Let's be clear: the acting in this is excellent; the grim portrayal of life in the face of nuclear disaster, while under the tyranny of Communism, is depicted soberly and accurately: petty officialdom, blind obeyance, ineptitude, secrets and lies, and an overwhelming and encumbering State machine that crushes not just the slightest dissent in order to maintain the lie, but crushes individuality itself.

All excellent, but "Chernobyl" is over-long; by at least an hour. They could have done it in 3-4 hours as opposed to 5, and one feels the trend for "binge-worthy" box-sets is demanding producers and writers "stretch-out" shows like this that could easily have been more condensed.

Without adding spoilers, much of the episode 4 footage featuring the young soldier clearing animals felt a bit unnecessary, incongruent and unresolved, for example. They could have chopped some of that out, for sure. The show drags at times, dare I say it, with a couple of the side-plots and such.

Anybody looking for consistent action will be disappointed; as will anybody hoping for vast amounts of gore or overt horror-style scenes. There are a couple, but they are handled tastefully and in concordance with what happened in real-life. This WAS a real-life horror-show but the director has portrayed that horror in such a way as it is not sensationalized, cheap or tacky.

This is a drama: a well acted and shot one that depicts a particular time and place in history very well. It is an effective indictment upon Communism and totalitarianism; today's left-wing millennial's preaching for such in the West would do well to learn something from it.

I can't help but suspect that many have jumped on the hype train and written a review after watching just the (excellent) first episode, though. This is not a near-perfect 9 or 10 for me, but a very good 7.

Worth one's time, but ultimately over-rated.