Every Chernobyl Episode Ranked From Worst To Best

HBO miniseries Chernobyl only ran for five episodes, but that was enough for it to rise to the very top of IMDb’s highest-rated TV shows. Whether or not it really is the greatest TV show ever (and further, whether any single show can truly claim that title) is a discussion for another day.

Regardless of where you stand on that, you can’t argue against the impact Chernobyl had during its short run, churning out five brilliant episodes out of five. Going back to IMDb, the lowest rated single episode sits at a mighty 9.6.

There’s not enough space to delve into everything that makes these episodes so amazing; each entry just offers a handful of great moments, and even then several have to miss out. To truly appreciate Chernobyl, you really have to watch it; probably several times.

Sifting through and coming up with a ranking, unfortunately, means putting one at the bottom, but that’s like asking Meryl Streep to pick her least favourite Academy Award. Speaking of awards, expect Chernobyl to clean up when the season rolls around, with terrific acting, writing and direction across the entire series.

It feels incredibly harsh to have to put any of Chernobyl’s outstanding episodes at the bottom of the list, so it’s best to think of The Happiness Of All Mankind as being fifth in the top five, rather than the bottom.

The episode’s ‘problem’ (if you can really call it that) is that it all feels like it’s building to the finale, especially in its second half.

Each episode can largely stand alone but more than any other pair, THOAM’s second half and Vichnaya Pamyat feel like a doubleheader. The groundwork is laid here, with Emily Watson’s Ulana Khomyk and Jared Harris’s Valery Legasov discussing the cause of the disaster, the Soviet Union’s blame, and the price of the truth.

The episode also marks the first time in television history the collective audience shouted at their TV screens ‘shoot the damn dog!’

The soldiers (including a recently conscripted boy) killing and then burying the potentially radioactive pets of Chernobyl was a harrowing watch, with the scenes being brutal yet with zero gratuity.

For all it’s propping up the list here, the roof clearing sequence might be the single best moment in the entire series.

As we follow a single, unnamed worker, we see the startling effort these young men put in, the perilous conditions, the dedication and, most chillingly, feel his fear as he realises his suit has been compromised.

Shortly after the episode aired, videos resurfaced online of the real Soviet’s clearing the roof of the radioactive debris; the likeness is terrifyingly uncanny.