How a miniseries on a catastrophic disaster touched heartstrings through the simple elements of storytelling
How Chernobyl won the hearts of the viewers, boils down to the basic fact in storytelling: Show, don’t tell. The series starts with a scene leading to the suicide of Valery Legasov played by Jared Harris. Legasov ponders over some poignant questions, states certain cryptic facts, stacks up his recorded cassettes, hoard them and leaves a plate of food for his cat. While the camera centres on the cat licking away his plate of food, the creaking noises hint the viewers of something ominous happening in the background. The fallen spectacles and the shining leather shoes hanging midair is all that’s shown in the preceding scene. But the viewers already know. The series is stitched together with scenes of minimal yet well-scripted dialogues, intense background music and brilliant direction. The masterminds behind the series opted for a different way of storytelling. Unlike in most tv series where the suspense is build up in a linear direction, Chernobyl started at the