The HBO miniseries Chernobyl is about the events immediately following the horrific Chernobyl explosion that occurred April 1986, and the efforts to contain and stop the catastrophic fallout and consequences of human hubris. We follow professor Valery Legasov (Jared Harris), Council of minister's deputy chairman Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgard), and nuclear physicist Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson, her character is fictional, and meant to represent all the scientists who worked effortlessly during the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster) who are tasked with getting the situation under control and uncovering the reason for the explosion. Needless to say, both are herculean, almost impossible tasks.
Chernobyl is about the explosion, and why things went so horrifically, unimaginably wrong. It's also very much so about the thousands of men and women who put their lives on the line in an effort to ensure things didn't get any worse. It's a harrowing, horrifying nightmare and is incredibly grim, bleak and graphic. The show doesn't hold back when it comes to depicting the full horrors of the Icarus fable, and what happens when man is foolish enough to think he has complete control over anything and everything. Bodies melt, babies die, sacrifices are made, and people suffer unimaginably.
Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, and Emily Watson (who's character also represents the viewpoint of history) are all phenomenal and put on fantastic performances as people that are struggling not only against enormous odds, but also against a system/government that is dedicated to disinformation and lies. The show does a great job at memorializing not just Legasov and Shcherbina and their heroic efforts, but also the efforts and tireless work of everyone who worked around the clock to neutralize the aftermath and effects of Chernobyl.
Chernobyl makes for a tough, but informative and rewarding watch. It is a dramatization/fictionalization so don't assume it gets everything right (It doesn't. It does seem to get the sequence of events that lead to the explosion correct, the same goes for the basics of the clean-up effort). The show succeeds in showing just how small man is when compared to the power of the Gods (It really does make you feel like an ant. A bunch of ants trying to extinguish an inextinguishable fire), and it certainly will make you want to chuck your cell phone and any device that emits radiation into the nearest garbage can (the effects of radiation sickness are truly sickening and horrifying). In the end, if you are looking for a great piece of horror based on a real-life nightmare...Chernobyl is the way to go. It's only 5 episodes, but is still challenging, effective, and is easily the most horrifying piece of "entertainment" to come out of 2019.
5 STARS
Some articles about what Chernobyl got right and wrong
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-hbos-chernobyl-got-right-and-what-it-got-terribly-wrong
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/06/27/how-hbo-got-it-wrong-on-chernobyl/
https://www.businessinsider.com/chernobyl-hbo-whats-true-myths-2019-5
https://www.businessinsider.com/chernobyl-director-hbo-series-villain-hero-2019-7
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