Netflix series “Zero Day” with Robert de Niro shows the USA on the brink of the abyss

This hacker attack is worse than "9/11", the US President, Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett), and former President George Mullen (Robert De Niro) agree. One minute of chaos has paralyzed the country, led to thousands of deaths and continued uncertainty: a complete failure of all networks, trains and subways derail, planes crash, vehicles crash into each other on the streets, ventilators stop working in hospitals.

After that, speculation on the internet is rampant. Conspiracy theorists call the attack a "fake", the dead are paid actors, the "deep state" is responsible for the attack in order to abolish the civil liberties of the common man. The attack hits a country that is already unsettled, and no one claims responsibility.

When Mullen, brought by Congress from his rural retirement idyll on the Hudson, drives to his new headquarters in Manhattan, he is greeted by a different scene than after September 11, 2001. Angry crowds threaten firefighters who were celebrated as heroes at the time. The mood is heated.

Mullen intervenes, giving his first of several speeches to the warring states of America . He appeals to the American people, who immediately comment on every live public word, amplify it, deny it, and break it down into opposing opinions. There is applause in Manhattan. But the country, in shock, slowly wakes up to the cacophony of instrumentalization, orchestrated above all by Evan Green (Dan Stevens), a conspiracy theorist with his own TV hate channel.

It is hard to believe, but probably true, that the oppressive political thriller series "Zero Day" was written three years ago. Its authors, Emmy winners Eric Newman and Noah Oppenheim, as well as Washington-based "New York Times" correspondent Michael Schmidt, precisely control the dynamics of a multi-crisis that becomes a constitutional crisis. They deliberately give their main protagonist Mullen a mental bias. The ex-president sees dead people, hears imaginary music. Are these signs of dementia or is it the result of an attack by a neurological weapon?

The disaster scenarios and manipulations, the economic interests of tech moguls, seem to have been copied from US government policy following the re-election of Donald Trump and the empowerment of Elon Musk. "Zero Day", with 81-year-old Robert De Niro in his first series role at the center (he is also responsible as co-producer), is also so gripping because it focuses on the question of responsible leadership in crisis mode.

"Zero Day" is quite pathetic (although Mullen's speeches are not exactly Shakespearean in format). It is a plea for democracy with all its impositions and complications, for responsibility without taking advantage. The truth is acceptable to Americans, this is the view taken by former President Mullen. The truth is what calms people down, this is the view taken by the incumbent President and the Speaker of the House, Richard Dreyer (Matthew Modine) in the series.

Although his wife Sheila (Joan Allen) warns him of the suicide mission, Mullen takes over the "Zero Day Commission" to find the perpetrators and prevent another attack. Mullen initially resists the "enhanced interrogation methods" that the head of the investigation, Carl Otieno (McKinley Belcher III), wants to use. Later, he is present during torture himself. Former President Mullen, played with impressive verve by Robert De Niro, is not the usual American disaster movie leader. During his time as President, he lied to Congress like Clinton. One of his children committed suicide in the White House. The other, Congresswoman Alexandra (Lizzy Caplan), hates him and is appointed overseer of the commission. In the private relationships, there is a touch of effective schmaltziness, but it doesn't bother you.

Was it the Russians? Mullen's intelligence contacts, including CIA director Jeremy Lasch (Bill Camp), deny this. Instead, there are leads to domestic terrorists and Silicon Valley, to tech billionaire Monica Kidder (Gaby Hoffmann) and to the slippery hedge fund tycoon Robert Lyndon (Clark Gregg), with whom Mullen's right-hand man Roger Carlson (Jesse Plemons) does business. The latter is distrusted by Valerie Whitesell (Connie Britton), Mullen's ex-Chief of Staff, who takes the reins in her tried and tested no-nonsense manner.

When a second attack occurs, the terror seems to have achieved its goal, but nothing is over yet. "Zero Day", stunningly staged for just under six hours by Lesli Linka Glatter, will see Mullen's increasingly fragile fight through to the lonely end. On Netflix, the series immediately landed at number one as a "must watch". No wonder.