Chernobyl

I thought the HBO miniseries Chernobyl was very well made, and recommend it. Some of the Soviet/KGB stuff is Hollywoodized/sensationalized/fictionalized. The way things fell out was much more banal, bureaucratic, and not as sinister as portrayed, and there wasn't one solitary woman hero investigator, but several investigators.

Nonetheless, every episode had me, and I credit this series with making me understand how nuclear reactors work (basically) in a way that was gripping.

I think 'gripping' is the operative word in describing the whole series. I was heaving sighs regularly just to relieve the tension and creeping dread throughout. Film is the aesthetic experience of time; when it depicts nuclear energy gone wrong, it's a kind of horror that just gets to you.

Five out of five stars and two thumbs up!