‘Zero Day’ review: De Niro stars in so-so Netflix series
It is the kind of viewing experience that, while more or less entertaining, doesn’t tempt you to enter into binge mode.
The attention-grabbing aspect of “Zero Day” is that it sees Robert De Niro starring for the first time in a television show.
But while De Niro’s is the biggest of the names in the cast of the six-episode limited series debuting Feb. 20 on Netflix, it is far from the only one that is noteworthy. The political thriller’s meaty ensemble includes Lizzy Caplan, Joan Allen, Dan Stevens, Bill Camp, Matthew Modine, Angela Bassett and, last but not least, “Friday Night Lights” alums Jesse Plemons and Connie Britton.
That beyond-impressive collection of talent helps keep afloat “Zero Day” — which begins with a cyber attack but, as it unfolds, also plays with conspiracy theories, double dealings, the power of tech companies and the repression of civil liberties in the name of public safety — but only barely.
Co-created and -showrun by Eric Newman (“Narcos”) and veteran journalists Noah Oppenheim (NBC News) and Michael S. Schmidt (The New York Times), “Zero Day” crams a lot of ideas but not enough actual story into its six hours. With, perhaps, a couple of characters peeled off and some dead-end plot threads nixed, it may have made an engrossing big-screen affair — even with the same cast.
As it stands, it is the kind of viewing experience that, while more or less entertaining, doesn’t tempt you to enter into binge mode.
The series begins with De Niro’s George Mullen, a former U.S. president, frantically trying to find something in the office of his home outside New York City amid the intrusion of flashing lights and the sound of a helicopter outside. At the episode’s end, we will return to this frenetic scene for the introduction of a story element that, while growing somewhat less frustrating than it first seems as the story proceeds, never feels necessary.
Before that, we get the titular zero-day attack, which briefly cripples communications across the country, including those involving transportation, which leads to death. People are scared and angry.
After being nudged to do so by an ambitious former aide, Roger Carlson (Plemons), George visits a site in Manhattan where people have gathered in protest and succeeds in calming down the scene.
Following that public success, current President Evelyn Mitchell (Bassett) informs George of the formation of the Zero Day Commission, which will be quickly approved by Congress and given near-limitless resources and virtually unrestrained authority to investigate the attack.
“You’re just going to grab people off the streets without warrants?” George asks.
“Actually, you are,” she replies, requesting that he lead the endeavor.
Because the commission could be so dangerous in the wrong hands, George’s wife, Sheila (Allen), encourages him to accept the post, despite his reservations. On the other side is their daughter, Alexandra (Caplan), a Congresswoman from a New York district who admonishes him over the commission’s unchecked power.
She also worries her father isn’t up to the job, insisting to Roger the Washington, D.C. that exists isn’t the one he left. She thinks Dad is going to be eaten alive.
Soon, though, he’s working the case, instructing subordinates to obtain warrants for arrests of persons of interest even if they’re not legally required to do so. He knows the commission’s work will be highly scrutinized.
However, he lets a highly critical political commentator, Evan Green (Stevens), get so deeply under his skin that such concerns go out the window when arguably flimsy evidence suggests the incendiary TV host may be connected to the attack.
George is warned that he’s making a mistake by, among others, Valerie Whitesell (Britton) — his former chief of staff — and Carl Otieno (McKinley Belcher III), a smart and determined Department of Justice attorney serving as the commission’s lead investigator.
While allowing that “Zero Day” has myriad characters to juggle, we wish more screen time were given to Camp’s CIA Director Jeremy Lasch, Gaby Hoffman’s Silicon Valley billionaire Monica Kidder and Mark Ivanir’s mysterious intelligence operative and one of George’s confidants.
Considering all it has going for it, including a steady performance by De Niro (“The Godfather Part II,” “Goodfellas”), the series earns the most tepid of endorsements./Tribune News Service
‘ZERO DAY’Rated TV-MA. On Netflix
Grade: C+
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