Chernobyl

Chernobyl radiates true horror in human error by exposing the unflinching reality of the true events. It develops as a desperate procession towards the truth, beginning in a poisonous cloud of mystery and ending at a court hearing presented in front of a nation buried in its lies to maintain command. This five-episode series shines the spotlight on this dark scar in history, finally educating the public on what truly happened at Chernobyl.

What holds the events of this series together is the conflict and growing camaraderie between Valery Legasov and Boris Shcherbina. Boris is a statesman, he is put in charge of the cleanup and is loyal to the commands given. He sees no reason why he needs to bring Legasov, a nuclear physicist highly regarded in the scientific community of the Soviet Union. Not only are these characters mouthpieces of the two separate sides of the issue, the problems of the state vs the problems of nuclear fallout, they also grow as true comrades and use each other’s talents to solve each obstacle. Their barriers against one another in terms of soviet social-status is broken down by the threat of their mortality, but even though they both know their time after Chernobyl is limited, they abandon the structure of their command and work together as friends.

Two characters, surprisingly, do not have resolutions within the series. Coincidentally, they are the two female characters. Both of their arcs were very well developed in each episode until the very end. Ulana Khomyuk is the combination of the scientists that risked their lives and careers helping Legasov in Chernobyl, so it would make sense why her character does not have one solid ending; she is a summary of multiple people in real life. In the last two episodes, though, instead of highlighting this character’s strength, they push her into the background of Legasov’s conflict and use her as his inner conscience personified. She starts as this sudden and empowering source of knowledge and urgency, supporting Legasov in his struggle to slow down the fire. She then takes on the duty of identifying the cause of the explosion on her own, interviewing the workers present in the control room during the explosion, but by the end she only serves as an echo of his thoughts.

The second character with no narrative ending is Lyudmilla Ignatenko, who was the second character introduced in the entire series. Her character serves as the link between the civilian and worker experience to the explosion, since her husband is a firefighter and she lives in the nearest town to the reactor. The first episode is largely in the perspective of her and her husband. The hardships she faces in each episode go from shocking to worse, and I was waiting to see how she would heal in the final episode, but she never showed up in the finale. The outcome of the real Lyudmilla Ignatenko is revealed through text in the final resolution, but the character herself did not have an ending to her story. The last time we saw her, she was at the lowest state any character on television has ever been, but we are not given the full weight of her experience on screen. This problem for both of these secondary characters only appears in the last episode, since the story focused solely on the choice Legasov had to make in front of the jury and Soviet judges.

Overall, this film managed to craft a story that encapsulated the team behind the Chernobyl-cleanup and the tension that gripped the Soviet Union by the neck. The atmosphere of the show is grim and terrifying—especially in the first episode when every character is bleeding, burns swelling their faces and hands, and they never find out why. The detail poured into every scene and character breathes with life. The music and sound design pull you into this wasteland of an evacuated “paradise.” Every aspect of filmmaking is fully utilized to give and emotional reaction to the events shown on screen, surrounding you in the rush of the chaos and fear that pushed the victims beyond their breaking points. This series goes beyond entertainment and art, it is a message to remind us of the sacrifices taken at the cost of a controlling government. And like the half life of its radiation, Chernobyl will outlive us all.

Story Rating: 10/10

Character Rating: 9/10