Chernobyl — Series Review
Chernobyl is a miniseries that debuted on HBO back in 2019 and it tells the story of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in which a fire and explosion occured at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, leading to lethal amounts of radiation spreading all throughout parts of the Soviet Union. The show follows the disaster, the clean up, the politics of the disaster, and basically everything that happened in the immediate aftermath of the explosion.
I unfortunately never saw this show as it aired back in 2019, I had heard consistently great things about it. I still never got around to watching it until September 2020 in the midst of the pandemic when I noticed it on HBO Max. I decided to give it a watch and then spend the next few days kicking myself over not taking the chance to watch this show earlier, because I was apparently missing out on one hell of a show. And now after having given it a rewatch, I want to give my review.
From the very first episode, this show puts on an absolute clinic in tension. The entire first episode is the disaster as it unfolds at the power plant and you’re immediately thrown into the severity of it all. The conversations gradually get worse to listen to as you hear all of the potential scenarios that could play out and they get even more gripping as you see the bureaucracy behind trying to sweep this whole thing under the rug and play it off as nothing. And when the tension isn’t happening in dialogue, it’s happening in the simple image of a firefighter picking up a small piece of graphite, which is basically a small chunk of solid radiation. You may not know the science behind it all, but the show does a great job of showing just how much of a death sentence graphite is. There’s a lingering sense of dread and foreboding throughout the entire first episode and it sticks all the way through the series.
Playing off of that, this show is able to perfectly capture tension, suspense, and anxiety in its worse forms all through something as simple as a piece of graphite or the sound of a geiger counter, a device used to detect radiation. There are scenes in this show that genuinely had me on edge as the characters made some attempt at trying to clean up the disaster and the tension all comes from knowing that the silent killer that is radiation is all throughout virtually every space that these characters inhibit. Episode 3 in particular shows an up close, visceral look at the victims of radiation and that basically sealed any doubt that I had about the lethality of even the smallest doses of radiation. And with that, I’ll say that episode 3 is NOT for anyone with a weak stomach.
One of the driving forces in this show is that of the relationship between Valery Legasov and Boris Shcherbina, played by Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgard, respectively. Right off the bat, these two characters (real life people in this event) butt heads over the danger of this whole disaster, Legasov being the scientific expert on radiation and Shcherbina being the bureaucrat who doesn’t understand just how problematic things are because of Chernobyl. The show quickly becomes about them, the trials that they face together as they try to make things right, and how they grow as characters, individually and as a duo. What with the show being a showing of the grand disaster on such a large scale, it needed some type of human element to ground things and remind you of what’s being fought for and that’s where the brilliant camaraderie between Legasov and Shcherbina comes it play, Harris and Skarsgard both excellently playing their roles in performances that deserve all of the awards.
With episode 1 being the disaster as it plays out, the next three episodes deal with a multitude of things, such as the politics, the effects of radiation, the clean up, and the reality of the situation as it dawns of these very real, very sympathetic characters who are stuck in a very harsh time. All of this is fantastic to watch, and then comes the finale in episode 5, where it’s all one giant courtroom drama and it’s engaging from the very beginning. One of the best things that can be said about it is its ability to properly explain the science behind everything and making it easy to follow for the everyman who doesn’t have a degree in nuclear physics. You will be hooked, not only by the science, but the conclusion for the characters, the culmination of events, and an ending that really leaves you with a somber feeling at knowing everything that occured in the aftermath of the explosion at Chernobyl.
Where the show’s true strength lies is in making you as an audience member feel like not only a person watching a show, but a helpless observer. You just have to sit and watch these horrible things happening to innocent people, all because of error from a small handful of humans on one fateful night. And when you see everything happening, you get a real sense of perspective. This show, unlike any history class you’ve ever taken, will put you right in the middle of Chernobyl and leave you with no option but to just watch helplessly. This show displays that the entire disaster was so much more than one explosion on one night and it plays to the strengths of the show’s director, Johan Renck.
Chernobyl is a show that I simply can’t recommend enough. As a piece of historical storytelling it’ll inform you, keep you engaged with the characters, shock you with the imagery, lay on neverending tension, and leave you with a feeling of melancholy in knowing all of the horrendous things that happened and also seeing just how much was done to fix things in the long run. I was emotionally drained by the show’s end, but in the best way possible. This is simply a fantastic show, running only five episodes long and currently on HBO Max. It’s amazing television in how it’s able to balance showing the wide scale of the event while staying true to the emotional core that lies within the characters.
