Zero Day: Strives for timely and ends up out of touch

Photo: Netflix

This review contains spoilers for the first episode of Zero Day

Two political thrillers in two months? That’s odd. It gets even more peculiar when you discover both shows involve the president, a shady tech mogul, and a 1st episode twist. Now, I’m not suggesting Zero Day and Paradise are copying each other’s homework. Current TV production makes that hard to pull off. Instead, these both feel like shows attempting to speak to our current time. Where Zero Day falters is in its understanding of that moment.

Netflix hails this as the first TV show to star Robert De Niro and they get their money’s worth. De Niro is front and center from the opening shot. He is former President George Mullen, an extremely popular figure who left the White House after a single term. Mullen is the centrist-ideal of a president, a man so pragmatic that you have no clue what his actual values are or if they even exist without poll numbers attached. He soon becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving the titular cyberattack that causes mass chaos and untold deaths. Oh, and he also appears to be experiencing signs of dementia.

Zero Day is a show with many faults. The biggest thing holding it back is how desperate it is to say something about our current political climate despite having nothing of value to add. It wants to believe that a former president can simply give a speech to a crowd of angry onlookers and rally them to his cause. That this same character agrees to help with what is basically a new version of the Patriot Act doesn’t seem to be treated as a betrayal by the writers. He is a good man, we’re told, so it’s okay if we entrust him with untold power.

Almost everyone we encounter in the show agrees. Most characters can’t go a few minutes without reminding us how great of a man Mullen is. The only people who hold any ill will towards him are his daughter, who is also in Congress, and a right-wing media personality that Mullen inexplicably keeps watching.

Zero Day boasts an ensemble cast full of big names. Jesse Plemons brings as much depth as he can to Mullen’s personal aide. Lizzy Caplan has the thankless role of being the aforementioned daughter who despises her father to an almost comical degree. The likes of Connie Britton, Dan Stevens, and Angela Bassett fill the rest of the cast out, just to name a few. The problem is that despite the stacked cast, nobody outside of De Niro and occasionally Plemons, has much of anything to work with. These characters exist as roles to be filled in a story first and actual people never. Their purpose is to get you from one tedious plot twist to the next.

This is a show striving to be timely with ideas that felt more at home 20 years ago. It’s The West Wing meets 24 with all the tortured speechifying and actual torture that comes with those programs. Zero Day believes that what we all need is one strong-willed man to unite us. It’s telling that we never actually see that unity. The writers seem as confused by the current state of things as the rest of us. No wonder they seem so focused on the past.

Zero Day is currently streaming on Netflix

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Common Side Effects: A thriller, a comedy, and even more

Photo: Adult Swim

What’s immediately striking about Common Side Effects, besides the stunning animation, is how many genres it operates in. At its heart, the show is a conspiracy thriller and stoner comedy mixed together. As it goes along, though, distinct elements creep in. A dash of buddy cop comedy, a sprinkle of film noir, all adding to a sense of unpredictability from scene to scene. It feels fresh, not just for an animated series but for TV as a whole.

Common Side Effects is the newest animated series from Adult Swim. Created by Steve Hely and Joseph Bennett of the great Scavengers Reign, the show actually shares many of the same animators. The series follows Marcus and Frances, two high school friends who reconnect by chance. Marcus has discovered a mysterious mushroom that cures any illness or injury, which puts him in the crosshairs of the DEA and big pharmaceutical giants. As it turns out, Frances works for one of these companies and may have some ulterior motives in helping Marcus.

The cast expands outward from there, including Frances’ boss voiced by Mike Judge, using his Hank Hill voice for evil. There’s also DEA agents Copano and Harrington, two good natured goofballs who are on the wrong side of this conflict. The supporting cast is full of weirdos and malicious politicians, all of whom feel just unique enough to avoid falling into parody. Most of these characters are background players, but the writing never makes it feel like they exist solely to move the plot along.

The animation is where Common Side Effects really stands out. At first glance, you’re likely drawn to all the humans with their oversized heads and tiny mouths. Their designs are intentionally off-putting. The real splendor of the animation comes from the natural world. The lush colors of nature create an immediate dissonance from the drab cityscapes. Something that goes unnoticed by most of the characters. It’s only when the natural interrupts their lives that they take notice.

Common Side Effects is not a slow show. It moves a tremendous amount of plot along in just 22 minutes. It is, however, a deliberate show. Every scene filled with purpose, even if it is solely to introduce us to a character’s doped out brother. The show’s disparate tones should not work together but do thanks to the care put into this collection of weirdos. Strong character work and confident world-building remain an undefeated duo.

Common Side Effects airs Sundays on Adult Swim and streams on Max..

Final Verdict: Tune In

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: A new spin on a classic hero

Photo: Marvel/Disney

In the forever war between Marvel and DC, Marvel often has the edge. Their comics usually sell better and their movies definitely do. Whereas DC has always had an edge in animation. While that remains the case in 2025, Marvel continues to up its game. First with the runaway success of X-Men ‘97 and now with a new animated Spider-Man show.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man goes back to Spider-Man’s roots, reimagining his origin without walking us through all the usual story beats. This is a drastic change from the initial plan for the show. The series originally focused on Tom Holland’s Peter Parker before his first appearance in the MCU proper, becoming more of a traditional origin story. The creators rightly surmised that this premise was too restrictive and got the okay to set it in an alternate timeline. A move that works for all sides of the creative team? Maybe Marvel should try that out on the live-action side.

The new setting also provides the show with fresh ideas for the character. From the origin of his powers to the supporting cast, the show sets out to make a new version of our favorite web-slinger and succeeds. The biggest change, the one hyped in press releases, is the decision to make Norman Osborn Peter’s mentor. It’s a fun twist that drives the character in new and unexpected directions. The same is true for the supporting cast. Outside of Aunt May and Harry Osborn, Peter’s friend group is full of characters we rarely associate with Spider-Man.

The animation style might prove to be the show’s biggest hurdle. The cel-shaded look harkens back to the classic Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comics and it works great when our masked hero is swinging around the city or fighting baddies. Where it falters is during personal moments like an early scene between Peter and May. The characters lack the expressive faces of your usual animated character, which makes these scenes hard to relate to. To add to it, the city backgrounds feel so empty that you almost forget we’re in New York.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man succeeds more often than it fails. The writing is sharp; the characters are interesting and, most importantly, there is a sense of fun that is a key component of any good Spidey story. If you can make it past the animation, there’s something solid underneath the surface. This isn’t a show that’s going to change the game for Marvel’s animated output, but it’s a breezy watch that’s hard to turn off. I’ll call that a win.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is currently streaming on Disney+.

Final Verdict: Tune In

Paradise: A thriller with one wild twist

Photo: Hulu/20th Television

This review contains spoilers for the first episode of Paradise

Sometimes a show comes along with a twist that immediately makes you go “huh?” As a self-styled “reviewer,” this is always a wonderful treat. Whether the twist is good, bad, or just strange, it immediately makes the show more interesting to think about. I’m not only evaluating the show I watched before the turn, but the show as it exists with the twist. So, imagine my delight at the end of Paradise’s first episode when we learn that the events in the current timeline have all taken place in a domed city built inside a mountain. You can’t get more “huh?” than that!

In retrospect, I should have expected a twist the moment I saw Dan Fogelman listed as creator/writer. Fogelman’s previous two shows Pitch and This is Us, also had big twists in their pilot episodes. Neither goes as big as Paradise, though. What starts out as a pretty standard political thriller quickly adds in elements of sci-fi and family drama to the mix.

At its core, Paradise is about Sterling K. Brown’s Xavier Collins. Collins is the lead agent on President Cal Bradford’s Secret Service detail. Things go awry one day when Collins discovers a pool of blood and Bradford’s corpse. We’re introduced to a growing list of suspects and, soon after, the knowledge that this is the first murder in this new community. All the while, someone attempts to frame Collins for the crime. Brown brings a presence to the proceedings that helps ground the show even during its more melodramatic moments.

If you’re familiar with the works of Dan Fogelman, you expect a certain level of melodrama. Paradise is no exception. The show jumps between the present day and flashbacks to the world before the cataclysm occurred. These flashbacks help us understand the characters and the decisions that they make. It’s a good idea in theory. Too often, these scenes stop the momentum of the present-day story when it should ratchet up the tension.

The best and most ridiculous example comes at the end of the 2nd episode. During a flashback scene that involves the death of a character’s young son, the show plays a slow acoustic version of Starship’s “We Built This City.” The idea is to draw big emotions from the viewers, but all it does is distract. When we return to the present and get to our cliffhanger ending, I’m not thinking about what will happen next. Even now, I’m still wondering why they used that song.

Paradise feels like two entirely different shows vying for control. One is a tense thriller with high stakes and a fun sci-fi twist. The other is a drama that treats tragedy as the only tool for character development. Unfortunately, the less interesting show wins out on screen time. The result is something I want to like, but that I barely tolerate. There’s a fine line between “don’t think about it too hard” and “don’t think.” Paradise opts for the latter and lets down a fun premise and a strong cast.

Paradise is currently streaming on Hulu. New episodes release on Tuesday.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

American Primeval: A gritty new Western full of pain and misery

Photo: Netflix

The Western has an important part in the history of television. It’s hard to dwell on the beginnings of the medium and not think about cowboys and gunfights. As time moved on, the genre waned in popularity and the traditional conception of the Western faded away. You could still find elements of the genre, but they were mixed in with other things. In recent times, the trend has been to portray a more realistic version of the West. This usually translates to “add more blood and dirt.”

In American Primeval, Netflix’s new Western miniseries, both are free flowing. Written by The Revenant scribe Mark L. Smith, the series takes place during the Utah War, an armed conflict between Mormon settlers and the US government. We begin by following Sarah Holloway and her son Devin as they flee from their past and head west. They soon find help in a mysterious mountain man who begrudgingly agrees to guide them. All the while, a battle rages on, with both sides unsure of their next moves.

Director Peter Berg brings a visual flair to the proceedings that helps the show stand out. Despite copious amounts of desaturation, Berg still finds time to show off the natural beauty around all the violence. His use of shaky close-up shots might seem jarring at first, but adds a frenetic pace to the proceedings, creating a tension that refuses to let up. This works to impressive effect in the first episode’s big set piece, the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre. The confusion and horror of the moment are conveyed by the camera’s refusal to leave our character’s side.

Horror and misery play a big role in the day-to-day lives of these people. Primeval doesn’t shy away from showcasing these daily affronts to the contrary, it arguably shares too much. There are copious amounts of blood, murder, and yes, the threat of sexual violence. So much so that it’s rare to find scenes not containing some sort of pain being inflicted on a poor soul. The show’s aim is to take away from the myth of the West. Instead, it leaves you numb to everything on screen.

American Primeval offers multiple perspectives on life during this era, which means a big ensemble cast. With only 6 episodes to spare, the show isn’t able to provide much depth leading to a sea of one-note characters. Still, there are a few standouts. Namely, Betty Gilpin and Taylor Kitsch as Sarah and the aforementioned mountain man, respectively. Gilpin plays Sarah as strong-willed and courageous, quick to judge and wary of everyone. All traits that help her survive in the West. Kitsch’s Isaac starts as the silent loner type, but slowly reveals more layers, eventually becoming a bright spot in a show sorely in need of them.

Plenty of Westerns also act as reflections of current America and Primeval tries to follow that model to mixed results. It’s admirable to want to offer a Native American perspective while shining a light on the horrors inflicted on them, but it feels like an afterthought. It becomes hard to weigh one act of hideous violence against another when they happen so frequently. This is a show desperately trying to say something about America and its history. What it misses is that these types of messages work best when the story attached is interesting. Shock and awe can only take you so far.

American Primeval is currently streaming on Netflix

Final Verdict: Tune Out