TV Review: CHERNOBYL: Season 1, Episode 1: 1:23:45 [HBO, Tribeca 2019]

Chernobyl 1:23:45 Review

HBO‘s Chernobyl (2019): Season 1, Episode 1: 1:23:45 TV Mini-series Review, from the 18th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, begins with a pre-title scene that takes place years later. The story itself, however, begins with the moment of the accident that takes place at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR. Chernobyl explores the aftermath of that moment through the perspectives of plant employees, government leadership, townspeople, healthcare workers, and the scientists who played major roles in making sense of the accident and working to lessen its impact.

Though Chernobyl is a dramatic retelling, its representation stays very much in the factual realm. Characters rarely express their feelings or interpretations of the events; instead they state the facts and continue working. Whether this behavior was a cultural reality, an artistic choice, or both, its effect is to conjure all of the viewer’s emotional responses in the space between what is said and what is real. Watching the disaster unfold alongside government officials’ meetings centered on minimizing the story rather than serving the people, I was left with a sense of terror and frustration as well as a sense that I was inexplicably alone in my feeling. Uncomfortable as this experience was, I commend Chernobyl‘s creators for their ability to invoke an emotional experience that I assume was not unlike that of many characters whose actions I was witnessing.

Yes, viewing the events of Chernobyl was terrifying. The immediate effects of nuclear exposure are depicted repeatedly and yet without fanfare, giving the feeling that this wasn’t gore for gore’s sake but instead an accurate depiction of what happens to the human body in such circumstances. But the terror came from more than just nuclear radiation exposure. It came from watching the ideological clash between scientists and the government, witnessing USSR leadership make decisions in direct opposition to scientists’ recommendations. It was utter anguish to watch their methods of denial, motivated by desires for convenience and for keeping up appearances. One chilling quote: “I prefer my opinion to your opinion.”

In a moment where climate change is somehow at the same time both a contentious political issue and an incontrovertible scientific fact, the suggestion of “opinion” with regard to damning scientific evidence nearly hit too close to home. In this way, Chernobyl seems to be perfectly suited for the times. In 2019 America, in addition to this tension around climate change, fear of nuclear weapons and the damage they can cause is never far from the political conversation. Neither is a deep mistrust of Russia, formerly the USSR. Whether Chernobyl stokes these fears or just happens to tell a true story that perfectly fits them is up for debate, but either way, this show is more than just history.