In five episodes, HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries dramatizes the events of the April 1986 nuclear plant explosion in the Soviet Union.

Inspired in part by Svetlana Alexievich’s book Voices from Chernobyl and its personal stories of people who worked at the plant, those who lived nearby, and workers who were sent to Chernobyl as part of the cleanup crew, Chernobyl also delves into the actions of the plant employees complicit in causing the disaster and the bureaucrats whose efforts to keep the accident secret may have made the devastating effects even worse.

According to series creator Craig Mazin “The lesson of Chernobyl isn’t that modern nuclear power is dangerous. The lesson is that lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism are dangerous.”