Where do I even begin to express my love for this show? Well, let's start with the overall composition of the whole thing. The soundtrack is mesmerizingly ominous to portray an upcoming tragedy that builds up properly and coincides with the scenes they are implemented in. the scenes that do lack music and ambience provide a sort of lingering terror to what is happening. Cinematography is beautiful and works to its corresponding scenes and establishes a world that is properly built. The pacing of the storyline is slow and at the same time intense. The show also just looks chilly to emphasize a world full of terror, and that's what I guess I'm trying to paint the world as, just objectively terrifying.

Now onto the cast. Everyone fits their role beautifully, even the supporting minor characters feel real and human, which is extremely difficult to do when you have such a huge number of people. Stellan Skarsgard and Jared Harris are particularly amazing and I'm glad they got a lot of screen time and the show knows just how much to balance the amount of time each character has in the show for it to not feel overbearing. Everyone else does a stellar job in portraying their characters and gave an in depth portrayal where they feel like actual human beings. The historical inaccuracies can be labelled as proper creative freedom. One such example is having one character play the role of the numerous scientists who worked to uncover what actually happened in Chernobyl. I am of course talking about Ulana Khomyuk played by Emily Watson. Her playing the role of several people work to the show's benefit as it makes it easier to follow the storyline from her point of view as the scientists. From an audience's perspective this was the right decision to make the flow of events easier to understand. Character motivations are well defined and realistic with just a hint of selfishness to them making them more human. The overall theme of the show, which is tragedy through humans, is done right by making human characters feel very real and grounded.

The threat of the show lies within the realm of reality and makes it relatable. Living in a world full of constant threats due to nuclear powers is powerful and imagining being in their shoes can be an enlightening experience. Losing our homes and becoming alienated is also an aspect that is explored later in the show and adds an incredible impact to how the world is built.

Overall the show is absolutely incredible and a powerful work of cinema, I guess the only reason why this isn't a 10/10 is more of a personal preference. I don't usually enjoy historical movies but this one I really love. Definitely give this a watch.