Chernobyl

I recently watched HBO’s new miniseries, Chernobyl, and it really exceeded my expectations. I know there were some historical inaccuracies as there are with any docudrama, but from my understanding, Chernobyl gets all the key events right, and most of the details as well (particularly with the costumes and set design). It also provided a good explanation of how the disaster actually happened, which was new, much appreciated information to me.

The acting was phenomenal—I particularly loved Emily Watson’s portrayal of her character. The scenes with firefighters on the night of the disaster and the following weeks, as well as the stories of the miners and the young men sent to Pripyat in the following months to do damage control were particularly gripping, and they really reinforce the humanity of the people who had to deal with this disaster—it really helps you to understand the Soviet people during the Cold War period as fellow human beings who care about and are motivated by the same things as us, rather than as mortal enemies.

The main theme of the series has to do with the importance of truth and the danger of lies, and there were some incredible quotes. My favorite:

With every lie we tell, we incur a debt to the truth.

Interestingly, HBO also produced an official podcast with episodes that corresponded with each episode of the show, where the show’s creator discusses the events of each installment; maybe I’m living under a rock, but no other show I’ve watched has done this to my knowledge, and I thought it was a great way to offer background information that otherwise wouldn’t have been provided.