Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

TL;DR stop whatever you're doing right now, and watch this show. Seriously, put this on your watch list. Subscribe to HBO Now or add it to your Amazon Prime or whatever, just long enough to watch Chernobyl. And then buy it when it comes out on Blu and watch it again. I cannot recommend it enough. Absolutely stellar work from everyone involved, and a real breath of fresh air after the disaster that was the last season of Game of Thrones, which probably ranks right up there as one of (if not the) biggest disappointments in the history of television. The writing, the acting, the cinematography, the music and sound design, and the dedication to the authenticity in scenery, props, vehicles, and costumes are all top notch. They went to great lengths to shoot on location in actual facilities that were very similar to Chernobyl and Pripyat, and they didn't succumb to the typical production shortcuts like, for example, using Huey helicopters to stand in for the Soviets' own Mil helos that were actually used. You can't take this sort of attention to detail for granted with big-budget Hollywood films, to say nothing of a made-for-TV miniseries. Most impressive still, I think, is that they were able to simplify, condense, and even fictionalize certain aspects of the disaster and its aftermath without disrespecting those that took part, and also without disrespecting the audience by overly dumbing it down. Some characters are painted in broad strokes, and some aspects of the historical truth are dramatized for the sake of storytelling, but for the most part the showrunners remain true to the most important facets: the root causes of the disaster, and the sheer determination and will on the part of many thousands of people to deal with the aftermath and prevent an even bigger catastrophe from unfolding, and the suffering they endured as a result. The show doesn't shy away from some of the more traumatic and terrible results, either, making certain scenes very difficult to watch; the effects of acute radiation poisoning are depicted in all their stomach-churning brutality, as is the soul-crushing task of the soldiers assigned to cull the contaminated animal population of the affected area. It's not flawless: some lines of dialogue are a bit on-the-nose, and one character in particular is clearly there as a vehicle for the narrative to progress more than for any other reason, but it's necessary to give people enough information to understand what's going on while also not overwhelming them with a huge number of intricate scientific details or characters to follow. Exquisitely paced, the narrative strikes a near-perfect balance between the causes and consequences of the disaster itself, the very human (and very painful) impact on the people who were most affected by it, and the culture of denial, incompetence, and unaccountability that precipitated and then presided over the entire drama. It's gripping from the first moment to the last, and not a single scene is wasted here. The most damning criticisms are leveled (rightfully so) at the Soviet government, and the culture of secrecy, denial, and finger-pointing that grew up around it. It was a system that existed based on lies, assigning blame, and refusing to accept or acknowledge basic, observable truths and scientific facts simply because they were uncomfortable or inconvenient. It was a system where people could be disgraced, imprisoned, or even killed for saying something out of line with the prevailing narrative. And this is startlingly relevant today, 33 years later, in the western world. Chernobyl is harrowing. It's haunting. It's stomach-churning. It's heartbreaking. It's brilliant.