How Chernobyl Miniseries(H.B.O) Shook me to the Core!

                The first time I heard about Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster(1986) was in the video game Call Of Duty 4:Modern Warfare in a mission that was entirely set in the abandoned city of Pripyat. It is the longest and the best mission in Call Of Duty history.One of the main characters Captain Price says '50000 people used to live there,now its a ghost town.' This quote was probably the single most powerful quote in a video game ever,a quote that was intriguing and compelled me to know more about this disaster.Too bad back in the day there was barely any Internet so it was kind of impossible to do more research on it but that damn video game gave me the path to be intrigued by it.It gave me the opportunity to move around a 3D graphics intensive version of Pripyat and it was an accurate Remake of the original city too.Finally time passed,Internet access improved and I got the chance to do more research on it.I got to watch so many educational videos on it,watched so many Vlogs made by different Youtubers,learned more about radiation and its measurement and the danger levels,learned how a simple test caused one of the most awful man-made disaster in history,learned about the emergency evacuation of the city of Pripyat and how people were told that they will return after 3 days but they never came back,the infamous firefighters and soldiers who sacrificed their lives and the fire fighters did not even know what was going to happen to them and seeing how mother nature was taking over the abandoned city was fascinating and sad all at the same time.It was a reminder that no matter what happens,mother nature will always take over.The story of the disaster was very haunting and showed the dark past of a city that was at the brink of advancements.So when I heard that H.B.O was making Miniseries based on the incident,I was very excited to see how it was going to play out.

Chernobyl is a historical drama television miniseries created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck for HBO. The series centers around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 1986 and the unprecedented cleanup efforts that followed. Produced by HBO in association with Sky UK, it features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson.The series premiered in five parts in the United States on May 6, 2019, and concurrently in the United Kingdom on May 7, to critical acclaim. At the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, it received nineteen nominations, including Outstanding Limited Series and acting nominations for Harris, Skarsgård, and Watson.The miniseries is based in large part on the recollections of Pripyat locals, as told by Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich in her book Voices from Chernobyl.

            Chernobyl dramatizes the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster that happened in The USSR and tells the story about the people who caused the incident and the people who responded to the incident.The show divides the incident into three timelines,the moments before the incident,the incident itself and the aftermath of the incident that also includes the cleanup process.Believe me,Chernobyl is not just a masterpiece,it is once in the life time masterpiece that every one should watch!From the riveting storytelling to the the most outclassed acting,the amazing soundtrack,the haunting atmosphere,the tension,etc, it is all there.I watched it weekly when it was airing and to be honest,Chernobyl was the best TV experience of my life!(I watched it on a mobile though)Every episode is haunting and shivering.I was tense,I was worried,I was laughing and then I was sad and devastated.This show destroyed my heart and my soul.

The Storytelling

Let me start by saying that the first/premier/pilot episode of the show is the most captivating pilot episode of any show that I have ever seen.It is intense and shivering and it sets the grounds for what is to come in the future.To be honest you are left wandering about what they will show in the remaining four episode but the show surprises you by showing the things that most people do not even think about.Not only the show focuses on the disaster but it also focuses on the politics behind it which is very interesting and that brings a genuine feeling of anger within us.It shows the awful practices of the communist USSR government and how their carelessness caused the disaster in the first place and how they did not care about what happened to their people.All they cared about was about their own reputation this why the information about the incident was stopped from spreading worldwide.The show really focuses on the suffering of people of Pripyat ,how they were told suddenly to evacuate the city one day leaving all their belongings behind, some of which are still there in their homes till this date.It shows us the dark events that the firefighters faced during the incident.They responded to a simple fire alert but they did not even know that it was no ordinary fire because they were never even informed about the radiation.That is where the show uses the feeling of dread against us.We see the Firefighters trying to stop a fire but they did not even knew that they were dead the moment they arrived at the scene without proper radiation gear and that feeling that you get about what was going to happen to them later in the series was very disturbing.We see their bodies burn and melt and decay slowly due to radiation in a very disturbing later episode that shows some of the best use of prosthetic makeup I have ever seen.I was able to feel their pain and suffering and I wanted them to die so that they could be free of the pain.

     Then there is the infamous cleanup of the roof by the soldiers which is also very tense and shivering.That scene is so beautifully directed and most importantly, it is a one shot!It is crazy when you think about the fact that each soldier had only about 90 seconds to clean the debris off the plant roof and get the hell out.It was chilling.There is also the story of the three men who went into the radioactive waters of the power plant to stop the water supply that could have caused even a bigger explosion into the remaining nuclear reactor cores and that scene was a tension bag and so tight.And then there is also the rather unknown story of the miners who were given the task to dig under the exploded reactor 4.And the finale is the most effective finale I have ever seen in any show ever.I think the way the story is told is out of this world and it flows as smoothly as butter.Writer Craig Mazin has done a fantastic job.

The Acting

The Acting in this show is out of the world and absolutely brilliant!The four biggies of the series are definitely Jared Harris who plays the role of  Valery Legasov, the deputy director of Kurchatov Institute brought to aid clean up efforts; Stellan Skarsgård who plays Boris Shcherbina, the Council of Ministers' deputy chairman; Emily Watson who plays Ulana Khomyuk, a nuclear physicist from Minsk. Khomyuk is a fictional composite character, who Watson says "represents the many scientists who worked fearlessly and put themselves in a lot of danger to help solve the situation" and  Paul Ritter as Anatoly Dyatlov, the assistant chief engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.The chemistry between Jared Harris's Valery and Stellans's Boris is the one of the best part of the show and the way the show presents their changing relationship and their personality is beautiful!Everyone did a fantastic job and not once did i feel that they were acting.I always felt as if they are the characters they are playing and their emotions felt so real.

The Direction & Cinematography

I Just want to say that Johan Renck who directed all the episodes did a fantastic job.The camera work and cinematics are just so good.Their are so many dynamic and wide shots throughout the series that makes you immersed into the events.If it were possible,I would have watched the entire series in a massive IMAX screen.The colour grading is fantastic and it helps create a very dreading and haunting atmosphere.The editing is also masterful.

The Soundtrack

The Music plays a very important part to make the series really amazing.Its almost as if the show would have felt a little incomplete without the amazing and haunting music score.The Musical Score was composed by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir who has done an amazing job.The score incorporated sounds from an actual nuclear power plant which on its own is very awesome and the use of a Geiger Sound in an instrumental way gives it a very shivering and chilling vibe.Official Music here.

 Well what more can I say about this masterpiece besides saying just GO AND WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!!!Chernobyl is a great experience and it is masterfully made with a lot of care and deserves all the recognition it can.So wear your headphones(Yes you need to watch it with headphones for best experience), sit back on your couch and enjoy the best show out there. 

Final Score-3.6 Roentgen/3.6 Roentgen, not great,not terrible(if you know what I mean lol) 

Trailer - Here

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