Csernobil

Chernobyl offers a breathtaking five hours that takes you back more than three decades in time to learn what preceded and followed the worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power through an authentic and extremely raw portrayal. Although Legasov's fate is revealed in the first few minutes, by not telling the story in a linear fashion, the creators managed to keep me riveted until the very end. In the ruins of the devastated power plant and its surroundings, to the tune of agonizing, metallic-sounding music (as if to evoke the explosion itself), a dual struggle is waged for life and for truth, and it is all the sadder to see death and lies winning. Judging the degree of responsibility of the various players and coming to terms with what actually led to the meltdown certainly couldn't have been easy or one-sidedly clear, but the series offers a truly realistic view of the event, no matter how much it deviates from or adheres to reality. I commend the creators for not only focusing on the investigation of the accident and its investigators, but for also offering a glimpse into the lives of the ordinary people affected by it, giving the whole thing a broader and more objective scope. The central trio of actors – Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson – and the supporting cast played their parts to perfection. I definitely consider the sequences from the hospital with the burned victims, the killing of the animals in the area and of course the final trial to be the most powerful, uncomfortable and chilling scenes of the entire miniseries. As ambiguous as the view of the infamous disaster may seem, the miniseries is clearly a very high quality piece of work that deserves attention without question. (2019.07.22)