HBO's Intense Miniseries Explores Disaster's Human Toll

HBO Max is filled with incredible miniseries, but this one from 2019 is arguably its best, though you may feel exhausted once it’s over. The treasure trove of excellent miniseries on HBO is something so much more special than we tend to give it credit for. Nearly everyone is either amazing or, at worst, very good.

What they aren’t, however, is easy watching. Most tend to be heavy, dramatic fare, maybe none more so than 2019’s Chernobyl, a five-episode miniseries based on the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Chernobyl shows the collective of humanity at a deep low point, and you might not find yourself revisiting the series soon.

Chernobyl Is One Of The Best Original Series On HBO Max

Chernobyl is one of the very best miniseries on HBO Max, and it could be argued that it’s one of the best shows, period. The series explores the events leading up to the meltdown, the meltdown itself, the cleanup afterwards, and the international and personal repercussions of the deadly event.

At no point in the series does it ever feel like the protagonists are going to succeed in ending the pain this event causes, and in a way, they never do. It’s not just a morose slog, though. It’s a mystery series with scientists and researchers working against the clock to contain the fallout.

Chernobyl is a Cold War spy thriller with the KGB happy to protect the ruling class of the USSR at any cost. It’s also a series that shows the power of tiny acts of bravery, and how the right person in the right place can make all the difference.

Chernobyl Is A Heavy Show

From the first scene of the show, which opens on a suicide, to the last, which shows photographs of the real people depicted in the show alongside explanations of what has happened at Chernobyl since the meltdown, Chernobyl is a brutal and challenging series.

There aren’t exactly comic relief moments in the show, save for some gallows humor. The unwillingness of characters in Chernobyl to take blame for the event is upsetting enough, but when you start to realize that their unwillingness is making things worse, you might start to get angry.

Chernobyl forces its audience to realize how one of the greatest dangers to humanity isn’t always evil people, but the incompetent, cowardly, and narcissistic ones, and those are a dime a dozen in real life.

Why It’s Still Worth It To Return To Chernobyl

A worker enters a flooded nuclear plant in Chernobyl series

Despite how Chernobyl puts you on the edge of your seat and forces you to contend with dark realities and tragic histories, I do think Chernobyl is worth returning to. If you can stomach the sight of people’s skin sloughing off and of radiated dogs being buried in massive graves, give it another go.

Chernobyl explains the stakes of the events and the hows and whys of what happened with a knotty, though clearly told logic. When you go back to Chernobyl, you recognize more connections, understand the danger everyone is in, and maybe learn how an RBMK reactor core explodes.