About

Chernobyl is an HBO-produced historical drama about the nuclear disaster in Soviet Ukraine in April 1986. The mini-series ran for five episodes in May 2019.

Online History

On March 11th, 2019, HBO released a teaser for Chernobyl, a five-part mini-series dramatizing the 1986 accidental nuclear event, which is considered one of the worst man-made disasters of the modern age. The video received more than 985,000 views in two months (shown below, left).

On March 28th, 2019, HBO released the first trailer for the series. Within two months, the post received more than 11 million views (shown below, right).

The series premiered in the United States on May 6th, 2019.

Reception

The series received largely positive reviews upon its release. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, ^[1] Chernobyl received more than 96% fresh (based on 50 reviews). The site's critical consensus reads, "Chernobyl rivets with a creeping dread that never dissipates, dramatizing a national tragedy with sterling craft and an intelligent dissection of institutional rot." The review aggregator Metacritic^[2] gave the series a score of 83 (based on reviews from 26 critics).

Fandom

Following the series release, fans on 4chan, Reddit and other social networks made memes about the plot of the series, with many examples referencing the actions of the nuclear plant members on the night of the explosion. For example, on May 26th, Redditor JimmieRusslah posted a Change My Mind meme, replacing Steven Crowder with a character Anatoly Dyatlov from the series and the caption "You didn't see graphite on the ground because it's not there." The post received more than 2,200 upvotes in ten days (shown below).

Related Memes

Anatoly Dyatlov

Anatoly Dyatlov (Анатолий Дятлов) is a character appearing in Chernobyl mini-series based on the real person of the same name. Following the premiere of the series, the character, portrayed by the British actor Paul Ritter, gained a significant anti-fandom online, with multiple memes referencing his dialogue and actions appearing on Reddit, 4chan and other online platforms.

Core-chan

Core-chan, also known as Reactor-chan, is an anime-style anthropomorphic representation of the exposed core of the destroyed reactor number four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. The character is usually depicted as a large female figure consisting of smoke and glowing nuclear material. Artworks dedicated to the character gained significant popularity on /tv/ board of 4chan following the release of Chernobyl mini-series in May 2019.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External Reviews