CHERNOBYL HBO
Review by E. Perryman

Elizabeth Honer and I have finished watching the extraordinary Chernobyl miniseries. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a must imo.

My Top 11 reactions:

The writing is a masterpiece. It is a five episode triumph.
The overall attention to detail from the control room to Pripyat shows a deep seated respect for the lives lost and those still affected by the tragedy, some who weren’t even alive in April 1986.
The characters are thoughtfully written with nuance and grace. All have light and dark with varying degrees.….well maybe with the exception of a certain person in episode 5….
I was so moved and previously unaware of the self sacrifice and bravery of so many citizens. Their moral choices carried life or death consequences during this regime. Witnessing these acts changed my mind when admittedly at first I was angrily thinking that this culture should stick to singing and not be trusted with nuclear safety.
The series has extremely graphic moments. It pulls no punches with showing what happens to people so greatly affected by the radiation. Hard to believe that clothing dumped after that night still emits dangerously high levels of radiation and Chernobyl will be safe to inhabit in 20,000 years. Archaeologists are going to have quite a find.
There is an eerie moment at the end of episode one that definitely seemed to be a nod to Alfred Hitchcock.
The science of the film is accessible to the layman (eg me) especially as the episodes evolve. Episode 5 is especially coherent for the non native scientific minds.
One gripe: The animal episode made its point very clearly but in my opinion was overdone.
If only people listened to Rocky in Rocky 4 in 1985. He and Drago were ahead of their time.
USSR coal miners give life. My capitalist brain believes if they don’t already have one, they need their own calendar.
An uplifting side effect of this tragedy is that after three decades without humans in the area around the plant, it has become a haven for wildlife.