Chernobyl (miniseries)

Chernobyl is a 2019 historical tragedy television miniseries that revolves around the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the cleanup efforts that followed. The series was created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck. It features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson and Paul Ritter. The series was produced by HBO in the United States and Sky UK in the United Kingdom.

Chernobyl
Promotional poster
Genre	Historical drama Disaster Tragedy^[1]
Created by	Craig Mazin
Written by	Craig Mazin
Directed by	Johan Renck
Starring	Jared Harris Stellan Skarsgård Paul Ritter Jessie Buckley Adam Nagaitis Con O'Neill Adrian Rawlins Sam Troughton Robert Emms Emily Watson David Dencik Mark Lewis Jones Alan Williams Alex Ferns Ralph Ineson Barry Keoghan Fares Fares Michael McElhatton
Composer	Hildur Guðnadóttir
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	5
Production
Executive producers	Craig Mazin Carolyn Strauss Jane Featherstone Johan Renck^[a] Chris Fry^[a]
Producer	Sanne Wohlenberg
Production locations	Lithuania Ukraine
Cinematography	Jakob Ihre
Editors	Jinx Godfrey Simon Smith
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	65–78 minutes
Production companies	HBO Sky UK Sister Pictures The Mighty Mint Word Games
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	HBO (US) Sky Atlantic (UK)
Picture format	4K UHDTV 2160p HDR^[b]
Audio format	5.1 surround
Original release	May 6 (2019-05-06) – June 3, 2019 (2019-06-03)

The five-part series premiered simultaneously^[c] in the United States on May 6, 2019, and in the United Kingdom on May 7. It was acclaimed by critics, who lauded the performances, cinematography, historical accuracies, atmosphere, direction, screenplay, musical score and tone. At the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, it received nineteen nominations and won for Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Directing, and Outstanding Writing, while Harris, Skarsgård, and Watson received acting nominations. At the 77th Golden Globe Awards, the series won for Best Miniseries or Television Film and Skarsgård won for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film.^[2][3]

While the series was exhaustively researched, some liberties were taken for dramatic purposes. The release of each episode was accompanied by a podcast in which Mazin and NPR host Peter Sagal discuss these changes and the reasoning behind them.^[4] While critics, experts and witnesses have noted historical and factual discrepancies in the miniseries, the creators' attention to detail has been widely praised.^[5][6]

Premise

Chernobyl dramatizes the story of the April 1986 nuclear plant disaster which occurred in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, telling the stories of the people who were involved in the disaster and those who responded to it.^[7] The series depicts some of the lesser-known stories of the disaster, including the efforts of the firefighters who were the first responders on the scene, volunteers, and teams of miners who dug a critical tunnel under Reactor 4.

The miniseries is based in large part on the recollections of Pripyat locals, as told by Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich in her book Voices from Chernobyl.^[8]

Cast

Main

• Jared Harris as Valery Legasov, the deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute brought in to aid cleanup efforts.
• Stellan Skarsgård as Boris Shcherbina, a Council of Ministers' deputy chairman.
• Emily Watson as Ulana Khomyuk, a nuclear physicist from Minsk. Khomyuk is a fictional composite character based on the many scientists who investigated the accident.^[9]
• Paul Ritter as Anatoly Dyatlov, the deputy chief engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
• Jessie Buckley as Lyudmilla Ignatenko, the wife of Vasily Ignatenko.
• Adam Nagaitis as Vasily Ignatenko, a Pripyat firefighter and first responder to the Chernobyl fire.
• Con O'Neill as Viktor Bryukhanov, the manager of Chernobyl.
• Adrian Rawlins as Nikolai Fomin, the chief engineer at Chernobyl.
• Sam Troughton as Aleksandr Akimov, the night shift supervisor at Chernobyl.
• Robert Emms as Leonid Toptunov, the senior engineer at Chernobyl.
• David Dencik as Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• Mark Lewis Jones as Vladimir Pikalov, the commander of the Soviet chemical forces.
• Alan Williams as Charkov, the KGB's first deputy chairman.^[10]
• Alex Ferns as Andrei Glukhov, the mining crew chief.
• Ralph Ineson as Nikolai Tarakanov, the chief supervisor of the cleanup operation.
• Barry Keoghan as Pavel Gremov, a civilian liquidator draftee.^[11]
• Fares Fares as Bacho, a Georgian soldier and Soviet–Afghan War veteran who trains Pavel.
• Michael McElhatton as Andrei Stepashin, the prosecutor for the trial of Dyatlov, Bryukhanov, and Fomin.

Recurring

• Adam Lundgren as Vyacheslav Brazhnik, the senior turbine operator at Chernobyl.
• Karl Davies as Viktor Proskuryakov, a senior reactor control engineer trainee at Chernobyl.
• Donald Sumpter as Zharkov, a Pripyat executive committee member.
• Billy Postlethwaite as Boris Stolyarchuk, the senior unit #4 control engineer at Chernobyl.
• Joshua Leese as Igor Kirschenbaum, a senior turbine control engineer at Chernobyl.
• Nadia Clifford as Svetlana Zinchenko, a doctor treating Vasily Ignatenko and others with radiation sickness.
• Jamie Sives as Anatoly Sitnikov, the deputy chief operational engineer at Chernobyl sent to inspect the exploded core.
• Baltasar Breki Samper as Alexei Ananenko [uk], one of the volunteers who drained water in Chernobyl's basement to prevent an explosion.
• Philip Barantini as Valeri Bezpalov [uk], one of the volunteers who drained water in Chernobyl's basement to prevent an explosion.
• Oscar Giese as Boris Baranov [uk], one of the volunteers who drained water in Chernobyl's basement to prevent an explosion.
• Douggie McMeekin as Aleksandr Yuvchenko, a senior engineer-mechanic on duty the night of the explosion.
• Michael Socha as Mikhail, a resident of Pripyat and father of a young baby who are both present on the bridge watching the fire.

Guest

• Natasha Radski as Russian news reader.
• Jay Simpson as Valeriy Perevozchenko, the foreman in the reactor section.
• Michael Colgan as Mikhail Shchadov, Soviet Minister of Coal Industry.
• James Cosmo as a miner.
• Peter Guinness as Major Burov.
• Hilton McRae as Milan Kadnikov, the judge presiding over the trial of Dyatlov, Bryukhanov, and Fomin.
• Kieran O'Brien as Valery Khodemchuk, the night shift main circulating pump operator at Chernobyl.
• Alexej Manvelov as Garo, an Armenian soldier who accompanies Bacho and Pavel.
• Josef Altin as Soldier

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date (EDT) ^[c]	US viewers (millions) ^[d]	UK viewers (millions) ^[e]
1	"1:23:45"	Johan Renck	Craig Mazin	May 6, 2019 (2019-05-06)	0.756^[14]	0.861^[15]
On April 26, 1988, at 1:23:45 a.m., Soviet chemist Valery Legasov hangs himself in his Moscow apartment after recording a series of memoirs. Exactly two years earlier, Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explodes near Pripyat, Ukraine.^[12]^[13] Deputy Chief Engineer Anatoly Dyatlov dismisses the severity of the explosion, despite the fact that the core has exploded and is now exposed. Emergency services arrive, unaware of the danger posed by debris strewn from the explosion. Dyatlov meets with the Pripyat Executive Committee, who disregard the danger posed to the city and its inhabitants by forbidding evacuation and suspending communication to the outside world. Under Dyatlov's orders, Aleksandr Akimov and Leonid Toptunov manually open water valves to flood the damaged reactor, but in doing so are exposed to lethal radiation doses. In Moscow, Legasov is informed of what has happened and is ordered to the Kremlin to provide technical advice to the committee managing the response.
2	"Please Remain Calm"	Johan Renck	Craig Mazin	May 13, 2019 (2019-05-13)	1.004^[16]	0.891^[15]
In Minsk, Belarus, seven hours following the explosion, nuclear physicist Ulana Khomyuk detects a spike in radiation levels but her concerns are ignored by local authorities. At Pripyat Hospital (now overloaded with patients suffering from ARS), Lyudmilla Ignatenko finds out that her husband, firefighter Vasily has been sent to Moscow as well as several other ARS patients. Mikhail Gorbachev is briefed by Legasov that the event in Chernobyl is much more serious than initially reported, and Legasov is sent there with Boris Shcherbina to ascertain the severity in person. Boris remains adamantly skeptical that Legasov is wrong, even when Legasov points out the distinctive streak of blue light emanating from the reactor, meaning that the reactor is exposed and radiation is entering the atmosphere. A dosimeter reading also proves Legasov correct, and the military is instructed to smother the fire with sand and boron. Khomyuk also arrives in Chernobyl to investigate the spike, and warns Legasov and Shcherbina that a disastrous steam explosion will occur if the superheated sand and boron makes contact with the accumulated valve water. A group of volunteers enters the reactor to drain the water.
3	"Open Wide, O Earth"	Johan Renck	Craig Mazin	May 20, 2019 (2019-05-20)	1.063^[17]	1.100^[15]
Though the basement is drained, a nuclear meltdown begins and threatens to leak into and contaminate the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers, the local water supply for 50 million people, plus crops and livestock. Coal miners from Tula are enlisted to dig a tunnel and install a heat exchanger directly underneath the plant. Meanwhile, Khomyuk is sent to a Moscow hospital, where she finds Dyatlov uncooperative but learns from the dying Toptunov and Akimov that the emergency shutdown initiated by Akimov triggered the explosion, a scenario deemed impossible. Lyudmilla bribes her way into the hospital to be with her husband and sees with her own eyes his deteriorating condition. Khomyuk witnesses Lyudmilla entering Vasily's isolated bed and making contact with him, and threatens to expose the hospital's negligence but is arrested by KGB agents who had been following her. Legasov arranges her release; he and Shcherbina report to the Committee their plans, which require the mass mobilization of liquidators for decontamination. Lyudmilla later watches her husband and several other deceased ARS victims lowered into a mass grave, sealed into zinc caskets and buried in concrete.
4	"The Happiness of All Mankind"	Johan Renck	Craig Mazin	May 27, 2019 (2019-05-27)	1.193^[18]	1.311^[15]
A wider exclusion zone is ordered as Legasov's plans indicate. Troops are also deployed to dispose of abandoned and wild animals because of the threat posed by possible contamination. Shcherbina is enraged when an advanced police robot sent from West Germany instantly fails on the most irradiated level of the plant's roof, because the Central Committee falsely claimed to the West that the amount of radiation on the roof was only 2,000 roentgen as opposed to 12,000. This attempt to avoid state humiliation means that General Nikolai Tarakanov has little choice but to order 3,828 liquidators to clear the graphite debris by hand, with each given only 90 seconds to do so. Khomyuk gains access to classified documents and identifies a strikingly similar near incident in 1975 at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, which it turns out Legasov knew about. She urges Legasov to testify in the eventual trial of Dyatlov and the plant management; Legasov will also address the International Atomic Energy Agency. Shcherbina, who has grown to understand the true impact and scale of what has happened and might happen again in the future, urges caution to avoid government retaliation. Khomyuk responds by informing them that Lyudmilla gave birth to a baby girl who died within hours, killed by the radiation absorbed from Lyudmilla's contact with her husband.
5	"Vichnaya Pamyat"^[f]	Johan Renck	Craig Mazin	June 3, 2019 (2019-06-03)	1.089^[19]	2.112^[15]
Dyatlov, Plant Director Viktor Bryukhanov and Chief Engineer Nikolai Fomin are put on trial for their mismanagement of the disaster. Shcherbina, Khomyuk and Legasov give testimony. Whilst Legasov attributes the incident to Dyatlov's blatant disregard for safety procedure, he does not hold him solely responsible. He reveals (though in doing so admits that his testimony at the IAEA conference in Vienna was a lie) that the boron-made control rods, meant to reduce reactivity, are actually tipped with graphite – a material that accelerates reactivity – solely because it was cheaper to do so. Legasov's revelation effectively makes the government responsible for the suppression of this information – when Akimov engaged AZ-5 to shut down the reactor, he had unknowingly triggered the explosion. KGB Deputy Chairman Charkov privately informs Legasov that his testimony will be rejected by the state, and his role in preventing the disaster getting out of hand will be attributed to other people. The series' end credits reveal the fates of several key people involved in the clean-up of the Chernobyl disaster, and state that the show is dedicated to their bravery and sacrifices.

Production

Development and writing

Writer Craig Mazin began researching for the project in 2014, by reading books and government reports from inside and outside the Soviet Union. Mazin also interviewed nuclear scientists to learn how a reactor works, and former Soviet citizens to gain a better idea of the culture in 1986. Mazin also read several first-person accounts in order to bring additional authenticity to the story. He explained, "When you're reading the personal stories of people who were there—people who lived near the plant, people who worked at the plant, people who were sent to Chernobyl as part of the effort to clean it up—in those individual accounts, that's really where the story came alive".^[20]

Mazin's interest in creating the series originated when he decided to write something that addressed "how we're struggling with the global war on the truth right now".^[21] Another inspiration is that he knew Chernobyl exploded, but he did not know why. He explained, "I didn't know why, and I thought there was this inexplicable gap in my knowledge ... So, I began reading about it, just out of this very dry, intellectual curiosity, and what I discovered was that, while the story of the explosion is fascinating, and we make it really clear exactly why and how it happened, what really grabbed me and held me were the incredible stories of the human beings who lived through it, and who suffered and sacrificed to save the people that they loved, to save their countrymen and to save a continent, and continued to do so, against odds that were startling and kept getting worse. I was so moved by it. It was like I had discovered a war that people just hadn't really depicted, and I became obsessed".^[22] Mazin said that "The lesson of Chernobyl isn't that modern nuclear power is dangerous. The lesson is that lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism are dangerous".^[23]

In preparation for the miniseries, Mazin visited the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.^[24] Mazin made the decision in the early stages not to use Russian or Ukrainian accents, and instead, have the actors use their natural accents. Mazin explained, "We had an initial thought that we didn't want to do the 'Boris and Natasha' clichéd accent because the Russian accent can turn comic very easily. At first, we thought that maybe we would have people do these sort of vaguely Eastern European accents—not really strong but noticeable. What we found very quickly is that actors will act accents. They will not act, they will act accents and we were losing everything about these people that we loved. Honestly, I think after maybe one or two auditions we said 'Ok, new rule. We're not doing that anymore'".^[25] Mazin also did not cast any American actors, as that could potentially pull the audience out of the story.^[26]

On July 26, 2017, it was announced that HBO and Sky had given a series order to Chernobyl. It was HBO's first co-production with Sky UK. The five-episode miniseries was written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck. Mazin also served as an executive producer alongside Carolyn Strauss and Jane Featherstone, with Chris Fry and Renck acting as co-executive producers.^[7][27] On March 11, 2019, it was announced that the miniseries would premiere on May 6, 2019.^[28] On June 4, 2019, Craig Mazin made the original scripts of all episodes available for downloading as PDFs (see External links below).^[29]

A companion podcast for the miniseries had new episodes published as each TV episode aired on HBO.^[30] The podcast featured conversations between Mazin and host Peter Sagal including discussions of where the show was as true as possible to historical events and where events were consolidated or modified as part of artistic license.^[4]

Casting

Simultaneously with the initial series announcement, it was confirmed that Jared Harris would star in the series.^[27] On March 19, 2018, it was announced that Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson had joined the main cast, marking their second collaboration after Breaking the Waves.^[31] In May 2018, it was announced that Paul Ritter, Jessie Buckley, Adrian Rawlins, and Con O'Neill also had joined the cast.^[32]

Filming

 

The Soviet-era district of Fabijoniškės (Vilnius, Lithuania) was used to portray Pripyat

Principal photography began in April 2018 in Lithuania.^[27] Initial filming started on May 13, 2018, in Fabijoniškės, a residential district in Vilnius, Lithuania, which was used to portray the Ukrainian city of Pripyat, since the district maintained an authentic Soviet atmosphere. An area of densely built panel housing apartments served as a location for the evacuation scenes. Director Johan Renck heavily criticised the amount of diverse and eye-catching modern windows in the houses, but was not concerned about removing them in post-production. At the end of March, production moved to Visaginas, Lithuania, to shoot both the exterior and interior of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, a decommissioned nuclear power station that is sometimes referred to as "Chernobyl's sister" due to its visual resemblance and the nuclear reactor design used at both Chernobyl and Ignalina (RBMK nuclear power reactor). In early June 2018, production moved to Ukraine to shoot minor final scenes.^[33] The filming of Chernobyl took 16 weeks.^[34]

Music

Further information: Chernobyl: Music from the Original TV Series

The musical score was composed by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. In August 2018, she began recording the score with Chris Watson at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, where the series being preliminarily shot.^[35] She used the recordings from the power plant, deciding not to depend on instruments and pre-recorded material to create the score, as she wanted to experience from a listener's perspective on what it is like to actually be inside of a power plant.^[36] The original score album was released by the record labels Deutsche Grammophon and WaterTower Music on May 31, 2019,^[37][38] with a vinyl edition released by Decca on September 6, 2019.^[39]

Historical accuracy

The series was exhaustively researched,^[40] but some liberties were taken for dramatic purposes, such as Legasov being present at the trial.^[41][42] The first episode depicts Legasov timing his suicide down to the second (1:23:45) to coincide with the second anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion. In reality, Legasov committed suicide a day later. The epilogue acknowledges that the character of Ulana Khomyuk is fictional, a composite of multiple Soviet scientists. Chernobyl expert Adam Higginbotham points out in an interview that there was no need for scientists to "uncover the truth"; that "many nuclear scientists knew all along that there were problems with this reactor—the problems that led ultimately to an explosion and disaster".^[43] Artistic license was also used in the depiction of the "Bridge of Death," from which spectators in Pripyat watched the immediate aftermath of the explosion; the miniseries asserts that all of the spectators subsequently died, a claim which is now generally held to be an urban legend.^[44][45][46]

The series also discusses a potential third steam explosion, due to the risk of corium melting through to the water reservoirs below the reactor building, as being in the range of 2 to 4 megatons. This would have been physically impossible under the circumstances,^[47] as the only known means of producing such a powerful explosion is a thermonuclear bomb, a highly contrived mechanism involving far more highly enriched fissile material than the reactor fuel present at Chernobyl. In reality, the potential third explosion would likely have been closer in size to the previous two explosions that had destroyed the core.^{[47][better source needed]} According to series author Craig Mazin,^[47] the claim was based on one made by Belarusian nuclear physicist Vassili Nesterenko about a potential 3–5 Mt third explosion, even though physicists hired for the show were unable to confirm its plausibility. It is not clear where Nesterenko's estimate originated; it may have originally referred not to the energy of the possible third explosion itself, but rather to the resulting radioactive fallout as being comparable to the fallout of a 3–5 Mt hydrogen bomb. This would have been somewhat more plausible under the circumstances, especially in a worst-case scenario involving a major steam explosion ejecting most of reactor 4's remaining fuel into the atmosphere as a fine dust, in addition to destroying reactors 1, 2 and 3.

The series' production design, such as the choice of sets, props, and costumes, has received high praise for its accuracy. Several sources have commended the attention to even minor setting details, such as the usage of actual Kyiv-region license plate numbers, and a New Yorker review states that "the material culture of the Soviet Union is reproduced with an accuracy that has never before been seen" from either Western or Russian filmmakers.^{[48][43][5][49]} Oleksiy Breus, a Chernobyl engineer, commends the portrayal of the symptoms of radiation poisoning;^[50] however, Robert Gale, a doctor who treated Chernobyl victims, states that the miniseries overstated the symptoms by suggesting that the patients were actively radioactive.^[51] In a more critical judgment, a review from the Moscow Times highlights some small design errors: for instance, Soviet soldiers are inaccurately shown as holding their weapons in Western style, and Legasov's apartment was too "dingy" for a scientist of his status.^[52] During an interview to BBC Russian, the real Lyudmilla Ignatenko described how she suffered harassment and criticism when the series was aired. She claimed reporters hounded her at home and even jammed their foot in her door as they tried to interview her, and that she suffered criticism for exposing her unborn daughter to Vasily, despite the fact she hadn't known anything about radiation then, and that risk to a fetus from such an exposure is infinitesimally small.^[51] She said she never gave HBO and Sky Atlantic permission to tell her story, saying there had been a single phone call offering money after filming had been completed. She thought the call was a hoax because it came from a Moscow number, and hung up. HBO Sky rejects this, saying they had multiple exchanges with Lyudmilla before, during, and after filming with the opportunity to participate and provide feedback, and at no time did she express a wish for her story to not be included.^[53]

The portrayal of Soviet officials, including both plant management and central government figures, received criticism. Breus, the Chernobyl engineer, argues that the characters of Viktor Bryukhanov, Nikolai Fomin, and Anatoly Dyatlov were "distorted and misrepresented, as if they were villains."^[50] Similarly, multiple reviews criticize the series for creating a stark moral dichotomy, in which the scientists are depicted as overly heroic while the government and plant officials are uniformly villainous.^{[48][54][55][56]} The occasional threats of violence and execution from government officials were also seen by some as anachronistic: Masha Gessen of the New Yorker argues that the threats depicted "were not a feature of Soviet life after the nineteen-thirties."^[48][52] Higginbotham takes a more positive view of the portrayal of the authorities, arguing that the unconcerned attitude of the central government was accurately depicted.^[43]

Release

The miniseries premiered on May 6, 2019, on HBO. In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, it premiered on May 7, 2019, on Sky Atlantic.

Home media

The miniseries was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 1, 2019.^[57] A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was released on December 1, 2020.^[58]

Reception

Critical response

Chernobyl received widespread critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 95% based on 104 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Chernobyl rivets with a creeping dread that never dissipates, dramatizing a national tragedy with sterling craft and an intelligent dissection of institutional rot."^[59] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[60]

Reviewers from The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and BBC observed parallels to contemporary society by focusing on the power of information and how dishonest leaders can make mistakes beyond their comprehension.^[61] Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic hailed the series as a "grim disquisition on the toll of devaluing the truth";^[62] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post praised it for showcasing "what happens when lying is standard and authority is abused".^[63] Meera Syal praised Chernobyl as a "fiercely intelligent exposition of the human cost of state censorship. Would love to see similar exposé of the Bhopal disaster".^[64] David Morrison was "struck by the attention to accuracy" and says the "series does an outstanding job of presenting the technical and human issues of the accident."^[65]

Jennifer K. Crosby, writing for The Objective Standard, says that the miniseries "explores the reasons for this monumental catastrophe and illustrates how it was magnified by the evasion and denial of those in charge," adding that "although the true toll of the disaster on millions of lives will never be known, Chernobyl goes a long way toward helping us understand [its] real causes and effects."^[66] Aaron Giovannone writes critically of the series in the socialist publication Jacobin, stating that "even as we worry about the ongoing ecological crisis caused by capitalism, Chernobyl revels in the failure of the historical alternative to capitalism," which reinforces the status quo, offering us "no way out" of the crisis.^[67]

Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian response

The miniseries was well-received by some critics and audiences in Russia.^[68][69][70] Vladimir Medinsky, Russian culture minister, whose father was one of the Chernobyl liquidators, called the series "masterfully made" and "filmed with great respect for ordinary people".^[71] It was reported that Russian NTV television channel has been producing its own version of the Chernobyl story in which the CIA plays a key role in the disaster.^[72][73] However, the series in question had been in production since before HBO's miniseries and was not created in response to it.^[74] An apparent trailer for the series was uploaded to YouTube but was later deleted following negative reaction.^[75]

The Communists of Russia party called for a libel lawsuit against Chernobyl's writer, director and producers, describing the show as "disgusting". In a statement, party member Sergey Malinkovich spoke of the party's intentions to lobby TV regulator Roskomnadzor to request that it block local access to the series.^[76] Marianna Prysiazhniuk of Vice Media notes that multiple Russian media outlets describe the miniseries as one-sided, incomplete, or anti-Russian propaganda.^[77] Argumenty i Fakty dismissed the show as "a caricature and not the truth" and "The only things missing are the bears and accordions!" quipped Stanislav Natanzon, lead anchor of Russia-24, one of the country's main news channels.^[78]

In Ukraine, Anna Korolevska, deputy director at the Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum in Kyiv, said "Today young people coming to power in Ukraine know nothing about that disaster in 1986. It was a necessary film to make and HBO have obviously tried their best; as for us, we are going to create a special tour about Chernobyl's historic truth, inspired by the HBO series."^[79] Bermet Talant, a Ukrainian journalist, noted that "In Russia, a state that still takes pride in the Soviet legacy, the series has faced criticism from the official media. Meanwhile, many in Ukraine appreciated the series for humanizing a tragic chapter in the country's history. […] Ukrainian viewers also appreciated HBO's Chernobyl for praising the heroism and self-sacrifice of ordinary people."^[80]

Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, whose book inspired the series, said "We are now witnessing a new phenomenon that Belarusians, who suffered greatly and thought they knew a lot about the tragedy, have completely changed their perception about Chernobyl and are interpreting this tragedy in a whole new way. The authors accomplished this, even though they are from a completely different world – not from Belarus, not from our region." She also noted its popularity with young Belarusians.^[81]

Reception in China

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, Chinese netizens drew parallels between the Soviet response to the Chernobyl disaster and the initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak by the Chinese government.^[82][83] As a response, the page for Chernobyl on Douban, which by that point had amassed more than 200,000 ratings with an average of 9.6 out of 10, was taken down.^[84]

US ratings

Viewership and ratings per episode of Chernobyl

No.	Title	Air date	Rating (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	DVR (18–49)	DVR viewers (millions)	Total (18–49)	Total viewers (millions)
1	"1:23:45"	May 6, 2019	0.2	0.756^[14]	—	—	—	—
2	"Please Remain Calm"	May 13, 2019	0.3	1.004^[16]	0.2	0.716	0.5	1.721^[85]
3	"Open Wide, O Earth"	May 20, 2019	0.3	1.063^[17]	0.2	0.727	0.5	1.791^[86]
4	"The Happiness of All Mankind"	May 27, 2019	0.3	1.193^[18]	0.3	0.809	0.6	2.003^[87]
5	"Vichnaya Pamyat"	June 3, 2019	0.3	1.089^[19]	0.3	0.974	0.6	2.064^[88]

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
American Cinema Editors	Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television	Jinx Godfrey and Simon Smith (for "Vichnaya Pamyat")	Won	^[89]
American Film Institute Awards	Television Programs of the Year	Chernobyl	Won	^[90]
Art Directors Guild Awards	Television Movie or Limited Series	Luke Hull	Won	^[91]
Association of Motion Picture Sound Awards	Excellence in sound for a Television Drama	Chernobyl	Won	^[92]
Banff Rockie Award	Limited series	Chernobyl	Won	^[93]
Blogos de Oro	Mejor Serie	Chernobyl	Won	^[94]
	Mejor Actor en una serie	Jared Harris	Won
		Stellan Skarsgård	Nominated
British Academy Scotland Awards	Best Actor in Television	Alex Ferns	Won	^[95]
British Academy Television Awards	Best Mini-Series	Chernobyl	Won	^[96]
	Best Leading Actor	Jared Harris	Won
	Best Supporting Actor	Stellan Skarsgård	Nominated
British Academy Television Craft Awards	Best Director: Fiction	Johan Renck	Won	^[97]
	Best Writer: Drama	Craig Mazin	Nominated
	Best Editing: Fiction	Simon Smith and Jinx Godfrey	Won
	Best Costume Design	Odile Dicks-Mireaux	Won
	Best Make Up & Hair Design	Daniel Parker and Barrie Gower	Nominated
	Best Original Music	Hildur Guðnadóttir	Won
	Best Photography & Lighting: Fiction	Jakob Ihre	Won
	Best Production Design	Luke Hull and Claire Levinson-Gendler	Won
	Best Scripted Casting	Nina Gold and Robert Sterne	Nominated
	Best Sound: Fiction	Stefan Henrix, Joe Beal, Stuart Hilliker and Vincent Piponnie	Won
	Best Special, Visual & Graphic Effects	Lindsay Mcfarlane, Claudius Christian Rauch and Jean-Clément Soret	Nominated
British Film Designers Guild Awards	International TV Drama including Mini Series, TV Movie or Limited Series	Luke Hull, Karen Wakefield and Claire Levinson-Gendler	Won	^[98]
British Society of Cinematographers Awards	Best Cinematography in a Television Drama	Jakob Ihre	Won	^[99]
Broadcast Tech Innovation Award	Best VFX Project	Max Dennison and Clare Cheetham	Won	^[100]
	Excellence in Grading (scripted)	Chernobyl	Won
Broadcasting Press Guild Awards	Best Drama Series	Chernobyl	Won	^[101]
	Best Actor	Jared Harris	Nominated
	Best Actress	Emily Watson	Nominated
	Best Writer	Craig Mazin	Won
Casting Society of America	Limited Series	Nina Gold and Robert Sterne	Nominated	^[102]
Cinema Audio Society Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Movie or Limited Series	Vincent Piponnier, Stuart Hilliker, Gibran Farrah and Philip Clements	Won	^[103]
Clio Awards	Trailer 1 – Gold Winner	Chernobyl	Won	^[104]
	Video Promo Mixed Campaign – Gold Winner		Won
Costume Designers Guild Awards	Excellence in Period Television	Odile Dicks-Mireaux (for "Please Remain Calm")	Nominated	^[105]
Critics' Choice Television Awards	Best Limited Series	Chernobyl	Nominated	^[106]
	Best Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie	Jared Harris	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie	Stellan Skarsgård	Won
	Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Television Movie	Emily Watson	Nominated
Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directing – Movies for Television and Limited Series	Johan Renck	Won	^[107]
Dorian Awards	TV Drama of the Year	Chernobyl	Nominated	^[108]
Edinburgh TV Awards	Best Drama	Chernobyl	Won	^[109]
	Best TV Actor	Jared Harris	Nominated
		Emily Watson	Nominated
		Jessie Buckley	Nominated
Festival Nazionale del Doppiaggio Voci nell'Ombra	TV – Miglior doppiaggio generale	Chernobyl	Nominated	^[110]
Golden Globe Awards	Best Limited Series or Television Film	Chernobyl	Won	^[111]
	Best Actor – Limited Series or Television Film	Jared Harris	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor – Series, Limited Series or Television Film	Stellan Skarsgård	Won
	Best Supporting Actress – Series, Limited Series or Television Film	Emily Watson	Nominated
Golden Reel Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Dialogue and ADR for Episodic Long Form Broadcast Media	Stefan Henrix, Harry Barnes, Michael Maroussas	Won	^[112]
	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley for Episodic Long Form Broadcast Media	Stefan Henrix, Joe Beal, Philip Clements, Tom Stewart, Anna Wright	Won
Golden Tomato Awards	Best-reviewed Miniseries and Limited Series	Chernobyl	Won	^[113]
Golden Trailer Awards	Best Horror/Thriller (TV Spot/Trailer/Teaser for a Series)	Chernobyl	Won	^[114]
Gotham Awards	Breakthrough Series – Long Form	Chernobyl	Nominated	^[115]
Grammy Awards	Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media	Hildur Guðnadóttir	Won	^[116]
Hollywood Music In Media Awards	Best Original Score – TV Show/Limited Series	Hildur Guðnadóttir	Nominated	^[117]
Hollywood Post Alliance	Outstanding Editing – Television (Over 30 Minutes)	Simon Smith and Jinx Godfrey // Sister Pictures	Nominated	^[118]
	Outstanding Sound – Television	Stefan Henrix, Stuart Hilliker, Joe Beal, Michael Maroussas and Harry Barnes // Boom Post	Nominated
	Outstanding Visual Effects – Television (Under 13 Episodes)	Lindsay McFarlane, Max Dennison, Clare Cheetham, Steven Godfrey and Luke Letkey // DNEG	Nominated
Humanitas Prize	Limited Series, TV Movie or Special Category	Craig Mazin (for "Vichnaya Pamyat")	Nominated	^[119]
IGN People's Choice Awards	Best TV series	Chernobyl	Won	^[120]
	Best drama TV series		Won	^[121]
	Best dramatic TV performance	Jared Harris	Won	^[122]
	Best TV episode	"The Happiness of All Mankind"	Won	^[123]
International Film Music Critics Association	Best Original Score for Television	Hildur Guðnadóttir	Won	^[124]
Irish Film & Television Academy Awards	Actor in a Supporting Role in Drama	Barry Keoghan	Nominated	^[125]
	Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama	Jessie Buckley	Won
Location Managers Guild Awards	Outstanding Locations in Period Television	Jonas Spokas	Won	^[126]
Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guilds	Television Series, Mini-Series or New Media – Best Period and/or Character Make-Up	Daniel Parker and Natasha Nikolic-Dunlop	Nominated	^[127]
	Television Series, Mini-Series or New Media – Best Special Make-Up Effects	Daniel Parker, Barrie Gower and Paul Spateri	Won
	Television Series, Mini-Series or New Media – Best Period and/or Character Hair Styling	Daniel Parker, Julio Parodi and Bozena Maisejenko	Nominated
Music + Sound Awards	Best Sound Design in a Television Programme	Chernobyl	Won	^[128]
National Television Awards	New Drama	Chernobyl	Won	^[129]
Peabody Awards	Entertainment	Chernobyl	Won	^[130]
Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Limited Series	Craig Mazin, Carolyn Strauss, Jane Featherstone, Johan Renck, Chris Fry and Sanne Wohlenberg	Won	^[131] ^[132]
	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie	Jared Harris	Nominated
	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie	Stellan Skarsgård (for "Please Remain Calm")	Nominated
	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie	Emily Watson (for "Open Wide, O Earth")	Nominated
	Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special	Johan Renck	Won
	Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special	Craig Mazin	Won
Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards	Outstanding Casting for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special	Nina Gold and Robert Sterne	Nominated
	Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie	Jakob Ihre (for "Please Remain Calm")	Won
	Outstanding Period Costumes	Odile Dicks-Mireaux, Holly McLean, Daiva Petrulyte, Anna Munro and Sylvie Org (for "Please Remain Calm")	Nominated
	Outstanding Hairstyling for a Limited Series or Movie	Julio Parodi and Jovana Jovanavic	Nominated
	Outstanding Make-up for a Limited Series or Movie (Non-Prosthetic)	Daniel Parker and Natasha Nikolic-Dunlop	Nominated
	Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie or Special	Barrie Gower, Paul Spateri and Daniel Parker	Nominated
	Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special (Original Dramatic Score)	Hildur Guðnadóttir (for "Please Remain Calm")	Won
	Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More)	Luke Hull, Karen Wakefield and Claire Levinson-Gendler	Won
	Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited Series or Movie	Jinx Godfrey (for "Open Wide, O Earth")	Nominated
		Simon Smith (for "Please Remain Calm")	Won
	Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special	Stefan Henrix, Joe Beal, Michael Maroussas, Harry Barnes, Andy Wade, Anna Wright (for "1:23:45")	Won
	Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Limited Series or Movie	Stuart Hilliker and Vincent Piponnier (for "1:23:45")	Won
	Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role	Max Dennison, Lindsay McFarlane, Claudius Christian Rauch, Clare Cheetham, Laura Bethencourt Montes, Steven Godfrey, Luke Letkey, Christian Waite and William Foulser (for "1:23:45")	Won
Producers Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Producer of Limited Series Television	Craig Mazin, Carolyn Strauss, Jane Featherstone, Johan Renck, Chris Fry and Sanne Wohlenberg	Won	^[133]
Royal Television Society Awards	Mini-Series	Chernobyl	Nominated	^[134]
	Actor (Male)	Jared Harris	Nominated
	Writer (Drama)	Craig Mazin	Won
Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards	Director – Drama	Johan Renck	Nominated	^[135]
	Music – Original Score	Hildur Guðnadóttir	Won
	Costume Design – Drama	Odile Dicks-Mireaux	Won
	Make Up Design – Drama	Daniel Parker	Won
	Photography – Drama & Comedy	Jakob Ihre	Won
	Production Design – Drama	Luke Hull, Clare Levinson-Gendler	Won
	Sound – Drama	Stefan Henrix, Stuart Hilliker, Joe Beal, Harry Barnes, Michael Maroussas	Won
Satellite Awards	Best Miniseries	Chernobyl	Won	^[136]
	Best Actor – Miniseries or TV Film	Jared Harris	Won
	Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or TV Film	Stellan Skarsgård	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or TV Film	Emily Watson	Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Jared Harris	Nominated	^[137]
	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Emily Watson	Nominated
Sentinel Awards	Topic: Nuclear safety	Chernobyl	Won	^[138]
Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards	Outstanding Original Score for a Television or Streaming Production	Hildur Guðnadóttir	Won	^[139]
Television Critics Association Awards	Program of the Year	Chernobyl	Nominated	^[140]
	Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials		Won
Televisual Bulldog Awards	Best Drama One-off or Serial	Chernobyl	Won	^[141]
	Best Cinematography
	Best Music
	Best VFX
Venice TV Awards	Best TV Series	Chernobyl	Won	^[142]
Visual Effects Society Awards	Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode	Max Dennison, Lindsay McFarlane, Clare Cheetham, Paul Jones and Claudius Christian Rauch (for "1:23:45")	Won	^[143]
World Soundtrack Awards	Television Composer of the Year	Hildur Guðnadóttir	Won	^[144]
Writers Guild of America Awards	Long Form – Original	Craig Mazin	Won	^[145]

See also

• List of Chernobyl-related articles
• Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents
• Radiation protection
• Signs and symptoms of radiation poisoning

Notes

1. Co-executive producer.
2. 4K and Dolby Vision are only available through Ultra HD Blu-ray. The originating HBO TV channel does not have a 4K feed and is limited to 1080i HDTV.
3. Episodes were broadcast concurrently on HBO and Sky Atlantic, on Monday at 9:00 pm EDT/Tuesday at 2:00 am BST respectively.
4. Live+Same Day data.
5. Live+7 Days four-screen data.
6. Ukrainian for "Memory Eternal", an exclamation used in Eastern Orthodox funeral or memorial services.

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External links

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to Chernobyl (miniseries).

• Chernobyl – official site (HBO)
• Chernobyl – official site (Sky)
• Chernobyl at IMDb
• Chernobyl episode scripts
• The Chernobyl Podcast – official miniseries podcast