Review: ‘Zero Day’ Challenges Our Trust in Institutions and Elected Leaders to Do the Right Thing

***Caution. Spoilers ahead***

I find Robert De Niro’s evolution over the years fascinating. Once known as the consummate tough guy, he’s grown into more statesmanlike roles over the last 10-15 years in films like the little seen “Amsterdam” and now in Netflix’s “Zero Day.”

In the six-episode limited series, De Niro plays well-respected former President George Mullen, a one-termer known for bipartisan success who passed on running for re-election after his son’s death. I have watched the first two episodes for this recap.

Mullen lives a very sheltered, quiet life in Hudson, New York with his wife Sheila (played by Joan Allen), who has a vote pending to become a federal judge. He maintains a small staff and secret service detail, swims regularly, and spends time with his golden retriever. He also records his life and thoughts meticulously in a series of notebooks. There is a whole shelf of them in his study.

The first episode begins in a slight flash-forward, with a frenzied Mullen having trouble getting into a safe while a secret service agent bangs on the door. So right from the start, we have to ask ourselves, is George Mullen all there?

We learn that publishers are expecting a memoir from him and he’s overdue in delivering. So a ghostwriter, Anna, is sent out to see if he’s willing to give up the notebooks and let her take over. They chat, but ultimately he decides he’ll be the one to finish the book.

After she leaves, a giant cyberattack hits the country for exactly one minute. It disrupts all digital infrastructure and sends planes and trains crashing while other mayhem ensues. On her drive back to the office, Anna’s phone call with her superiors is scrambled, followed by her car being slammed by a train.

At the end of the harrowing minute, computer screens and monitors across the nation are met with a simple message: “This will happen again.” Yikes! The government calls the attack a “Zero Day” event, or a cyberattack that targets unknown vulnerabilities across digital systems.

An attorney and former staffer of Mullen, Roger Carlson (played by a svelte Jesse Plemons), calls his old boss to say the White House called him to ask if he could talk the former president into making a public appearance at a rescue shelter in the heart of New York City to calm people’s fears. The reclusive Mullen is reluctant, but agrees to it.

When there’s a ruckus in the crowd upon Mullen’s arrival, he authoritatively urges the crowd to behave themselves and support each other. It’s a little contrived but I suppose was included to show Mullen is somebody people will respond to.

The current president, Evelyn Mitchell (played by Angela Bassett), invites Mullen to the White House and asks him to chair a commission to investigate the cyberattack. The role will give him sweeping, unprecedented powers. Early suspicion is that it was the Russians, but Mullen assumes nothing and reminds others to do the same until all the facts are known.

This new role doesn’t sit well with Mullen’s daughter, Alexandra (played by Lizzy Caplan), herself a Member of Congress. It seems she has a somewhat odd relationship with her father, and she calls to tell him she will be voting against the commission’s establishment in the House, calling it fascist. The show also hints at two other things: she has something else going on that is dominating her attention, and that she has or had some kind of relationship with Roger.

Mullen has a secret source named Natan (played by familiar Ukrainian-American actor Mark Ivanir, who just played the “Israeli” doctor in “Emilia Perez”) who has intel on the Russians. He tells Mullen that the GRU has been funding a hacking operation in New York, headed by a guy named Felix, and they have been running a lot of test hacks like ransomware. This is probably when I should also mention the pilot episode’s focus throughout on a Russian agent named Alexi who is harassing a hacker into giving him Felix’s location.

On Zero Day-3, George announces that he’ll accept the chairmanship of the newly approved commission. At one point in his remarks, he spots Anna the ghostwriter among the press. Again – is Mullen at his best?

Which, interestingly, takes us back to the Zero Day-2, and Mullen somewhat in a hectic state trying to get into the safe. It turns out, he was trying to get one of the notebooks out, and he opens it to see that he’s written “Who killed Bambi?” all over one of the pages. Then, to add a bit of fright to it all, he sees “George killed Bambi.” Ok – honestly – what’s going on with this guy?

In the second episode, we begin with a young man entering an office building to find all of his colleagues slaughtered. Is this the office with all the hackers? Is someone covering their tracks? He makes a run for it.

Meanwhile, Mullen is fully operational and set up in Washington, D.C. It’s been only days, but he has a (magically) fully staffed operation, with representatives from all the intelligence and law enforcement organizations serving as a bit of a cabinet. They discuss the slaughter and put the surviving hacker’s image into facial recognition. It comes back as “restricted.” Uh-Oh. You know what that means? It means he’s probably American intelligence!

We also see Roger meet with a billionaire named Rob Lyndon (played by “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s” Clark Gregg), who seems to have something he’s holding over Roger. It turns out, Lyndon shorted Russian oil investments just days before Zero Day. What role is this guy playing? What does he know?

We’re also introduced to House Speaker Richard Dreyer (played by Matthew Modine, a popular YouTube commentator named Evan Green (played by Dan Stevens), and a wealthy tech billionaire named Monica Kidder (played by Gaby Hoffman), who has offered her services to help.

As it’s been more than 72 hours, President Mitchell is eager to retaliate against the Russians. Mullen pleads with her to wait and follow the facts. With all the assumptions it’s the Russians… it can’t be the Russians, right?

Like you, I will have to find out in the remaining four episodes. We’ll also have to find out what kind of cognitive state Mullen is in. But it is certainly interesting and intense, and I’m sure we’re in for some controversy surrounding civil liberties and Mullen’s overreach. Check it out, and let me know what you think on my social media.

And that’s what Todd’s watching.