This story of Chernobyl is well told, well acted, and of deep importance. Stories such as this must be told in order for future generations to learn from the faults of the past. And the parallels to climate change are undeniable: an event that has not occurred before with implications for uncountable years to come, battled with denial as a result of fear. This series does a marvelous job of telling the events while showing these connections. But accurately depicting the language and accents, in my opinion, is part of accurately depicting the events and the culture surrounding those events.

Despite my great appreciation of this series, I cannot help but be distracted by the choice to use English accents. I read the comments by the creator saying that putting on accents would distract from the acting and that the accent is irrelevant to what's going on in the story. Respectfully, I disagree. If that were the case, then why not just have a made up story resembling Chernobyl but taking place in a made up land, to make it applicable to any time? Why have Gorbachev have an English accent? I find this confusing. I can see some people thinking this event happened in England. Language and accents are part of what puts us in a time and place and adds to the accuracy of events. Would the Nazis be depicted with different accents? Would the events of 9/11 be depicted with George W. Bush having a Chinese accent or even a Boston accent?

This series is very well done, but to be a great retelling, I believe there is more that needs to be captured than merely the events.