Chernobyl

I watched this amazing mini-series when it was originally released in 2019. For five weeks, every Monday, I tuned in and watched in a state of stunned disbelief as the events of the Chernobyl disaster were laid bare. (I rewatched it again sometime in the 2020s) When the actual explosion at Chernobyl happened, April 26th, 1986, I remember hearing about it in the news. I was in elementary school, but old enough to have a basic understanding this this was bad, really bad...but the news coverage at the time, had no idea of the scope and actual danger that this disaster actually posed. Chernobyl was partly a failure of science, but mostly a failure of bureaucracy, human error, and political pride. This show, while not a documentary, was strongly based on facts. Screen writer, Craig Mazin, wrote the script and screenplay taking inspiration from historical documents and interviews with Russian scientists and also largely from the novel Voices from Chernobyl by Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich. The direction of this series was a mammoth undertaking helmed by director, Johan Renck, who was mostly know for directing commercials (and still is), but was masterful in brining this story to life. The cast was outstanding, the score brilliant, the editing, the cinematography, everything was high level. One thing that is a slight oddity, is that, for the award shows, this was considered a television mini-series. As such, was not considered for any Academy Awards, but it did win 10 Primetime Emmy Awards (the third most in history for a mini-series) As with most shows of this type, I like to research how much of the show was sensationalized and how much was accurate. This article does an excellent job breaking it down: The cost of lies: A technical analysis of HBO's Chernobyl