HBO's "Chernobyl" is a stunning fictionalised dramatisation of the events that followed after the nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine, filled with horrors and chaos. Every programme in this series rattled my conscience in a way that few have in the past. By reading Wikipedia & other online articles over the years, I thought to have a fair understanding of the unfortunate events in 1986. But the HBO mini series adds light to a lot of materials which is not available online, thanks to their research. The series offers on platter a very detailed depiction of the nuclear debacle.

My heart goes to the people of Pripyat, who were uprooted overnight when a massive exclusion zone was administered to protect others from radioactive contamination and they still cannot return to their homes to this day. There were the thousands of people killed both immediately and over time, as a result of what they call Acute Radiation Syndrome. Being a mini-series, Chernobyl doesn't have a fast paced story and is filled with a lot of slow paced scenes but full credit to the creator Craig Mazin and director Johan Renck in trying to educate the world on the Chernobyl disaster, which is a story waiting to be presented for over 3 decades.

Wonderful sets of the power-plant, hospitals, offices and suburbs spoke volumes of the production design team. Costumes of the 1980s were very good but makeup department goofed up in certain places, like the makeup of premier Gorbachev which wasn't that convincing. Screenplay though slow at times eventually made up for its value of content. Chernobyl required an equally apt background score to keep the momentum of the story going, and the show-makers don't disappoint. The music throughout this five-part miniseries is intense and almost ominous. Editing most definitely was not "Chernobyl's" strong suite. Actors did their part just fine with Emily Watson in the role of a Nuclear physicist Ulana Khomyuk was simply outstanding. Jared Harris was terrific in the later episodes. I am sure "Chernobyl" would been much better if the show was entirely made in the local language with English subtitles but I agree marketing the series would have been terribly hard.

Yes there are some factual errors and some historical inaccuracies as pointed out by several critics in the media in Russia and the world over. Like for an example There are a lot of people throughout the series who appear to act out of fear of being shot. This is inaccurate: summary executions, or even delayed executions on orders of a single apparatchik, were not a feature of Soviet life after the nineteen-thirties. By and large, Soviet people did what they were told without being threatened with guns or any punishment.

But the fact remains that "Chernobyl" though a fictional representation of a real scientific event, aims to get us to understand the science behind that event. Like the best science fiction, it leaves you feeling like you have understood things well but in truth what we understood is very little. Chernobyl both the nuclear power plant disaster and the mini series will be remembered for a long time. Overall a must watch mini series for all age groups. It would have a better effect if binge watched in one single day preferably.