Chernobyl connected with so many people because it provided a canvas for all our anxieties

Indiewire

"The core of the show’s ballooning impact lies in what it stands for within the minds of those who watch it — and it can stand for quite a lot," says Steve Greenberg. "Chernobyl is a show about empathy. Chernobyl is a show about the dangers of hubris, the perils of ignoring expertise. Chernobyl is a show that hones in on what it takes to challenge your own perception of what’s happening around you, to consider what effects your own actions might have on a community (or in this case, an entire geopolitical region). This flexibility of interpretation has helped make it one of the year’s most resonant series, a show that has lasted longer in the regular TV conversation than many of its network counterparts. Much of that conversation likely stems from its ability to speak to the current global atmosphere, both literally and figuratively. There is a strong undercurrent of the value of science and investment, of what can be lost when fact-based reasoning gives way to uninformed whims. In that way, Chernobyl can be a parable for the looming, ever-present climate crisis. Some see it as a rebuke of policies of the current White House administration. Others miss the urgency of the story and use the show as a cudgel to nurse Cold War grudges. Chernobyl becomes a prism through which anyone can bring their own anxieties and be reminded that those fears are not unique, that they evolved from the some of the same mistakes that led to the Chernobyl explosion in the first place."

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