{"id":1267350,"date":"2025-04-15T03:18:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T03:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1267350"},"modified":"2025-04-15T03:18:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T03:18:19","slug":"political-thrillers-are-eerily-forecasting-american-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/political-thrillers-are-eerily-forecasting-american-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Thrillers Are Eerily Forecasting American Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Warning: This story contains spoilers for \u201cZero Day,\u201d \u201cG20\u2033 and \u201cParadise.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Another U.S. president was accused of being unfit for the job.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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No, I\u2019m not talking about Donald Trump\u2019s questionable leadership or even the criticism Joe Biden faced last year during his reelection campaign. This is an accusation Robert De Niro\u2019s former President George Mullen faces in \u201cZero Day,\u201d Netflix\u2019s latest political thriller that tackles cyberterrorism. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While investigating the titular zero day event, Mullen\u2019s authority is called into question when he shows signs of cognitive decline, making the already difficult task of quelling an anxious nation even harder. Had this storyline been hatched <\/span>after<\/span> Biden\u2019s feeble mental state became the <\/span>subject of ridicule<\/span><\/a> during the 2024 election cycle, you would think \u201cZero Day\u201d was mimicking real-life events. But, considering the series itself was conceived in November 2021, that storyline and other timely elements that surface in the show just \u201cmay have been ahead of their time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI can\u2019t say that we were predicting anything; it just worked out that way,\u201d co-creator Eric Newman shared in a <\/span>Tudum interview<\/span><\/a>, also noting the show\u2019s portrayal of a Black woman as president (Angela Bassett) and a \u201csociopathic billionaire trying to meddle in the government\u201d (presumably a dig at Elon Musk). <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s quite an uncanny coincidence, but these are just a few foreknowing parallels that reflect the state of American politics today \u2014 and \u201cZero Day\u201d isn\u2019t alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Onscreen entertainment has always found itself intertwined with politics in one way or another. Whether through realistic depictions, fictional drama or direct commentary on the landscape, watching TV and film penetrate the world of power and influence in the most imaginative, scripted ways is always interesting. On the flip side, there is something unsettling about seeing aspects of our political reality mirrored so vividly in popular media, especially when it feels as though certain events have been foreshadowed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That notion was at the forefront of my mind in the lead-up to the 2024 election, when 2010s shows like \u201cVeep\u201d and \u201cScandal\u201d saw a resurgence in relevance, as their prophetic portrayals prepared us for what could have been America\u2019s future \u2014 electing the first female president. Add to that last year\u2019s bizarro plot twists \u2014 Biden <\/span>dropping his reelection bid<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>endorsing Kamala Harris<\/span><\/a> mere months before Election Day \u2014 and whiplash headlines \u2014 Trump <\/span>surviving an assassination attempt<\/span><\/a> \u2014 it seemed as though the line between real political spectacles and fictitious narratives had blurred.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Things grew even more obscure in January when Trump reentered the White House, kicking off his first few months in office with a <\/span>record number of executive orders<\/span><\/a> that make the hands of time look like they\u2019re swiftly <\/span>ticking backward<\/span><\/a>. At the same time, political disarray found a place onscreen, too, as new additions to the zeitgeist, like \u201cZero Day,\u201d gained avid viewers, and not necessarily for offering an escape from our morbid reality. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead, the current political climate \u2014 and the lack of transparency from the chaotic Trump 2.0 era \u2014 seems to have heightened our appetite for new White House thrills (or, at the very least, a window into the presidency). Even in the most subtle ways, these recent onscreen offerings have hinted at facets of the administration and U.S. politics as a whole. However, the fact that some of those aspects have also been foretold <\/span>very<\/span> recently, though purely by chance, adds another eerie layer to the political entertainment we consume.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Viola<\/div>\n
Viola Davis as President Danielle Sutton and Antony Starr as mercenary Rutledge in a scene from “G20.”<\/p>\n
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Ilze KitshoffIlze Kitshoff\/Prime Video<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Take, for instance, \u201cG20,\u201d Prime Video\u2019s Viola Davis-led political thriller that started streaming Thursday. Although Trump is a far cry from the action heroine who single-handedly whoops bad guys and rescues hostages in the film, parts of it feel particularly relevant when you consider the latest White House mishaps. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cG20\u201d takes place at the titular global economic summit in South Africa. Davis\u2019 President Danielle Sutton and other world leaders are taken hostage by mercenaries who force them to record deepfake videos in a determined conspiracy to tank the global economy and corner the cryptocurrency market. As the most powerful figure in the room, Sutton becomes the No. 1 target for the puppet scheme, and when she refuses to cooperate, the world\u2019s financial markets crash.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In real life, global stocks saw a significant dip last week amid Trump\u2019s <\/span>threats of higher tariffs<\/span><\/a> in his ongoing trade war; he\u2019s since <\/span>announced a temporary pause<\/span><\/a>. An adviser to the president claimed that his sweeping tariff policies are not a <\/span>ploy to sink the stock market<\/span><\/a>, but uncertainty remains. \u201cG20\u201d toys with this idea a bit, too, portraying the threatened fate of the world\u2019s top currencies as a fraudulent media scheme sends crypto to new highs \u2014 this happening just after the Justice Department <\/span>shut down its cryptocurrency fraud unit<\/span><\/a> IRL. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When you think about it, the movie\u2019s core plot \u2014 outside of Davis playing an ass-kicking president who survives a terrorist attack \u2014 doesn\u2019t seem too far-fetched in the world of politics, which only gets more unpredictable by the day. Who\u2019s to say a crypto-obsessed profiteer <\/span>couldn\u2019t<\/span> attempt this? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In an interview with <\/span>Far Out Magazine<\/span><\/a>, director Patricia Riggen insisted that there was a \u201cvery conscious decision not to make [\u2018G20\u2019] political.\u201d And yet, so much of it is. A socio-economic crisis is the backdrop for the entire film, which was shot before widespread concerns of an <\/span>impending recession<\/span><\/a> in 2025. Riggen even said she felt it was \u201cappropriate\u201d to add a timely component like the abuse of artificial intelligence to her \u201cpopcorn\u201d action flick, especially after seeing \u201cthe deepfakes of presidents online\u201d herself.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my god,\u2019\u201d she told Far Out, \u201c\u2018It\u2019s actually happening.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Again, the boundary between fiction and reality feels increasingly hazy when films like \u201cG20\u201d reference so many contemporary issues. But that\u2019s virtually unavoidable for any material that steps into political territory.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Eden<\/div>\n
Eden Lee (from left) as Agent Angela Kim, Mozhan Navabi as Melissa Kornblau, Robert De Niro as George Mullen, Connie Britton as Valerie Whitesell, Jay Klaitz as Tim Pennington and Ignacio Diaz-Silverio as Cesar Rocha in “Zero Day.”<\/div>\n
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Such is the case in \u201cZero Day,\u201d which sees sitting U.S. President Evelyn Mitchell (Bassett) \u2014 yet another female president character who warrants more Harris comparisons \u2014 tap retired President Mullen (De Niro) to lead an investigation into the deadly cyberattack that paralyzes the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This wouldn\u2019t be the first time television reimagined a 9\/11-level terrorist attack \u2014 see, for instance, \u201cThe Looming Tower\u201d and \u201cHomeland.\u201d However, it\u2019s interesting that \u201cZero Day,\u201d released Feb. 20, sparked a new dialogue about digital security risks \u2014 amid today\u2019s disinformation age \u2014 shortly before Trump <\/span>fired the head of the National Security Agency<\/span><\/a> and allowed his administration to <\/span>halt funding for two cybersecurity efforts<\/span><\/a>. A coincidence, yes, but still just as chilling.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI saw this as an opportunity to say, \u2019OK, the federal government was never able to show the public what a cyber Pearl Harbor [or a] cyber 9\/11 [could] look like,\u201d \u201cZero Day\u201d co-creator and executive producer Michael S. Schmidt, also a New York Times journalist, explained to <\/span>Tudum<\/span><\/a>. \u201cLet\u2019s take that opportunity and provide people with an example of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The miniseries takes some obvious creative liberties with its portrayal, as the culprits behind this particular attack came from inside the White House \u2014 Speaker of the House Richard Dreyer (Matthew Modine) and Mullen\u2019s daughter, Alex (Lizzy Caplan), along with finance billionaire Robert Lyndon (Clark Gregg) and the Elon Musk-esque tech billionaire Monica Kidder (Gaby Hoffmann) \u2014 and not some foreign land. But the general idea, according to Schmidt, was to show, \u201cIf there was something majorly catastrophic that happened to our country right now, how would the country react?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Schmidt, Newman and co-creator Noah Oppenheim pooled their collective understanding of U.S. politics to probe their TV examination, but they also turned to expert consultants (like a former FBI agent and a former White House deputy press secretary) to inform its realism, hence the parallels with past and present news.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOne of the most important parts of this show was that this had to be as realistic and believable as possible,\u201d Schmidt noted to Tudum. \u201cYes, we have to tell a great story, and we have to have a thriller aspect to this, but it still needs to be as authentic as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"James<\/div>\n
James Marsden as President Cal Bradford and Sterling K. Brown as agent Xavier Collins in “Paradise.”<\/div>\n
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Hulu\u2019s \u201cParadise,\u201d which premiered on the streamer in January and is now airing weekly on ABC, follows a similar approach to real-world problems stemming from a White House conspiracy. While the series is more a musing on the aftermath of a nuclear mass extinction event that wipes out nearly all of humanity, it does have a few political tendencies. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For example, the show\u2019s doomsday plot forces 25,000 citizens into a hidden bunker and was triggered by a supervolcano erupting in Antarctica. It\u2019s no doubt a wink to years of insistent warnings of climate change, which Trump has famously called a \u201c<\/span>hoax<\/span><\/a>\u201d and <\/span>continuously attacked<\/span><\/a>. There\u2019s also the assassination attempt and brutal murder of a president (James Marsden) under the watch of lead Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) that uncovers a lot of the show\u2019s darkness. Of course, that\u2019s not meant to reflect the <\/span>attempts made on Trump\u2019s life last year<\/span><\/a>, but the timing is serendipitous.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those aren\u2019t the most striking resemblances I noticed in \u201cParadise,\u201d though \u2014 that would be the show\u2019s titular hideout.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In \u201cParadise,\u201d Samantha \u201cSinatra\u201d Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), a powerful tech billionaire with very close ties to the government (much like Musk), comes up with the idea to build \u201cthe world\u2019s largest underground city\u201d beneath a mountain in Colorado after hearing a lecture about an imminent global catastrophe. With her resources and influence, Sinatra, along with a team of billionaires, controls the only known advanced civilization that remains on Earth. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That\u2019s a lot of political power to give to someone without a political background, although <\/span>we\u2019ve seen this<\/span><\/a> happen before<\/span><\/a>. We also heard about the doomsday billionaire bunker trend before \u201cParadise\u201d brought it to fruition.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2024, <\/span>Vice<\/span><\/a> published a report on the Silicon Valley elite building bunkers to escape an apocalyptic calamity. The year prior, <\/span>Wired<\/span><\/a> released an investigation into Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s $100 million secret Hawaii compound, a project that was said to include \u201cbunker-like qualities.\u201d Because of that news, Atlas Survival Shelters CEO Ron Hubbard told <\/span>The Hollywood Reporter<\/span><\/a> last year it \u201ccaused a [bunker] buying frenzy.\u201d Even without \u201cParadise,\u201d end-of-the-world scenarios are clearly on the minds of the wealthy \u2014 and perhaps they\u2019re not as irrational as we might think.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Brown<\/div>\n
Brown as Agent Collins in the doomsday episode of “Paradise.”<\/div>\n
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But that\u2019s just a piece of the show that draws viewers in, and it gives me pause about what inspires such political-esque storylines. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What makes media like \u201cParadise,\u201d \u201cZero Day\u201d and \u201cG20\u201d so popular among audiences is not staking claim over any particular narrative or being an insider scoop on the American government. But if they get close enough to that, people are willing to tune in.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cFeeling like you have an inside track to that world is appealing to a lot of people,\u201d pop culture enthusiast Hunter Harris told <\/span>Town & Country<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There\u2019s also the playing on societal fears that derive from what could be happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. that get people so engrossed in political entertainment. I mean, that\u2019s what makes a White House murder mystery like \u201cThe Residence\u201d sound more fun than frightening, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, what are we to make of these fictional parallels onscreen if not subtle observations of what could be or, perhaps, what <\/span>shouldn\u2019t<\/span> be happening in this country\u2019s political sphere? In the end, it\u2019s not just the thrill that keeps us watching \u2014 it\u2019s the curiosity about how close to the truth these wild stories really are.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n


\n \u2018O artigo anterior pode incluir informa\u00e7\u00f5es divulgadas por terceiros\u2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Alguns detalhes deste artigo foram extra\u00eddos da seguinte fonte celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning: This story contains spoilers for \u201cZero Day,\u201d \u201cG20\u2033 and \u201cParadise.\u201d Another U.S. president was accused of being unfit for the job. No, I\u2019m not talking about Donald Trump\u2019s questionable leadership or even the criticism Joe Biden faced last year during his reelection campaign. This is an accusation Robert De Niro\u2019s former President George Mullen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1267351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estrelas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1267350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1267351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1267350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1267350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1267350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}