Chernobyl by Craig Mazin - 9.4 out of 10

Chernobyl by Craig Mazin
9.4 out of 10


It is difficult, if not impossible, to find a more compelling, terrible, relevant story, that is to cap it all almost one hundred percent accurate.

There is the issue of the artistic license, the dialogue has to be imagined, but the core, the horrible aspects of the Chernobyl disaster find an extremely suitable, truthful setup in this series, that has gathered such a devoted following that people travel to the place and take selfies near the scene of the calamity.
The writer and others warn those devout viewers, who have a strange understanding of what they saw in the adaptation for HBO.

On a personal note, I remember how agitated we became when we learned about the accident, even in the glorious scenery of the Black Sea shore, where we had been vacationing, with Sherika and Adrian, my best friends, more than one thousand miles from the nuclear catastrophe.
The series deals better with the themes, although a film is surely considered, because it has the time to look at the human drama, the tragedy of those who die in terrible pain, the group guilt, heroic attitude of miners, volunteers who gave their lives in order to save millions, the incompetence so many officials and also the biggest responsibility of all, which rests with the communist system, no matter what its sympathizer a would try to assert.

It is rare for a television production to try to be so accurate and comprehensive, looking at the tragedy of the victims and their families, human errors, the vanity of a local management interested in self promotion, but also, the science behind the nuclear energy production, the graphite, uranium, the reactions that generate a myriad of what they call bullets and the scale of the Armageddon that a potential meltdown would cause.
It may might seem that once the accident has taken place, there is nothing more to anticipate, except for the extent of the human and animal suffering.

But we learn new things and even after the alleged worst would have happened, there is the potential of a nuclear holocaust, with entire populations wiped out and huge territories made uninhabitable for generations.
Therefore miners have to work underground to create the necessary obstacles so that further disasters would not take place and many other soldiers and civilians would work in deadly surroundings to throw the graphite from the roofs, pour cement from helicopters and perform so many other tasks necessary when a nuclear disaster takes place.

If there is one small criticism, it would be that the communist system is not depicted in all its monstrosity, albeit it would be hard and admittedly, this is not the main goal of an artistic project, it is the task of a documentary.
Notwithstanding that argument, the KGB could have been a little more pervasive- they are present, harass the main characters, but most viewers might miss the crucial fact that this loathsome institution and the other communist outfits, together with maybe the most vicious doctrine ever designed, are the cause of Cernobyl and the many millions killed ...a few times more than the Nazi regime.

Someone was asking at the sauna - for we discussed there this excellent production- where is the KGB agent that worked at the nuclear plant?
Indeed, where is that local Putin?

Cernobyl is certainly an outstanding accomplishment, far better than Game of Thrones I guess, even if I have only seen one episode of the series that has had most of the world addicted.