CHERNOBYL

                            Chernobyl: HBO delivers an absolute marvel!!

Brave men and women act heroically to mitigate catastrophic damage when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant suffers a nuclear accident on April 26, 1986.

There is no need for further visitation of the premise on which the miniseries is based. The events of 1986 are notorious facts, and one which Potential viewers of the show can read on. But bringing such events to tv takes painstaking attention to details, systematic script writing and editing. Craig Mazin and Johan Renck working with limited materials, limited further by the fact that historical records are still closely guarded secrets, delivered an astonishing narrative that captured both the human and scientific factors resulting in the catastrophic events.

You would think that the fact that it's a true life story will take away creative freedom, but one of the amazing aspects of the show is the ability of Mazin to take one of the positives of the USSR's scientific society and turn it into a very easily relatable characters in the show; Ulana Khomyuk, whose character was created to represent the tireless scientific minds who supported the rescue and containment operations. This is creative ingenuity at its best and we must applaud Mazin and Renck for that piece of creativity.
  Asides the mastery of the script, the actors cast were incredibly brilliant at their roles. What could have been more intuitively correct than choosing to eliminate every form of accent in the show. This allowed every character to be at their natural elements and moreso allowed for easy comprehension by the audience. Jared Harris(Valery Legasov), Emily Watson(Ulana Khomyuk), Stellan Skarsgard(Boris Scherbina) were on top of their games. Their mastery of the script is bellied only by their amazing mastery of character reactions to situational occurrences. It's incredible stuff.

In most historical narratives, not only does the writer of creator have to deal with historical accuracies, there is also the simple yet complex issue of creating a conflict element, capable of creating an enthralling and captivating narrative. The creation of the character of Ulana Khomyuk created the first real conflict, stemming from the discovery of human error, while going forward, her moral pressure on Valery Legasov created the most important conflict of all, one based on the need to do what is right, one that sought to correct the mistakes of the past to compensate for the sacrifices of the thousands of lives lost.
We feel however that what perhaps makes this series so amazing is how easily relatable the characters, the situation and the narrative is. The initial episodes created and quickly established the nuances of several characters and then during the course of 5 fast paced episodes, the characters are allowed to come upon a plot created and allowed to develop along with the plot as the conflict on its own thickens. The creation of the Soviet Republic was done with relative ease without necessarily being heavy handed with the script or depending too much on demonisation the state machinery. This was easy to come upon and relate to. This allowed for a smooth and silky flow of the narrative. It's the type of tv show that leaves you speechless and deep in thought after the final episode. You could marvel at the artistic presentation of ideas and at the same time revile the folly and stupidity of man, all in one breath. 

From us here, we cannot do enough justice to this show by simply recommending it to our readers, this is the Lionel Messi of all shows, it's an incredible work, the output of creative genius and a masterclass in script writing. If you are still dilly dallying or precipitating on the precipice of decision and indecision, please do yourself a world of good, spare a few hours and a few pocket change and treat yourself to a masterpiece.

Created by: Craig Mazin
Written by: Craig Mazin
Directed by: Johan Renck
Starring:
Jared Harris
Stellan Skarsgård
Paul Ritter
Jessie Buckley
Adam Nagaitis
Con O'Neill
Adrian Rawlins
Sam Troughton
Robert Emms
Emily Watson
David Dencik
Mark Lewis Jones
Alan Williams
Alex Ferns
Ralph Ineson
Barry Keoghan
Fares Fares
Michael McElhatton
Composer: Hildur Guðnadóttir
Country of origin: United States, United Kingdom
Executive producer(s): Craig Mazin, Carolyn Strauss, Jane Featherstone
Producer: Sanne Wohlenberg
Production location(s): Lithuania, Ukraine
Cinematography: Jakob Ihre
Editor(s): Jinx Godfrey, Simon Smith
Production company(s): Sister Pictures, The Mighty Mint, Word Games

FCA's AppR: 9.6/10