Just what we needed: more juicy, intense HBO shows based on real-life events. Up next? Chernobyl, a docudrama in five parts focusing on the 1986 nuclear disaster.
(History lesson: The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear explosion that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat in northern Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, in April 1986. Radioactive material from the explosion rained from the sky onto other parts of Europe and the western USSR, causing disease, death and environmental destruction…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Read the Wikipedia page—it’s a long one.)
Per an HBO press release, the upcoming show “dramatizes the story of the 1986 nuclear accident, one of the worst manmade catastrophes in history, and of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster, all the while battling a culture of disinformation.”
The cast features some serious actors, including Jared Harris (Mad Men, The Crown), Stellan Skarsgård (Melancholia, Good Will Hunting) and Emily Watson (Synecdoche, New York; Punch-Drunk Love).
If you’re at all familiar with the somewhat niche genre of horror movies that are inspired by the event, know that the trailer is strikingly similar…except it’s not supposed to be fictionalized. We’re just glad to see Mad Men’s Lane Pryce back in action. (Sob.)
Chernobyl premieres on Monday, May 6, at 9 p.m. on HBO.
