with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal comic book Watchmen. The difference, however, is that the comic book featured costumed superheroes. Zero Day is aiming for the gritty realism of a Jason Bourne thriller.

Perhaps that’s why they’ve cast Joan Allen — she of the ‘get some rest, Pam, you look tired’ fame — to play Mullen’s wife, Sheila, who is in the running for a major government position when the attack happens. Sheila is a fascinating character, but severely underwritten. It is left to Allen to bring sturdiness to a role that is reduced to furniture on several occasions. She isn’t able to, despite her best efforts. We never quite see them dusting off the many skeletons in their closet, although they certainly get plenty of opportunity to.

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A still from Netflix’s Zero Day.

As real a threat as cybersecurity is, there’s no denying that a lot of it feels like something out of science-fiction. In these circumstances, it’s important to ground outlandish storytelling with believable characters. But why settle for a simple adultery angle when an illegitimate child can be introduced instead? The ‘other woman’ plays a pivotal role in Zero Day, and an entire scene is contrived to getting her and Sheila in the same room together during an important news telecast. Speaking of random twists, it takes the show three full episodes to unveil one of its primary villains, a tech plutocrat modelled on Elon Musk. What happens to this character, played by Gaby Hoffman, is just as baffling as everything else.

And while we’re on the subject of cartoonish plotting, it is important to tell you that, at one point, Mullen becomes convinced that he has been made a victim of enemy mind-control. Zero Day may as well have introduced a shaman poking holes in a voodoo doll, and we would’ve been none the wiser. It doesn’t help that De Niro sleepwalks through the role, with an expression that suggests he’s been pestered for an autograph by Kunal Kohli. A wink in the audience’s direction would’ve certainly made things more palatable, but, without exaggeration, there isn’t a single moment of levity in the entire show. They thought that they had the new House of Cards on their hands; instead, they’ve made Ulajh instead.

Zero Day
Director – Lesli Linka Glatter
Cast – Robert De Niro, Joan Allen, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Connie Britton, Matthew Modine, Angela Bassett
Rating – 1/5