Some thrillers are incredibly tense, gripping and stressful. And then there are thrillers that still have lots of pace and grip but still veer towards the entertaining and somewhat ridiculous. Netflix’s new political conspiracy thriller series, Zero Day, falls into this latter category. It’s gripping – it made me audibly gasp in the first episode – but also a fun and relatively easy watch. If there was such a thing as an ‘easy thriller’, this new series would most certainly be one.

Zero Day stars Robert De Niro as respected former US president George Mullen, who, as head of the Zero Day Commission, is charged with finding the perpetrators of a devastating cyberattack that has caused chaos around the country and thousands of fatalities. As disinformation runs rampant and the personal ambition of Wall Street power brokers and government collide, Mullen’s search for the truth forces him to confront his own dark secrets.

By far the best part of the new series is Robert De Niro. An incredible actor in the film world, Zero Day marks his first major TV role, and what a role to debut with. The Irishman actor plays a stoic but complicated former president who is beloved by the American population but only ran for the presidential office once – and no one outside of his family seems to know why. Well, until later on in the series that is. And after a major cyberattack, he’s dragged back into the world of politics and secrecy to figure out who exactly is behind it. Of course, he also has his own secrets to contend with, and De Niro delivers a brilliant multi-layered performance. It’s almost as if he’s taken a leaf out of a politician’s playbook.

The rest of the cast is equally star-studded with Angela Bassett playing the current president, Evelyn Mitchell; Jesse Plemons plays Mullen’s right-hand man, Roger Carlson; Lizzy Caplan is Mullen’s daughter Alex; Connie Britton is chief of staff Valerie Whitesell; and Joan Allen plays Sheila, Mullen’s wife.

As a political thriller, it lacks politics. The viewer never really knows the political leanings of anyone working in the government or the Zero Day Commission. The only character that expresses some sort of political affiliation is Alex, who is a congresswoman herself and pushes back against her father and his commission’s authoritarian approach in the pursuit of answers.

But perhaps this lack of politics is a purposeful move by the writers. It not only allows the viewers to fill in the blanks themselves but puts the focus back on the American people as a whole – even though the patriotism of the show can be a little too much at times.

Ultimately, Zero Day is an entertaining watch – as long as you don’t go looking for any deeper meaning. It’s not too dark or tense, so it won’t get the cortisol levels rising too much, but it’s gripping enough that it keeps you engaged in the pacing and plot of the story. Similar to a game of Cluedo, everyone has a secret, and it’s a lot of fun watching them all figure each other out.

Images: Netflix