Zero Day runs into a major issue that we've seen before in cyber thrillers

So why, fairly early on into the six-part run, did I feel my heart sink slightly? It's because, while being very watchable and not in any way a disaster, Zero Day is disappointing.

The pre-release trailers and marketing had all led me to believe we may finally get a thriller centred around a cyber attack that's worth its salt, as it follows former president George Mullen, who leads a commission to uncover the truth behind a devastating digital attack on the US.

As he investigates, he is given immense, perhaps even unconstituional, powers to bring those responsible to justice, deemed necessary because they have promised to strike again.

It all sounded promising, as though it would examine the real-world consequences of such an attack in a way we have been waiting for for a long time.

This all takes me back to 2022, and the release of Channel 4's The Undeclared War, a series which, by a twist of fate, was announced earlier this week to be returning.

It's somewhat hard to see why it was deemed worthy of a recommission, particularly this late in the day. That series first came to attention for its compelling and chilling initial teaser, which saw Adrian Lester's fictional prime minister and Simon Pegg's head of GCHQ warning of an imminent cyber attack.

It was an excellent marketing strategy, which saw Channel 4 receiving Ofcom complaints by viewers who were panicked by the ad, having been duped into believing it was a real news broadcast.

Unfortunately, the series failed to live up to the hype, and ended up being a dull and meandering show, always promising to get to the point of a major, consequential attack, but never quite getting there.

Instead, it spent its time focusing on needless and uninteresting personal dramas and meandering explorations of Russian bot farms.

Next on the cyber thriller hit list came Leave the World Behind, which didn't market itself as clearly as a cyber attack story, and instead used this as the big reveal.

It went further in exploring the consequences and damage of such an event, but employed strange structural flourishes and ended with an exposition dump explaining how all the most interesting stuff was yet to come, right as the credits began to roll.

What was so disappointing about both of these projects is that the threat of a wide-ranging cyber attack is a naturally compelling concept, one which is equal parts fascinating and chilling.

I can't pretend to know the ins and outs of how a cyber attack would play out, or say that either of these examples is wrong in its presentation. But from a dramatic standpoint, they both fall down because neither seems to understand the innate curiosity their premises could inspire, if only they properly examined them.

Then, we come to Zero Day.

Once again, everything seemed to be lining up to suggest we were on to something special. For heaven's sake, the show stars Robert freakin' De Niro as the former president and Angela Bassett as the current one. Add in Jesse Plemons, Lizzy Caplan, Connie Britton and Dan Stevens, and surely that star power was assembling for a reason?

Perhaps not. While the trailers promised a taut, grounded and morally complex cyber thriller, Zero Day falls into the same trap that The Undeclared War and Leave the World Behind fell into - a lack of confidence in its own premise.

I do recognise Leave the World Behind was based on a novel, so I have to cut it some slack as a piece of filmic storytelling, but all three of these projects seem not to understand the intrinsic power in their concepts, at least until it comes time to market what has already been made.

For Zero Day's part, rather than hone in on the cyber attack element, it tries to be all things to all people all at once.

Yes, it's got the cyber storyline. But it's also got an examination of politics in the US right now (which, quite frankly, needs a 60-part series all of its own to be anywhere close to insightful and comprehensive, not a six-parter).

Beyond that, the series is invested in examining the role of the media in a crisis, the state of big business and silicon valley and, perhaps most confusingly, the internal demons of De Niro's character, former president George Mullen, and the secrets from his past which threaten to spill out.

One wonders whether this was a storyline borne out of De Niro's involvement. 'We can't get Robert De Niro and then not do a deep dive into his character's psyche.' Yes you can, and you should.

The fact that the series is only six episodes should have been a blessing. Sure, that's short for a season of US TV, but it should have allowed a sense of focus, an ability to drill down into just one topic and do so in a meaningful way.

This is evident because whenever the show does return to the impact of the attack, it becomes more engaging. It feels as though it's doing something unique, interesting and affecting during those scenes - a story like this should be scary, and Zero Day is never scarier than when an attack is happening, or when focusing on its direct aftermath.

But instead of committing to this whole-heartedly across the six episodes, the series implements as many plot strands as would usually fill out a more standard American Network season (20-24), but condenses each of them in a way which means none of them are really saying anything of consequence.

Zero Day could have been a fast-paced and chilling thriller about the real-world consequences of an attack and how they would play out both on the ground and in the corridors of power, but it was more caught up in personal secrets and relationships.

In most circumstances, that's understandable - the thinking seems to be that we have to care about these people to care about the situation.

In some ways, that's true, but that can be achieved in different ways. For instance, look at The Capture.

That series wasn't about a cyber attack in any traditional sense, but instead about the potential for deepfakes and the malicious utilisation of AI to disrupt our society, whether it be in the realm of justice in season 1, or politics in season 2.

It gave its characters depth and made them compelling and complex, but never in a way which threatened to overwhelm the central narrative.

There was no need for Holliday Grainger's Rachel Carey to have her own separate arc about her troubled past. She pushes the central story forward, that's her role. Any other details about her past or aspects about her character are added in organically and feel complementary rather than diverting.

Similarly, even when it did delve into the realms of politics and justice, everything was wrapped up in the central technology - the series didn't try to interrogate other aspects of the political landscape without giving them a purposeful tie-in to the core exploration.

In the case of both seasons independently, you never left The Capture feeling as though you'd been short-changed in its examination of the central area of interest, ie deepfakes. It managed to feel grounded and educative, while also being propulsive and thrilling.

I still feel as though that should be possible with a cyber attack series or film, but each time a new one is released and feels the need to divert from the topic I get a little less sure we'll get to see that version of this story.

Maybe The Undeclared War can have a second stab at it in season 2. Have lessons been learned in the three years between seasons? We'll have to wait and see.

As for Zero Day, as mentioned up top, it's not a terrible show, it's not even a bad one. It's just forgettable, which is kind of an extraordinary feat given its cast.

In a few months' time, I can imagine people reminiscing, saying, 'Hey, do you remember De Niro had a show on Netflix?' Which is a shame.

With a premise as exciting as this one on paper, the cast shouldn't be able to overshadow it, even if they are A-listers. But with an execution like this, and a refusal to examine the topic with any rigour, there's unfortunately little doubt that they are the best thing it has going for it.

Zero Day is available to stream on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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