'Chernobyl' is now IMDb's highest-rated show; beats both 'Game of Thrones' and 'Breaking Bad'
Although Sky Atlantic's new show 'Chernobyl' has only aired for three weeks in the UK so far, with the mini-series having a total of only five episodes, it seems to have broken quite a record among fans, since it has managed to secure a higher rating on IMDb than both 'Breaking Bad' and 'Game Of Thrones'.
According to the media site, 'Chernobyl' scored an impressive average of 9.6 out of 10 by nearly 26,000 fans. Meanwhile, 'Breaking Bad' has 9.5 out of 10 by 1,194,332 fans, whereas 'Game of Thrones' has been rated 9.4 out of 10 by 1,512,733 fans.
The five-part drama, which boasts of a star-studded cast including Emily Watson, Jessie Buckley, Stellan Skarsgard, and Jared Harris, tells the story of the biggest disaster in the history of nuclear energy. It talks about the early hours of 26 April 1986, when a safety test on a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in the Soviet state of Ukraine went catastrophically wrong.
Disaster struck the region after errors were made by the poorly trained night shift, who were finding out how reactor number four would cope in a power cut. Anatoly Dyatlov, the deputy chief engineer who is played by 'Friday Night Dinner' actor Paul Ritter, made reckless decisions and an explosion was triggered which released 400 times more radiation than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima 41 years earlier.
The series' first episode tells a stirring tale of how the world's worst man-made nuclear disaster began, leaving you gripping the edge of your seats as an unnerving feeling settles in the pit of your stomach. Legasov, played by the brilliant English actor Jared Harris, recalls the dark days of the nuclear explosion near the town of Pripyat as he records crucial untold details of the disaster on cassette tapes, hiding them from the KGB.
The show gives a detailed, hourly account of how the disaster ensues causing confusion and the haphazard attempt of those in charge to contain a situation already spiraling out of their control. As workers inside the plant begin dying after being exposed to a dangerous amount of radiation, the tension inside the control room heightens as they desperately try to figure out what went wrong considering they went by the book during the test.
The Sky Atlantic show doesn't shy away from the consequences of radiation exposure with prosthetics designer, Daniel Parker, providing burning and blotching, depending upon the amount of exposure. Much of the filming of 'Chernobyl' took place at a nuclear plant in Lithuania, which was supposedly decommissioned.
According to a recent report, however, thrill seekers have turned the deadly radioactive zone into a tourist attraction with rave parties, art installations and guided tours of the abandoned ruins. The routine guided tours of the region was escalated into a rave party and art installation last year in November, where dozens of people from various countries came to the ruins dressed in nuclear fallout protective suits and gas masks to dance their hearts out.
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