Zero Day Review: Robert De Niro's Netflix Limited Series Isn't That Serious

Robert De Niro held out on doing TV for longer than most of his fellow octogenarian icons. Al Pacino did it five years ago. Harrison Ford is on two shows now. Even his semi-retired pal Joe Pesci was on Pete Davidson's Peacock show. But almost every movie star gives in to the siren call of streaming television eventually. And De Niro gets to be the (former) president on his show, a role he's never played before. 

De Niro stars in Netflix's political thriller limited series Zero Day as George Mullen, a former POTUS who comes out of retirement when he's drafted to lead a commission investigating a cyberattack that shut down America's entire power grid for one minute. The attack, which happens in the opening minutes of the series, results in the deaths of thousands of people and creates a feeling of instability and terror, especially because an ominous notification gets sent to every phone in the country that warns, "THIS WILL HAPPEN AGAIN." If it does happen again, the American government will probably collapse. So President Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett) recruits Mullen, a bipartisanly popular one-term president who didn't seek reelection years ago due to problems in his personal life, to get to the bottom of what happened. It will be a difficult, politically toxic job — especially because the commission is granted unprecedented, civil liberties-violating power to detain persons of interest — but Mullen is the only person honest enough for the American people to trust to investigate the event. He's racing to find the truth before it happens again and is secretly battling cognitive issues that are making his job even more difficult. The conspiracy he uncovers could very well be enough to shred people's last remaining faith in the government, but he's doing his best to keep that from happening. 

7.3

Zero Day

at Netflix

Like

• Strong performances from a skilled ensemble
• Crackling dialogue
• Fun plot

Dislike

• Too silly to take seriously at times
• Uses political aesthetics but doesn't have much to say

The limited series blends an earnest, straight-faced presentation with an entertainingly preposterous plot. You will go back and forth between saying, "I wonder if that could really happen" and, "That would never happen." Zero Day is created by Narcos and Griselda executive producer Eric Newman, former NBC News president-turned-screenwriter Noah Oppenheim, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael S. Schmidt, and their wordy dialogue and understanding of intragovernmental power dynamics give the show an insider feeling. This is probably what the conversations in these powerful rooms really sound like — polite, fast-paced, and punctuated with well-chosen profanity for emphasis. But you'll have to suspend your disbelief about the over-the-top plot and the intentionally obfuscated politics. 

Zero Day is a contemporary political thriller that trips over itself trying to avoid talking about Democrats and Republicans. Elected officials talk about "the other party" but never say which party they belong to. Characters who have what reads in real life as a right-wing aesthetic are leftists on the show. The story involves serious and timely governmental issues like paralyzing polarization and the malign influence of money in politics, but the show engages with them in such a studiously nonpartisan way that it doesn't actually say anything about them except that they're bad, which is about as uncontroversial a political statement as there is. 

But Zero Day's efforts to avoid pushing a political agenda feel sincere. Its primary goal is to be entertaining, and it succeeds on that front. Every episode is directed by esteemed TV veteran Lesli Linka Glatter, who knows how to make sleek, propulsive television. Her style here is tasteful and unflashy. She smartly puts the focus on the high-caliber actors delivering precisely crafted dialogue. De Niro is credible as a prickly, straight-shooting New Yorker who's willing to do the wrong thing if it leads to the right thing. It's easy to believe the country would like him if he were president. The supporting actors play to their strengths, too. Jesse Plemons is sad and morally ambiguous as Mullen's right-hand man, Roger Carlson. Lizzy Caplan is likably smart and a little spiky as Mullen's daughter, Manhattan Congresswoman Alexandra Mullen. Joan Allen emits goodness as Mullen's wife, federal judge Sheila Mullen. (Her Oscar-nominated 2000 political thriller The Contender is a probable influence on the show.) Matthew Modine is imperious as Congressman Richard Dreyer. And Connie Britton is cool and decisive as Mullen's chief of staff, Valerie Whitesell. These highly skilled actors help elevate the potboiler material. 

More on Zero Day:

• Netflix's Zero Day is a misguided Boomer fantasy
• Netflix's Zero Day ending explained: Who was behind the cyberattack? What is Proteus?

The dialogue is intelligent, but the story is pulpy. It's a twisty, heightened thriller that keeps its foot on the gas. The plot moves so quickly that episodes feel longer than they are, in a good way. They're so packed with information that every scene requires your full attention. It's a rare limited series that actually could have supported one more episode if the producers had wanted to flesh out the supporting characters a bit more. But its relentless focus on densely plotted entertainment value works, too. 

Zero Day is a perfect example of a Netflix "gourmet cheeseburger." It's an expensive, well-made, enjoyable product that isn't as serious as it seems. It has the aesthetics of a weighty political drama with the soul of an airport paperback. It's like a high-end version of Designated Survivor. If your expectations are set at "fun," not "important" or "great," you will have a good time. 

Premieres: Thursday, Feb. 20 on Netflix
Who's in it: Robert De Niro, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, Bill Camp, Dan Stevens, Matthew Modine, McKinley Belcher III, Angela Bassett
Who's behind it: Creators Eric Newman Noah Oppenheim, and Michael S. Schmidt; director Lesli Linka Glatter
For fans of: Robert De Niro, conspiracy thrillers, Designated Survivor
How many episodes we watched: 6 of 6