This is one of the grimmest limited series that I have seen in the era of Peak Limited Series which I've seen in the last decade and its also one of the most remarkable. I realize that to talk about from strictly a creative point of view may seem to detract from the darkness and utter brutality of the story it's telling. Suffice to say the performances across the board from the three leads were incredible. Jared Harris has been one of the most underrated actors in the history of Peak TV (and on a bitter joke, continued his seemingly endless streak of dying in great television series, going back to Fringe.) Stellan Skasgard has always been one of the great character actors of our time and his work as the deputy prime minister is anohter of his great performances; we're so used to the brilliance of both his sons in recent years that we frequently forget how great an actor the pere was. And Emily Watson demonstrates why she has been one of the quietly best actresses in the last thirty years; she still has the ability for grim truth we saw as far back as Breaking the Waves and Hilary and Jackie.

I remember seeing the series during May of 2019 and understandably being as much repulsed by it as I was riveted. Chernobyl is one of those shows you feel obligated to see because you know going in what you're going to get and it somehow is worse then what you knew it was. But that doesn't change the fact it is one of the great television experiences of my lifetime. I think the imdb.com ranking of it as the fifth greatestTV series of all time is unfair. I don't think its rational to rank a series of five episodes on the same scale as The Good Wife or The American, both of which I consider among the greatest shows of the 2010s and certainly of all time. But Chernobyl is an experience that you can not look away from. You may not want to watch it again, and indeed you may not be able to after you've seen it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need to be required viewing. Not just for purveyors of television but basically anyone who ever considers themselves an expert on the Soviet Union or totalarian regimes or anyone who tells you nuclear power is truly safe. Chernobyl isn't just a historical drama. It's a warning that we can never look away from - and we need to keep being reminded of it.