By Robert

Japanese Netflix drama The Days is hard hitting and insightful despite the lack of character development.

In 2011 the Fukushima Nuclear plant was hit by a tsunami caused by an earthquake off the coast of Japan.

The resulting damage to the plant caused the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl and this series takes you from just before the tsunami hits until the reactors are starting to stabilise.

If you watched Sky’s hit series Chernobyl then you will like this but it is different enough that to draw parallels is unfair.

Yes they were both nuclear disasters but one took place under the very undemocratic Soviet Union and threw people that hadn’t worked or knew each other together.

While Fukushima is very much on the opposite side with the company and government having worked together for years and they just can’t throw people at the problem like Chernobyl.

I feel this means the lack of character development can be overlooked as all the relationships have already been established previously.

The cinematic scenes are amazing from the rushing water to exploding buildings and the sets keep you drawn in while everything goes wrong.

Plant manager Yoshida (Koji Yakusho) is brilliantly acted and is a tribute to the real Yoshida who died of cancer two years after the disaster and the writers used his testimony along with other official accounts.

He goes from an easy going bureaucrat to a sleep deprived shell who bends the rules and doesn’t take the caution coming from above.

The rest of the cast carry the story of those they are portraying with the heartbreaking orders for the operators of Unit 1 and 2 to choose who goes into the highly active reactor building to turn valves to stop it going into meltdown.

The only hang up I have with it is it is very technical as it revolves around pressure, voltage and radiation readings which can be meaningless as they are talking about them.

It is well worth watching and realising what happened on March 11, 2011.

My Rating: 9/10