Chernobyl
This exceptional miniseries looks back at the catastrophic nuclear disaster of 1986.
This exceptional miniseries looks back at the catastrophic nuclear disaster of 1986.
Dramatising the events at Chernobyl in 1986, where a power plant accident caused the worst nuclear disaster in human history, was never going to make for cheery viewing. But the Chernobyl miniseries drips with so much dread and dismay that it oozes from the screen, infecting everyone watching and burrowing deep into viewers' souls. That's by design, and also 100-percent necessary. There's no way to revisit this chapter of history without being horrified. And that reaction applies not just to the intricacies of Saturday, April 26 in that fateful year, but to everything that lead up to the disaster, as well as the bureaucratic and government response that followed.
Writer/creator Craig Mazin and director Johan Renck bring all of the above to the screen in devastating, meticulously researched detail, with exceptional help from stars Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson and Paul Ritter. The end result may only span five episodes, but it represents some of the best TV made in the 21st century.
