Chernobyl HBO Miniseries – The Cost of Lies

“Whether we see it or not, whether we choose to or not.

The truth doesn’t care about our needs or wants; 

it doesn’t care about our governments, our ideologies, or our religions.

It will lie and wait for all time and this, 

at last, is the gift of Chernobyl. 

Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now, I only

ask … what is the cost of Lies?”  – (Episode 5, Chernobyl)

With the Last of Us series getting good reviews, I decided to watch another series from the same main producer, Craig Mazin. The miniseries, Chernobyl, came out in 2019, and with it being around 4 years later, it still is the embodiment of how to describe a historical event. 

For someone that has not heard of the catastrophic event of Chernobyl, this miniseries depicts the truth of reality with how dangerous lies and secrets really are along with describing the story of Chernobyl. In the show, we see how Anatoly Dyatlov, the deputy chief engineer for the nuclear power plant, is shown in a bad light as he ignores safety measures and blames everything on the workers. He is constantly lying to the workers that things are going to plan, and the workers, who know the truth of the disaster about to come, lie to keep their jobs.

Craig Mazin, along with others in production, really showed how dangerous nuclear plants are. An explosion, which wasn’t explained how it came to be until the very end, put emphasis on how little we know of the world. Coincidentally, East Palestine had a train crash, which released nuclear waste into the air, endangering the town and animals alike. This wasn’t on the scale as Chernobyl, but still proves a big risk to humanity, since something so dangerous was too easily released. 

The area around Chernobyl will not be habitable for another 20,000 years and to learn more about this devastating event, you can watch Chernobyl on HBO Max.