Netflix’s new political thriller covers the aftermath of a catastrophic one-minute cyber-attack on the US digital infrastructure, causing thousands of deaths and injuries, with the written threat subsequently imprinted on everyone’s iPhone, “This Will Happen Again”. The director and co-developer of the 6-part run is a 70-year-old veteran of TV series Homeland, Leslie Linka Glatter, who says, quite simply, “we are telling a paranoid conspiracy thriller.” Well, she knows well enough how a life can be turned upside down in a calamitous moment, as her Pacific Palisades house and personal archive was totally destroyed in the recent LA conflagrations.
Here I divert slightly to test out a new element of Microsoft Word, suddenly appearing unannounced on my computer, an AI assistant. I have never believed that a machine can compose music as good as Mozart or replicate Joseph Conrad’s immaculate English prose, so I am interested to see what my hovering AI assist will make out when I type, ‘What is the plot synopsis of Zero Day’? Here goes…
Zero Day is a gripping political thriller that stars Robert de Niro. The series delves into the intricacies of cybersecurity and the terrifying potential of a global cyberattack. Through its intense narrative, “Zero Day” explores the vulnerabilities of our interconnected world, where a single day of digital chaos could have catastrophic consequences. With de Niro’s powerful performance at its core, the show promises to keep viewers on the edge of their seats as it unravels a complex web of deception, power struggles, and high-stakes drama.
Robert de Niro as George Mullen in Zero Day Photo JoJo Whilden/Netflix)
So far, so bland, but at least correct in essence. However, I could never submit such obvious pap with a clear conscience to a knowledgeable editor, such as the one who will oversee this piece for publication. It is as if it was written by, well, a computer. And now I know how those listing publications like the Radio and TV Times manage to cram all their mini-reviews in. And why am I raising this issue precisely now? Because AI is probably at the root of Zero Day’s premise that future warfare may not need the use of explosive and massively destructive weapons, and that we should take account of this fact NOW and not in some acrid future day when defecated detritus hits the digital fan.
The principal fact is that the reason I am writing about Zero Day is because it has managed to corral its executive producer and star in the increasingly crumpled form of Robert de Niro. Would we be paying so much attention to it without his astonishing presence in almost every frame? I think not. It would then merely take its place in the current crop of films and streaming dramas dealing with government corruption/political intrigue/border clashings, and so on. And how difficult for even the greatly experienced Ms Glatter to call “Action!” on the first day of shooting with de Niro, being only too aware of the work he had achieved with Michael Cimino and Martin Scorsese. (Perhaps I could add here that I have experienced something similar in my own career when I came to direct Paul Scofield in a period drama I had written, but always aware of his Oscar winning role as Sir Thomas Moore in A Man for all Seasons. A humbling few moments indeed!).
Jesse Plemons as Roger Carlson in Zero Day (photo JoJo Whilden/Netflix)
When you take on De Niro you not only challenge those legendary directors of masterpieces past, but you get access to an unrivalled goldmine of experience of modern cinema (“Are you talking to me?”). Plus, a face onto which has been etched not just work experience but many of the usual pitfalls of modern life, including prostate cancer (faced at a relatively early age, and severely beaten.) This, and an unfaltering technique, makes him, in the correct context, simply mesmerising.
However, my critical faculty seems not to have deserted me completely, for it is strange, to say the least, that a man pushing 80, with just a single presidency, Mullen, is pulled back from a well-earned retirement to investigate a computer virus probably developed by youths in their early twenties? And a man on a diet of medications covering most colours in the rainbow, who has suddenly started hearing music being played in empty rooms, voices out of nowhere and dead people reappearing?
Connie Britton as Valerie Whitesell in Zero Day (Photo JoJo Whilden?Netflix)
Pause for some questions, even though I am barely half-way through the series and thus far resisting the dreaded binge watching scenario. Then there is the snake in the grass, as Mullen’s shadowy assistant Jesse Plemons having a tough job taking on the role of Roger Carlisle who seems to be not just a double or triple agent, but probably a quadruple one as well. Then, not just for fun, the writers bring back Mullen’s ex-mistress, and as far as I can tell the mother of his illegitimate child, to – wait for it – act as his assistant again. And just to put the tin lid on it, it is Mullen’s wife who demands her rival’s return!
As far as Glatter is concerned, “This scenario gives us a chance to look at how we would behave in that kind of situation…and what happens when a government or an individual is given unlimited power.” “This story,” Glatter goes on, “deals with the issues of fact versus opinion and what happens when we stop listening to each other, and it’s relevant to our current reality.” How relevant remains to be seen, but the first couple of episodes carries an intriguing promise ahead of itself.
So, as my days turn more to reviewing than creation, I like to share the best with fellow Arbuturians, as I am doing here, but also alert them to pitfalls in TV schedules so as to ensure as little time is wasted as possible. You’re welcome.
Zero Day is currently available on Netflix.
