A tv miniseries, Zero Day (2025) popped up on my Netflix feed with no description. There have been five previous Day Zeros, about a monster Apocalypse (2011, 2022), a water shortage (2021), a terrorist (2020), and the military draft (2007), so the premise of this one is a gamble. I'm hoping for the monster Apocalypse.
Three Days Earlier: George awakens in a double bed (must have a dead wife), takes his Lipitor, swims laps, goes jogging through the woods with his dog. His jacket says that he's the President of the U.S. -- so where are his security guards?
Scene 2: In the kitchen, his boyfriend, Hector (Geoffrey Cantor), is making breakfast. They discuss the bird feeder situation. An assistant brings his morning newspaper and briefings -- the former First Lady is being confirmed as an Appellate Judge. So they're divorced.
"When does my wife land?" he asks. So they're not divorced? Former -- he's the ex-President. They discuss the catering for Saturday's Big Event. I imagine that he has Big Events every day, being the ex-President and all.
He hasn't heard from Alex, but they assume she'll be coming. Girlfriend or daughter?
"And send this morning's visitor to the guest cabin."
Scene 3: A limo drops off a young lady, presumably "this morning's visitor," at the rustic, book-lined guest cabin. She is not happy to be there. She examines the photos and memorabilia, and a bookcase full of handwritten journals: Campaign 2004, U.S. Invasion of Iraq, NYC Transit Strike 2005.
George enters and explains that he's using the journals to write his autobiography, which will be done soon. Sorry it's so late.
She's excited: he is the last president in modern history to get bipartisan support (you got that right), so this book could have a big impact in today's contentious political climate (the current President will probably ban it).
Next George points out the photo of him with his childhood boyfriend Jon Flanagan. They served in the army together, and then he was killed in Greenpoint picking up a bottle of milk. Lift with your legs, not with your back. Oh, wait -- he was murdered while trying to buy the milk. Dumb way to phrase it.
This inspired George to go to law school, become a prosecutor, put bad guys away, and eventually run for President.
Next question: "Why did you decide not to run for re-election? The real reason, not 'Our son just died,' the bogus reason you gave the press."
George doesn't like this -- would you? -- and kicks her out.
Scene 4: On the way home, the Visitor is complaining to her boss, when the cell phone blanks out with a message: "This will happen again!" Then their car crashes into a train and bursts into flame.
George watches Wolf Blitzer on tv: multiple outages affecting power grids, transportation systems, and communications, resulting in train derailments, airplane crashes, life support systems shut down. It's called Zero Day. Is this a post-Apocalyptic series? Will George and his staff be eating canned beans in a bunker?
Scene 5: Russian Consulate. A cute guy (Nikita Bogolyubov, who is fluent in English, Russian, and Weirdo) says "I'll take care of it," and grabs a gun from his desk, giving us an eyeful of the bulge in his Calvin Kleins.
Meanwhile, in Washington DC, the Speaker of the House (Matthew Modine, left) makes a gung-ho speech about America's vulnerability. Time to get tough and crack some heads. And deport all the immigrants?
And back home, George watches a video of a man telling his son to "wave to Mommy" during his first subway ride. Ulp -- I knew where this is going. I'm fast forwarding past the son's death. His Ex-Wife, the former First Lady, arrives, and they continue to watch.
Scene 6: Zero Day 1. George gets up, takes his Lipitor, swims his laps, jogs with his dog. We'd better see some societal breakdown today, or I'm leaving.
He gets a special intelligence briefing -- no idea about the perp -- and Roger Carlson (Jesse Plemons) visits. They hug.
The White House wants George to visit some of the sites, shake hands with first responders, and so on. "Nope, I'm retired."
"But we need you. Everyone is scared. Right now the American people need to know that the country will be ok." Is he talking about the cyber-attack, or the 2024 election?
Talked into it, they drive into Manhattan to the site of a train collison. A police barricade with a crowd behind it carrying "Have you seen me?" fliers, yelling "F*king socialist traitors!" and "Wake up, sheeple! This is all fake!" He shakes hands with some firefighters.
The crowd gets angry with each other and starts fighting, but George calms them down. "We're Americans! We're supposed to be standing up for each other?" Huh? Have you ever looked at the comments on any internet post? "You spelled this actor's name wrong -- I hope you and everyone you know dies a slow, painful death!"
Cut to people all over the U.S. listening to his impromptu "We have to stick together" speech.
Scene 7: In Washington, DC, the Wicked Witch of the West -- George's daughter -calls Roger Carlson, irate over him getting her father involved. "You've done some horrible things before, but this is the worst! You are trying to destroy my career by bringing the man I hate more than life itself into the picture! How am I supposed to take over the world now?" Whew, girlfriend really hates her father. Maybe he's not the saint he has been presented as. Maybe she's responsible for the cyber-attack.
More after the break. Caution: Explicit.
Scene 8: The cute guy from the Russian Consulate meets with his boyfriend at a restaurant on Brighton Beach.
Meanwhile, George tells his Ex that the President wants him in the Oval Office tomorrow. He doesn't know why. His Ex does: in the few months before the election, this event could make or break the President's chances at a re-election. She wants George to spin it properly.
Scene 9: Zero Day 2. In Washington DC, George meet with the President -- a black woman. So Kamala won? The experts still have no idea how all systems crashed at once. No one has the technology to do it. No sign of societal breakdown yet.
She's authorizing a special Investigative Commission, with George in charge. It will have unlimited power. Constitutional rights do not apply; no due process, no habeas corpus. Grab anyone you want, keep them as long as you want, torture them as much as you want.
"No way, sorry, I'm retired, I don't want to, I can't...how much does the job pay? OK, I'll think about it."
Scene 10: On the way out of town, George asks to visit the Head of the CIA, who is surprised that he's thinking about the Investigation Commission job. "I would have turned her down flat." He predicts that society will collapse in 24-28 days.
He takes George into a secret room to tell him who the perps are. No fair, the windows frost over, and we can't hear what he says!
Afterwards George is extremely upset. Maybe he learned that his daughter, the Wicked Witch, is responsible? He yells for a phone and calls Nuway Dry Cleaners to schedule a pick-up. Wait -- is George part of the cyber-plot?
Scene 11: At the Russian Consulate, the Cute Guy gets a call: Felix has the server up and running again. He starts shredding papers.
Cut to the Big Party at George's House (remember that?). A lot of elderly heterosexual couples, and the Wicked Witch: "Hi, Dad. I hate you and everything you represent. How are things?" She doesn't want him to take the Commission job: he comes from a bipartisan America, and in the current contentious climate, he'll have to take a side, and the other side will bury him.
The guy from Nuway Cleaners (Mark Ivanir, left) arrives for the "laundry pickup." Turns out that he is George's personal spy. He's got some intel -- the Russians have been funding a group of hackers in New York. Basic ransomware, cracking cold wallets, no biggie. Their leader is Felix. So Russia is behind the cyberattack? Terribly trite. I thought it was the Wicked Witch, or maybe George himself.
Scene 12: The Wicked Witch sneaks into a private room to make a clandestine phone call, but George's assistant Roger follows her. She thinks that he's in on the cyber-attack because his "hedge fund buddies" got out two days before the attack, so they wouldn't lose everything. The plot thickens.
George holds a press conference to accept the job. They set up the headquarters, while talking heads on tv comment on how it's a wonderful idea. Except for Dan Stevens, playing a left-wing nutcase who runs a crazy conspiracy podcast. Left-wing?
Scene 13: Zero Day #3. A helicopter arrives to take George to the new headquarters. He tries to get something from the safe in his office, but it won't open. He forgot the combination! He searches for the place where it was written down -- on the back of his childhood boyfriend Jon's photo -- and opens the safe. But someone took the journal inside and replaced it with "Who killed Bambi?" over and over! So the cyber-attack is a personal vendetta against George. And the guys breaking down the door aren't malicious -- they are his security team, thinking that he collapsed inside.
He rushes into the kitchen to ask his boyfriend Hector if anyone had access to his office, but there's a new guy there! Ex-Wife says that it's Wayne (Derrick J. Smith, below). Hector retired five years ago! WTF? Has he been zapped into a parallel universe, or gone forward in time? The end
Beefcake: Some glimpses of George's back as he swims.
Heterosexism: Nothing substantial. I assume Geoge and his ex-Wife are divorced so they can fall in love again.
Gay Characters: No. Jon Flanagan from Scenes 1-3 is just a tease; there is no flashback with young Jon and young George in love.
Spoilers: Society isn't destroyed; the "massive" cyberattack didn't even destroy the economy. There are no monsters.
I was right in my prediction that the President's Daughter, the Wicked Witch of the West, is the mastermind of the cyberattack. The Russians are a red herring. But there's something worse coming up.
The President hasn't gone into a parallel world or forward in time: he's suffering from dementia. He wrote "Who killed Bambi" himself to illustrate his guilt over his son's suicide.
So this is just an ordinary political thriller, with a podcaster spouting conspiracy theories, the Red Network spouting fake news, and a Nazi-saluting tech billionaire whispering into the ear of the President. Wait, that's everyday life.
Will I Keep Watching: Nope. I'll be busy looking up Derrick J. Wilson's other projects.
See also:
Adam Devine and Andrew Rannells bromace? With Robert DeNiro
Robert De Niro's 15 gayest movies, from "Bloody Mama" to "Dirty Grandpa"
The naked press bro on the bus with "The Girls on the Bus"
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