“At the heart of this story, which on the surface is about a nuclear explosion, there is a warning about what happens when a society completely detaches itself from the value of truth,” explains “Chernobyl” creator Craig Mazin. The HBO limited series recounts the 1986 power plant disaster in the USSR, the investigation led by scientist Valery Legasov (Jared Harris) to find out what happened, and the attempts by the government to cover-up the details. Watch our exclusive video interview with Mazin above.

SEE Jared Harris interview: ‘Chernobyl’

“The Soviet system was a terrible system,” adds Mazin. “Anything that didn’t fit the narrative that the Soviets put out was repressed or denied.” The writer saw many obvious parallels to today, especially when it comes to climate change. “We’re struggling with how to discern truth from narrative,” while scientists keep “giving us warnings that we don’t really want to heed. But the truth will continue to do what it does whether we listen to it or not, and that’s really what I think makes this story relevant right now.”

SEE Emmys 2019 slugfest: Predicting the Limited Series and TV Movie races

The series was a change of pace for Mazin, a screenwriter better known for comedies like “Identity Thief” and the last two “Hangover” movies. He was compelled to tell the story because when he first read about it, he felt as though “I had discovered the history of a secret war.” And it “just intersected all my interests: science, history and human nature. I thought it was a fascinating study of all three at once.”

He also relished the opportunity to tell a long-form story. As a screenwriter, “you’re always running out of time,” he says. But with “Chernobyl,” he “couldn’t imagine” limiting it to just two hours. “I thought we would just lose a lot of what made it special.”

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