Chernobyl HBO Mini-series Review

Chernobyl (2019)
Mini-seris - 5 episodes

Watch the trailer
Created by: Craig Mazin
Starring: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson
Rated: TV-MA

Plot
In April 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics becomes one of the world's worst man-made catastrophes.

Verdict
From the very start of this series I loved it. It's an amazing story that's true. That fact gives this an extra impact. The production design is fantastic, the directing is effective, and the writing that serves as the foundation is excellent. It's absolutely amazing and a must watch. It follow the Chernobyl disaster from the beginning through the perspective of a scientist and bureaucrat. The series does everything right, presenting this story while also urging the viewer to do their own research. While Chernobyl is an incredible event, this series does an incredible job of portraying that story.
Watch it.

Review
I knew about this HBO series early as I listen to writer Craig Mazin's podcast Scriptnotes. This series is incredibly well made. It's clear HBO didn't short change any aspect of this. While I'd say the third episode is the weakest, it's still very good. The episode has the challenge of bridging the introduction of the event with the lead into the conclusion.
This series is so good, that I watched each episode twice as they aired. It doesn't always film things as you would expect. There are a lot of choices that are creative and different in how we see this story unfold. The fact it's based on fact is fascinating. After the first episode I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia reading about the actual event and looking at Chernobyl now, thirty years later.

Even from the first episode this show has really neat creative details. We don't see the blast, we see a flash of light from a window. Then the shock wave happens. We watch crews and employees try to determine what happened, knowing radiation is killing them. They have no idea. That's what makes this so tragic, so many people walked into a death trap and didn't know it.

Everyone wants to pass the blame. The radiation meters are maxed out, and the people in charge are content to report that as the radiation level, knowing it's much higher. While the heads of Chernobyl are quick to state it's under control, it's not. The first episode is a slow plodding march into utter destruction and death.
Lagasov is the scientist that we'll follow through the series, and he knows just how bad the situation is. Convincing the government of that is difficult. People want to protect themselves or are too scared to believe the truth. They think they're too big to fail. Russia is spreading misinformation to spare the country embarrassment.

Lagasov and Shcherbina.

The second episode might be better than the first. Again, the directing is so good. The writing is just as good. Lagasov explains to Shcherbina how nuclear reactors work, a neat narrative trick to explain to the viewer what's going on. That explanation is used by Shcherbina when a Chernobyl engineer tries to argue with Lagasov. It's not just knowing the truth, you have to be forceful and use it as a weapon in the same way Russia uses lies as a weapon.

A scene accentuates the irradiated clothes nurses are removing from first responders. The focus is on the ever growing pile of clothes being discarded. It's something you don't see filmed in such a way, and that's why the directing is notable. It's different, but has an impact.It slows down the action allowing us to reflect on what's happening.

Russia must send it's men to die to fix this situation. The ending of this episode is incredible, relying on the sound of a radiation detector. The scene is preceded by Shcherbina's rousing speech to get men to volunteer for such an enviable task.

While episode three feels weaker than the others, it also shows us the magnitude of what this story is, and what it represents. We're shown the effects of radiation on people. This episode is moving away from the event to the after effects.
No one can figure out how the reactor exploded. It was considered impossible.

Episode four jumps ahead in time. After four months, they still don't know how to clean up the mess. The radiation kills humans and fries electronic circuit boards. Remote controlled units just don't work. The only answer is men on thirty second shifts.
A large portion of this episode takes place away from the reactor. The stakes feel lower because of it, but that doesn't lessen the emotional impact. It's almost forced emotion, with what we see. Cities are deserted and pets are left behind. The animals are ignorant of what's going on and what's to come. It's not that different from the people.

Mazin stated at one point the series was six episodes, but that felt too long. The pacing of this show is excellent. It's a great piece of writing and episode five is the trial to determine who's to blame. While the Chernobyl engineer Dyatlove made a lot of mistakes, those mistakes were also based on assumptions about the reactor Russia built cheaply. There is a cost to lies and that's what this series explores.