Zero Hour (TV Series) Disaster at Chernobyl (2004) User Reviews

One of the first, and as factual and fair as possible, real-time documentaries of the Chernobyl disaster

[michiganave_p · 10/10 · 5 November 2022]

Before there were any other series on this, most notably Craig Mazin's HBO/Sky Chernobyl, there was this documentary that best explained what happened that terrible night, including the some now-Ukrainians who were there working the night it happened, and ended up living to tell about it.

The series went even as far to recrate exactly what happened early that AM using one of the other control rooms at the Lenin/Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine at the time the episode was created.

It doesn't do much post-accident exploration, as that is not the purpose of the whole Zero Hour series, but is more to focus on the minute-by-minute play of what happened in the control room.

It is fair in terms of giving a complete assessment of what happened, putting fair blame on the operators, supervisors and the Soviet system overall and not to point fingers at one specific party or come up with conspiracy theories.

The most comprehensive coverage there is of Chernobyl

[rubyslanding · 10/10 · 5 January 2023]

The first time I'd seen this documentary about Chernobyl was on Amazon Prime years ago. I was almost literally glued to my seat the entire time. Chernobyl's meltdown occured within a couple of years after the TV movie "The Day After" had aired. I was very worried we were going to have a nuclear winter despite being in the US - not Russia. I never understood what, exactly, a nuclear plant meltdown was or why it happened. As a result, I finally began looking for answers to this question a few years ago, and I was blown away after watching this documentary (pun intended).

Zero hour's production of the step-by-step account of events leading up to the Chernobyl meltdown was easy to follow and very comprehensive. The reenactments were outstanding and made it easier to picture what happened that day. I was surprised to learn that the events were essentially caused by a tyrant who was too prideful to listen to the warnings he'd received from his colleagues. I was also surprised to learn that his colleagues wouldn't stand up to the man and prevent the meltdown. That said a lot about Russian culture at that time.

I've watched other documentaries about Chernobyl and found them much harder to follow and have always come back to this episode when wanting to refresh my memory about events leading up to the meltdown of Chernobyl. The only thing is that I get Zero Hour and Seconds from Disaster mixed up with each other and forget which series produced this account of Chernobyl. I'd forgotten the name of this series a couple of years ago and panicked about it because I really wanted to watch it again. It's that good! I highly recommend this account of Chernobyl's meltdown to everyone and wish this was a mandatory documentary for highschool kids. No one should forget how carelessness and callousness can lead to the endless loss of many lives.

Good Documentary

[gregberne11 · 6/10 · 25 July 2019]

It is not super in depth but for a short documentary it does a good job.