7 Reasons Why You Should Be Watching Chernobyl

All of the writing and white knuckle tension though would mean very little without a visual spectacle. Though is sticks to mainly dull and drab colours, Chernobyl manages to deliver in spades.

The power plant itself is swathed in a noxious yellow glow, the whole area covered in an cloud which is both ethereal and deadly. Against the midnight black sky, the building looks spectacular; inside the corridors flash with red flares which only makes the burned and bloody bodies look more horrific.

Away from the disaster itself, everything is greyscale. That’s not to say it’s boring though; the colour scheme is a very dramatic choice, sucking you into the joyless world of Soviet-era Ukraine. The emptiness of the townspeople’s lives only makes the disaster more stark.

This is the only important thing that will ever happen to them; and it will probably kill them.

Despite its very serious tone, Chernobyl has blockbuster set pieces up its sleeves. They’re unloaded with such little fanfare that you lose yourself in their grim reality.

As you’d expect, it nails the small moments too. The dying bird twitches it’s last just as the credits role, and there’s real poetry in the moments which allow for it.