Zero Day is an American political thriller limited series that premiered on Netflix recently with all 6 episodes. The show stars Robert De Niro, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, Bill Camp, Dan Stevens, McKinley Belcher III, Clark Gregg, Gabby Hoffmann, Matthew Modine, and Angela Bassett. When former U.S. President Mullen (De Niro) is called out of retirement to find the source of a deadly cyberattack, he discovers a vast web of lies and conspiracies.

I’m not going to lie – I was really looking forward to this show. I mean, look at this cast. It’s perfect. One of my favorite working actors, Dan Stevens, is also in it. Having such a cast is one way to grab your interest. With a 6-episode count, that did concern me. I genuinely couldn’t name one perfect miniseries that only had 6 episodes. The only show that comes to recent memory is The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. That show had a great thing going for it up until the last 2 episodes were rushed. Unfortunately, I felt the same way here.

Going into this, there is already a lot of unbelievability for a concept that does feel like it could be real. The show quickly goes over the day that would be known as Zero Day. Everyone is consistently saying how 3,000 people died, but we only saw one die. You can’t just say it over and over again and expect viewers to buy into the severity of the issue. As of two days ago, there was 341,368,121 people in the U.S. 3,000 people doesn’t sound that serious, especially when we don’t get to see what happens on a larger scale. Plus, bringing in someone who is played by an 81-year-old to track down those who did this is far-fetched. It could have worked had the show explored the character having dementia, but that’s barely explored.

On top of all of this, the show has a lot of characters that are either unlikable or not given enough context to be liked. We spend a lot of time with disgusting people. Instead of showing the importance of accountability in government, the show tries to make us sympathize with them. Even then, it can be too hard to fully get on board. Yet, the cast still is great. Everyone chews up every scene they are all in. I can understand why everyone felt like doing this, especially with De Niro on board. At the same time, I can’t totally understand why De Niro wanted to do this. I guess money wins over sticking to values of keeping things in theaters. Yes, this is a show. Even De Niro said it felt like shooting 3 films back-to-back, which is exactly what this should have been. When you have 6 episodes to lay out a foundation, there’s never enough time fully flesh them out.

I certainly have my frustrations with the show, but I still enjoyed the first half a lot. There was something thrilling with the high-stakes concept. There were twists and turns at every corner with De Niro’s character having the most interesting backstory. In the end, I couldn’t quite understand how or why he did what he did without a scratch. For a show that wants to make it clear that there is corruption in the government, it fails to give De Niro’s character accountability. Maybe it has something to say about how there will always be corruption no matter what. Needless to say, when it cut to black, I was ultimately let down by what it could have been.

The only characters I could say that I enjoyed were given by Jesse Plemons & Dan Stevens. Plemons plays a large part in the story with a conclusion that had me shook. It was deep and thematic. I also enjoyed Stevens’ arc. He didn’t have as much screentime as I was hoping. His American accent is always impressive and I loved how there was an actual change to his character. Angela Bassett is perfect as the sitting president, but I was still let down by the little character development she had. As for everyone else, their talents exceed what the script can give them at times.

The script can be quite messy. It’s stronger in the first half, but falls into cliche territory in the latter half. There are far too many concepts and characters involved that do not get proper closure. When everything is revealed in the end, it does go on far too long and is at its most unbelievable. There’s a part of me that appreciates it for acting as a callback to the political thrillers on the 90’s. Since this is a TV show, I still feel like this could have been Netflix’s House of Cards comeback. Unfortunately, viewers are not going to get that.

The show also has a running song throughout it that’s titled Who Killed Bambi by Sex Pistols. I guess there’s some relevancy within the song, especially when you figure out De Niro’s character keeps hearing it. To be fair, I’d also be losing my mind if I also heard it. The way the song plays throughout is redundant and annoying. It makes sense when it shows the proper backstory, but then they keep playing it! I feel like I need to reiterate that this is only 6 episodes… You only have so much time to leave a healthy impression. It’s entertaining and passable, but also fails at explaining why we need this show.

Overall, Zero Day is entertaining between its high-stakes concept and likable cast, but falls short with too many ideas and redundancy in script. With 6 episodes, at least it’s not too long to get through. Personally, this could have been excellent had it have more breathing room with a 10-episode count. I think viewers will find it entertaining, but will immediately forget about it.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)