Chernobyl
Starring Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson, the five-part miniseries dramatizes the story of the 1986 nuclear accident — one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history — and the sacrifices made to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.
- Metascore82
- 2019-2019
- 1 season
- HBO
- Drama, Documentary, Suspense
- TV-MA
Starring Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson, the five-part miniseries dramatizes the story of the 1986 nuclear accident — one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history — and the sacrifices made to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.
Season 1 Episode Guide
5 Episodes 2019
Episode 1
1:23:45
Mon, May 6, 2019 58 mins
While nuclear physics professor Valery Legasov hides evidence of what really happened, expecting to die soon and as scapegoat for the world's worst nuclear disaster that contributed to the demise of Soviet Union, he recalls the 1986 Chernobyl power plant disaster. The under-qualified night shift in the Ukrainian reactor control room is incapable of grasping, let alone controlling the nuclear reactions getting completely out of control. No timely warnings are given until the uranium rods escalate an unstoppable meltdown. Party officials pigheadedly keep pretending it's just a building fire, so time is wasted and people are contaminated before the horrible radiation symptoms became impossible to ignore and Moscow has to learn the truth. The KGB vice director is assigned by Gorbachov to handle it with outspoken expert Legasov as imposed counsel, whim he would prefer to dispose of but finds crucially, albeit inconveniently, knowledgeable. The rest of the world is kept ignorant, but alarming readings start raising questions.
Episode 2
Please Remain Calm
Mon, May 13, 2019 65 mins
With untold millions at risk, Ulana makes a desperate attempt to reach Valery and warn him about the threat of a second explosion.
Episode 3
Open Wide, O Earth
Mon, May 20, 2019 65 mins
Professor Valery Legasov realizes the situation is not getting under control, as the nomenclature and military seem to assume. At the part summit, he gets the green light from Gorbachov in person to do everything necessary, requisitioning all required means, to stop the open reactor contaminating not only the surrounding area (wide evacuation is still denied) but also the drinking water in the vast Dnjepr basin with 50 million residents. He encourages the Belorussian scientist to continue questions terminal survivors while they can talk to reconstruct how the disaster happened, yielding an assumed impossibility having occurred. When she's arrested by the KGB, Legasov gets her released on his responsibility. Meanwhile coals miners are assigned to dig a tunnel straight under the reactor, by hand despite scorching heat, so they go naked 'the ancestral way', assuming protective gear won't really give them a survival change.
Episode 4
The Happiness of All Mankind
Mon, May 27, 2019 67 mins
While Valery and Boris attempt to combat the radioactive debris still left by the explosion, a young 'Pavel' gets conscripted along side Afghanistan veterans 'Bacho' and 'Garo' to deal with the radioactive pets left behind by the misplaced citizens in the exclusion zone
Episode 5
Vichnaya Pamyat
Mon, Jun 3, 2019 72 mins
Valery, Boris and Ulana risk their lives and reputations to expose the truth about Chernobyl.
