It’s fair to say that HBO’s Chernobyl has impressed almost everyone who has watched it, it going on to be IMDb’s best rated show of all time. That’s right, even better than Breaking Bad, The Wire, and the US remake of Skins, if you can believe it.
‘Vichnaya Pamyat’, which is the fifth and final episode of the miniseries and follows the courtroom drama into the inquest of what went down at Chernobyl, keeps up the IMDb honours for the show with it currently sitting on a perfect 10/10 from 15,655 reviews at this time of writing.
The written reviews for the episode are full of praise about how the show wrapped things up. I haven’t seen such an outpouring admiration for any TV show finale since, well, forever. Perhaps Breaking Bad?
From suleymanacikkan:
‘I commend everyone who took part in any stage of the production with utmost respect. I genuinely believe that anyone who watched the series gained an elevated level of awareness and it is priceless!’
From austinebel:
‘One of, if not the best, episodes of television currently out there. Going into this episode, I knew HBO was going to knock it out of the park, but even this more than exceeded my expectations. This was the perfect finale in every aspect that can be imagined – the writing, the cinematography, the acting, etc. Hats off to HBO, Craig Mazin, Jonah Renck, and everyone who was a part of making this masterpiece.’
From ah-90067:
This mini-series has been incredible all the way through and the finale finished it strong. The story telling and explanation of the Chernobyl disaster were extremely well done. An unforgettable series that i don’t know if i’d be able to sit through a second time. This is TV at its absolute best.
And a succinct closer from micah-82076:
‘There would be no possible way to imagine a better series finale.’
The reviews for it so far are glowing (heh), but it’s important to realise that we aren’t that far separated from its original airdate, so the “recentism” might be a little strong here — more reviews could end up knocking it down. An even more worthwhile point is that the episode already had a significant amount of positive reviews before it even aired, suggesting some rather boisterous fans jumped the gun without even watching it. IMDb is notorious for this, so the 10 score might not be entirely reflective of the general consensus just yet.
It is interesting, however, to note the difference between Chernobyl’s finale’s reception on IMDb and another HBO production’s: Game of Thrones. That ending will go down in infamy as one of the worst reviewed finales in history, so much so that even the infamously bad Dexter lumberjack nonsense has it beat.
‘The Iron Throne’ sits on a less than great 4.3/10 from 200,490 reviews.
Though it’s a neat comparison to make, it’s not one that holds up particularly well. Chernobyl hasn’t been around for nearly a decade while building a gigantic and expectant fanbase, and neither does it feature one of its main characters getting turned into a simpleton with a total of three phrases, either.
Chernobyl follows the untold story of what went down during the Chernobyl disaster in Pripyat, as well as the immediate aftermath and how it affected everyone involved. Drawing from real stories (even featuring genuine footage and audio during a couple of points), it has been widely praised for delivering a terrifying vision of a man-made apocalypse, as well as some brilliant performances from the likes of Stellan Skarsgård and Jared Harris.
We were also big fans of the finale, our Huw giving it a 9/10 and saying the following:
‘Vichnaya Pamyat may lack the sheer spectacle of the rest of the miniseries, but it’s still an excellent conclusion, and remains a stark warning from history.’
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