Zero Day Finally Finds A New Twist On A Tired Genre
Netflix has refined the conspiracy thriller into a fine art. Zero Day elevates it.
Ever since The Night Agent became the breakout hit of Netflix in 2023, conspiracy thrillers have been everywhere, especially in the first few months of 2025. Netflix’s The Night Agent Season 2 and Apple TV+’s Prime Target both offered exactly what audiences expected, albeit with different protagonists.
Now, Netflix is giving the conspiracy thriller a little bit more prestige with Zero Day, a star-studded thriller that swaps action sequences with a gripping central mystery and a fascinating twist that keeps you guessing until the very end.
Jesse Plemons is the body man to a former president rushed back to public service in Zero Day.
Zero Day follows Former President George Mullen (Robert de Niro) as he’s called out of retirement by current President Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett) to lead a new commission that seeks to root out those responsible for Zero Day, a huge attack that saw computers everywhere shut down for 60 seconds before rebooting with devastating results and a looming threat: “This will happen again.”
Along for the ride is Sheila Mullen (Joan Allen), George’s wife, Roger Carlson (Jesse Plemons), a former Mullen aide, and Valerie Whitesell (Connie Britton), Mullen’s old Chief of Staff and former flame. But not everyone is thrilled with a brand new federal task force being given unprecedented powers of search and seizure and arrests without warrants. Congress members Richard Dreyer (Matthew Modine) and Alexandra Mullen (Lizzy Caplan) — George’s daughter — believe the entire scheme is unconstituional.
But as George unpacks the mystery of Zero Day, he realizes something about himself — he can’t trust his own mind. In a rug-pull moment at the end of Episode 1, Mullen realizes the assistant he’s been talking to all episode retired five years ago, and the crucial notes he takes from an inside source are revealed to be nonsensical lyrics scribbled over and over.
Dan Stevens hams it up in the best way as far-right talk show host Evan Green.
It’s in this gimmick that Zero Day finds its best moments. Like every other conspiracy thriller, Mullen doesn’t know who to trust, but this time, he can count himself amongst that group: he’s not sure if he can even believe his own memory. Robert de Niro may be an esteemed actor, but George Mullen has deep flaws that makes him fascinating to watch.
Much like other similarities series, there are plenty of parallels to day-to-day life. It’s hard not to see “assassin on social media” Alexandra Mullen as anything other than another Victoria-Neuman-esque AOC parody. Chat show host Evan Green, played by Dan Stevens with the same gusto that made him the standout of Abigail, is very clearly a take on far-right conspiracy theorist media moguls like Alex Jones.
Zero Day uses its unique twist to its advantage, crafting an unreliable narrator story that brings the conspiracy thriller to new heights and crafts a story of political division and the dangers of how absolute power can corrupt absolutely in the wrong hands.
