Ex-president George Mullen (Robert De Niro in his first leading TV role) is enjoying retirement on his lavish estate, swimming, taking statins and grappling with writing his memoir when, without warning, all technology in the US fails: electricity, internet servers and sat navs go down for one minute. As subway trains collide and life support systems fail, every phone in America displays the same message: This Will Happen Again.
In cyber-security speak, this breach is called a “zero day”. Such is the threat to the USA that President Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett) calls Mullen back into service, to front the newly formed Zero Day Commission, tasked with finding those responsible. Mullen is, initially, reluctant: since he was president, the world has changed. But when it becomes clear that the Zero Day Commission will have some fairly terrifying powers, including the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (AKA torture), he decides he is the only man decent enough for the job.
If you watch Zero Day hoping to see a society wrestling with a digital apocalypse, you’ll be disappointed. Aside from some vigorous scenes in episode one when the lights go out, this is a thriller of the sort that involves people in suits talking at each other, with the occasional close-up of one of De Niro’s troubled eyeballs. There is no sense that society might become less reliant on the technology that failed; instead, Mullen’s job is to catch the perpetrators and ensure the threat is neutralised.
The series hangs on De Niro’s star power, but he doesn’t have that much to do. For every rousing speech Mullen makes, he has to spend long stretches staring into the middle distance while we are left to guess what’s on his mind.
Given its far-reaching powers, another committee has been set up to monitor the Zero Day Commission. One of its key members is Alex (the ever-excellent Lizzy Caplan), Mullen’s daughter and congresswoman, now tasked with keeping her father in line. President Mitchell wants a retaliatory strike on Russia – but was Russia really behind this? “Attacking Russia for something they didn’t do would seem foolhearted to me,” says Mullen, sagely. “Remember Iraq?”
Across its six episodes, Zero Day encompasses an array of timely themes. Indeed, at times the show’s resemblance to real life is almost too on the nose: Mullen is a Bidenesque ex-president who stepped back from a potential second term in office, who has never quite recovered from the loss of his child and who may be in the early stages of dementia. Then there’s a hedge fund manager and a tech billionaire, scary Russians and nerdy hackers. Zero Day takes all these, shoves them in a bag, has a rummage around and offers us the jumble that emerges.
Can torture ever be justified? Do populist journalists hold politicians to account or do they damage the fabric of democracy? Zero Day asks some interesting questions, but never really answers them.
It’s ostensibly a political drama, but there is a complete lack of political thought. We hear, repeatedly, of the importance of bipartisanship, but the words “Democrat” and “Republican” are never mentioned, nor are there any real ideological differences between the politicians striding the corridors of power. All we are told, over and over (and over) is of the greatness of the American people, of their politicians’ responsibility to them, of how the USA deserves truth and trust. In striving to offend no one, Netflix has made a glossy mass of nothing.
As the series unfolds, we watch Mullen’s family unravel and see just how deep the tendrils of money and influence go. Ultimately, Zero Day does have a polemic, even if it keeps it back for as long as it can. This is a drama appealing for calm, justice and truth, for people to put aside their differences and to listen to one another. But without engaging in any real world specifics, I’m doubtful that anyone will care.
‘Zero Day’ is streaming on Netflix
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