Chernobyl

:

Season 1
  • Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: May 6, 2019
User Score
9.0

Universal acclaim- based on 402 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 371 out of 402
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 402
  3. Negative: 22 out of 402
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User Reviews

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  1. akvadrako
    Jun 3, 2019
    4
    It's okay but overly dramatic. It also seems a bit like anti-nuclear propaganda, greatly exaggerating the danger.
  2. rox_roli
    Jul 3, 2019
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. CHERNOBYL is a well-directed, interesting 5-hours mainstream disaster movie/fictional historical drama.

    It's grim and visually compelling, and manages to explain scientific matters in a clear, simple way. Of course, it is not a surprise that a HBO-SKY UK production has such an incredible production value, acting, visual effects, costumes etc etc. (is it, to someone??)

    But people seem to treat this story as a shocking, urgent documentary when it isn't. It is FICTION.

    If you are passionate about the nuclear disaster, you can find real, non-biased documentaries from all over the world, made by historians and scientists.

    But come on?! It's a HBO-SKY UK production and still we have the main "antagonist", Dyatlov, depicted as the most hideous, ridiculous Disney villain, and en *entire* political class (and... an ideology) dismissed as simply evil, idiot, ultimately pure trash.

    When it comes to create new characters, et voilà the TOKEN FEMALE, who of course is the only Pure one, the Good Mother, and also a sort of super-heroin because she is able to do everything and travel around Russia and she is admitted in front of the president--and whenever she talks, the speaks the Truth. She is an Angel. The scene while she confronts the former shoe-maker, fat, drunken politic... wow. Disgraceful.

    And, finally, the last speech of Legasov: 100% pure Hollywood rhetoric... BTW he never spoke the truth during the trial. It is a good writers' choice in terms of dramatization, but I have the impression that people are taking it *very seriously*. Legasov, true American hero?

    Speaking about HBO recent historical drama, why SHOW ME A HERO has *no* user reviews on Metacritic? Of course, CHERNOBYL is a mainstream, propagandist, rhetoric disaster movie and SHOW ME A HERO is a nuanced, complex, amazingly written piece of prestige television about housing, poor people, AND politics. From DAVID SIMON. Well, how many people universally acclaiming this?? History can be dramatized in millions of way, but are you sure that propaganda is the best? We are already seeing Russian ready to shoot a... surprise!!... counter-propaganda story about it.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

33
#33 Best TV Season of 2019
14
#14 Most Discussed TV Season of 2019
71
#71 Most Shared TV Season of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
82

Universal acclaim - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Lucy Mangan
    Dec 4, 2019
    60
    Things may improve over the coming weeks as the smoke clears, and I hope so. Chernobyl is a story that has everything, but at the moment, comrades, justice is not being done to it.
    Read full review
  2. TV Guide Magazine
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    May 9, 2019
    70
    The fact that it really happened--and, for all of its devastation, could have been worse--makes this five-part slog of unrelieved misery even more chilling. [13-26 May 2019, p.11]
  3. CNN
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    May 7, 2019
    90
    Spare, bleak and devastating.
    Read full review
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