NOW ENTERTAINMENT Feb. 16 Month 00- -22, 00,2025 2023
Your Weekly TV Entertainment Brought To You By Olean Times Herald & The Bradford Era
Eerily timely, the six-episode limited series “Zero Day” premieres Thursday, Feb. 20, on Netflix. Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” 2023) stars. Robert De Niro stars in “Zero Day”
Cover Story Misinformation overload: Political thriller ‘Zero Day’ questions the role of truth By Sarah Passingham The divisive political landscape we find ourselves living through these days can feel stranger than fiction. Proving the idiom true is a new, eerily timely, six-episode limited series “Zero Day,” premiering Thursday, Feb. 20, on Netflix. Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” 2023) stars as former President George Mullen, who is pulled out of retirement to head the precedent-setting Zero Day Commission. When a cyberattack is carried out against the United States, it causes several disasters and country-wide chaos, killing thousands of citizens on what becomes known as Zero Day. Following the tragic events, President Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett, “Damsel,” 2024) calls on the former president to lead an investigation into who is responsible for the attacks. Whether outside forces or homegrown terrorists
were behind the fatal plot, the many voices willfully spreading disinformation make Mullen’s job incredibly complicated. To get to the bottom of it, the former president surrounds himself with as trustworthy a team as he can in the ambitious world of American politics. Jesse Plemons (“Kinds of Kindness,” 2024) stars as Mullen’s former aide Roger Carlson, brought back to work for the commission. Also joining the investigation are political strategist and Mullen’s former chief of staff Valerie Whitesell (Connie Britton, “Dear Edward”) and Department of Justice lawyer Carl Otieno (McKinley Belcher III, “Ozark”), who serves as lead investigator for the Zero Day Commission. Lizzy Caplan (“Fatal Attraction”) is progressive congressional representative Alexandra Mullen and daughter of the former president, while Joan Allen (Lisey’s Story”) is for-
mer first lady and nominee to the federal bench, Sheila Mullen. Also starring in “Zero Day” are Matthew Modine (“Stranger Things”) as speaker of the house Richard Dreyer; Bill Camp (“Presumed Innocent”) as CIA Director Jeremy Lasch; Gaby Hoffmann (“Transparent”) as Silicon Valley billionaire Monica Kidder; Clark Gregg (“Snowpiercer”) as Robert Lyndon, another billionaire with a penchant for manipulating politics; and Mark Ivanir (“Mayor Of Kingstown”) as intelligence operative Natan. Dan Stevens (“Cuckoo,” 2024) portrays Mullen’s most vocal critic, political talk show host Evan Green, complete with the faux-blue collar look of real right-wing propagandists. Though the series was developed before the most recent U.S. presidential election came to pass, some of the events of the series bear a striking resemblance to
real circumstances that arose during the campaign — notably, Mullen questioning his own competency as he begins noticing signs of cognitive decline. Series co-creator Eric Newman (“Griselda”) spoke to Vanity Fair in November about the upcoming series, revealing that he and fellow co-creator Noah Oppenheim (“Jackie,” 2016), former president of NBC News, sought to confront the country’s relationship with the truth in “Zero Day,” tuning into Americans’ imaginings of the future. “It feels like it could happen. Based on how you feel about the election, this is either going to be an aspirational story about people who can find their way to the truth, even when it’s really hard, or a cautionary tale of the perils of the deep state and absolute power corrupting absolutely,” Newman said. “For me, it’s a little bit of both.”