A record 19 million people watched the series finale of Game of Thrones, which featured House Disappointment coming out on top. (What a surprise!) Many of those viewers reportedly cancelled their HBO subscriptions afterward, but they might have made a huge mistake. The network's library includes several critically acclaimed series, like The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos, Veep, and the latest hit, Chernobyl.
The five part mini series depicts the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, which occurred in the Ukrainian town of Pripyat in 1986. After a botched safety test, the fire released huge amounts of lethal radiation into the air. Approximately 30 plant staffers and emergency workers died, although the subsequent fallout was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. It remains the worst man-made disaster in history.
Watch the promo for the Chernobyl finale[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/XPlKSy8C-sKUnNGKf.mp4||XPlKSy8C]]
The show depicts the horrible human cost of the explosion, which nobody was prepared for, especially the Soviet Union. Authorities evacuated residents within the deadly exclusion zone, a 19-mile radius rendered unfit for human habitation for 20,000 years. The blame for the catastrophe, though, is placed not on the plant workers, but on the deceitful Soviet officials, whose abysmal management and feckless denial of facts caused the disaster - plus crippled the clean-up.
Watch the Chernobyl trailer[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/344XyKXj-Q0L14jDU.mp4||344XyKXj]]
The gripping finale of Chernobyl airs tonight, and follows the 1987 trial of six former technicians. The synopsis reads: "Valery Legasov (ared Harris), Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård) and Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson) risk their lives and reputations to expose the truth about Chernobyl." Judging by the one minute promo, it will feature both the trial and what happened during the crucial minutes before the explosion.
Since it premiered last month, Chernobyl has gotten rave reviews, shooting to the top of IMDb's top rated TV shows. Currently it's ranked #1, with an average rating of 9.5, followed by Planet Earth II (9.5), Band of Brothers (9.4), Planet Earth (9.4), Breaking Bad (9.4), Game of Thrones (9.4) and The Wire (9.3). Unless the mini series really drops the ball tonight, it looks like it will sit on the Iron Throne! (Of one website's user ratings of TV shows.)
Watch rare drone footage of the real Chernobyl[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/wfyON5M1-dkXnENEs.mp4||wfyON5M1]]
