Not a laugh riot,Chernobylis not a title that prepares you for good times and happy puppies.
Though there are some puppies oh god, I cant talk about it!
It stares straight into the core of the matter.
Credit: Liam Daniel/HBO
It makes the horror thinkable.
If youre aThronesviewer, youve seen thosepreviews ofChernobyl, all frowny-freaky images of bespectacledJared Harrispondering unfathomable radiation horror.
Be scared, but dont be scared away.
The series is a vivid and detailed retelling of the cataclysm.
Harris plays Valery Legasov, a true-life chemist who helped lead the response to the calamity.
Theres a scene that occurs constantly in the opening episodes.
Radiation seeps into the atmosphere, and fireman spray water hoses.
Theyre both true-life people, and the dense realism ofChernobylgives the show a freakish close-up terror.
The director is Johan Renck, who helmed an early episode ofThe Walking Deadand some hours ofBreaking Bad.
This miniseries doesnt have too many flourishes, and doesnt need them.
Creator-writer Craig Mazin finds several intriguing approaches onto his subject matter.
Watsons giving a sincere performance, but you feel the characters been given the most painfully loadbearing lines.
(For an entirely factual look at the event, I recommendAdam Higginbothams urgent, excitingMidnight in Chernobyl.)
I told you Id show you Moscow, the man says.
Maybe he knows shes lying; either way, its a poem.
This is the subject matter of science-fiction, of enviro-freakouts likeStalkerorAnnihilation.
And it is a story of government cover-ups, of inconvenient facts controlled toward oblivion by the powerful.
(Its Glukhov, HBO informs me.)
When this is over, he says, pointing toward his men, Will they be looked after?
I dont know, Borys says.
Sad words, but at least someones being honest, for once.A-
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