Chernobyl (2019 HBO mini-series) discussion

[T'Chenka]

Watching clips of each episode again and discussing with a friend who's just watched it for the first time. Absolutely brilliant show IMO and borderline masterpiece. They should show this in history classes in high schools. We got a couple of memes too, which is a nice bonus, and some male nudity, which is lacking in Hollywood.

Have you seen it? Was it as great as everybody says it was, in your opinion, or is it overrated?  Was it the best show of 2019, top 5, or neither?

Please discuss.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Watching clips of each episode again

You didn't see the clips. YOU DIDN'T! Because they're not there.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

My knowledge of the Chernobyl disaster is rather limited, so I can't speak to potential historical inaccuracies. I was pretty skeptical at first, given the series was being done by foreigners^* and could have easily turned into a pure drama for the drama's sake, or got awfully preachy, but I think they managed to avoid it.

^* Not that we could expect the Russians to make an objective series about this.

[Illiniwek]

I absolutely loved the series (except I could have done without the dog scenes and hospital scenes). One of my favorite non-comedic tv series of all time. 

[Orser67]

I think it's maybe the best dramatic series (mini- or not) released in the last five years. There were apparently some minor historical inaccuracies, but ultimately I thought it was an outstanding portrayal of both one of the biggest human-caused disasters in history as well of a flawed and decaying superpower.

[Lumine]

Absolutely brilliant, and rightfully deserves the praise it recieved.

Given the sheer amount of historical inaccuracies present in other TV shows I thought the choices they made - which were rather conscious - generally made sense and weren't really gratuitous (if anything, they toned down some of the more insanely bleak stuff, like the actual full extent of radiation poisoning) or, when exaggerated a bit, weren't excessive or detrimental to the narrative.

Faithfulness aside, I was surprised at how much the series got me to react to what was being presented rather. Rather than being dispassionate, I felt real tension during the initial handling of the accident, horror at some of its sequels and even its implications, and did struggle watching some of the bleaker moments.

I even thought the whole notion of "the cost of lies" - usually these shows will have such shallow or cliche messages - was particularly apt for the present times, so yeah, a clear favorite for me.