Chernobyl (miniseries)

Chernobyl is a 2019 historical drama television miniseries that revolves around the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the cleanup efforts that followed.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) There's lots of legal drama and geopolitical intrigue.
 * 2) While it may not be a 100% faithful to the events it stays true to disaster and respect for the people that died.
 * 3) It has been helped by parallels to present political conditions, as well as its drawing on popular genres such as disaster movie and legal drama.
 * 4) The way the show builds suspense is nothing short of masterful.
 * 5) Great acting for all the actors.
 * 6) Great cinematography.
 * 7) There's no one main character. Instead, the show follows the events of the accident through multiple characters' points of view.
 * 8) Every character gets to have a pivotal moment that's all their own.
 * 9) There's also an implicit critique in the way women are dismissed or not believed in the show.
 * 10) Each detail of the production is outstanding.
 * 11) It is visually stunning.
 * 12) There are so many scenes, especially the ones that illustrate the effects of radiation will leave you terrified.
 * 13) Finally, it's a very short series making it perfect for getting through on a few weeknights or one solid weekend.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) There are several inaccuracies.
 * 2) Some scenes can be disturbing to younger viewers.

Reception
Chernobyl received almost unanimous critical acclaim in the West. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 96% based on 95 reviews, with an average rating of 8.94/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Chernobyl rivets with a creeping dread that never dissipates, dramatizing a national tragedy with sterling craft and an intelligent dissection of institutional rot." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". By June 2019, it had become the highest-rated TV series of all time on IMDb, with a score of 9.7/10 from over 140,000 users. As of October 2020, it is the fifth-highest-rated TV series with a score of 9.4/10 from over 500,000 users.

Reviewers from The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and BBC observed parallels to contemporary society by focusing on the power of information and how dishonest leaders can make mistakes beyond their comprehension. Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic hailed the series as a "grim disquisition on the toll of devaluing the truth"; Hank Stuever of The Washington Post praised it for showcasing "what happens when lying is standard and authority is abused". Meera Syal praised Chernobyl as a "fiercely intelligent exposition of the human cost of state censorship. Would love to see similar exposé" of the Bhopal disaster. David Morrison was "struck by the attention to accuracy" and says the "series does an outstanding job of presenting the technical and human issues of the accident." Aaron Giovannone writes critically of the series in the socialist publication Jacobin, stating that "even as we worry about the ongoing ecological crisis caused by capitalism, Chernobyl revels in the failure of the historical alternative to capitalism," which reinforces the status quo, offering us "no way out" of the crisis.