By HBO's compelling mini-series Chernobyl has gripped viewers for the last month as it recreates the 1986 tragedy in vivid, and often hard to watch, detail. The five-part series chronicles the aftermath of the catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant which turned a huge patch of Ukraine into a no-go zone.
As well as cinematically capturing the visual spectacle of the initial incident, the series faithfully recreates the world of USSR Ukraine, a time of intense paranoia where responses to the crisis are tied up in Soviet Union politics.
Since concluding this week the series has earned rave reviews with many calling it one of the finest television dramas ever made. According to television and film rating site IMDb, it's done one better and is the best TV series of all time, with Chernobyl currently sitting on the highest series rating on the site.
As per Variety, "As of Tuesday, Chernobyl had a 9.7-star (out of 10) average rating from about 140,000 users on the Amazon-owned IMDb site."
They continue: "For now, that puts the critically acclaimed Chernobyl ahead of AMC’s Breaking Bad (9.5), BBC’s Planet Earth II (9.5), HBO’s Band of Brothers (9.5), the original Planet Earth (9.4), HBO’s Game of Thrones (9.3) and HBO’s The Wire (9.3), according to IMDb’s ranking of TV shows."
Whether it's excellent score sticks remains to be seen, as such high ratings tend to diminish over time as more reviews are added and the hype dies down. However, it's still a remarkable achievement for series made up of just five episodes to have had such an impact on viewers.
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