With a total duration of 436 minutes, "The Days" is a pretty long watch. Especially if you compare it to "Chernoby", which is with its 336 minutes one of the best mini-series of all time. And I especially chose to make this comparison, because whilst watching "The Days" I got the clear impression that the goal was to create as much as possible a similar viewing experience as "Chernobyl".
The next question would be why I would say this?! Well, if you put "The Days" and "Chernobyl" side-to-side, it shows that "The Days" put as much emphasis on topics like (1) "the control room", (2) "rescue mission where workers knowingly put their lives at risk", (3) "politics", (4) "effects of radiation poisoning", ...
Of course many of these items are involved in both situations. But upon watching "The Days", the scenes have so much in common with "Chernobyl" that you start thinking that you are watching a similar dramatization of events! And this whilst both accidents are of course very unlike!
And there are more factors that make "Chernobyl" so unique as compared to "The Days". First of all, it is the world-class acting of e.g. Stellan Skarsgard, Jared Harris and Emily Watson that make "Chernobyl" really stand out. Combine that with breathtaking scenes plus a unique script, and you have as result one of the best mini-series ever.
Where I think that "The Days" may have some success for the Japanese audience, I don't think it has much appeal for an international audience. By making it so similar to "Chernobyl", the producers missed a big opportunity of putting an original twist to the events that happened in Japan. For instance the tsunami - a major factor in the Japanese incident - was covered only very shortly in "The Days". I personally would have liked to see way more of what exactly were the effects of the tsunami on the nuclear power plant.
Summarizing, I clearly recommend to (re-)watch "Chernobyl" instead of "The Days". This mini-series is so much a deja-vu that I even fell asleep two times (true!). Something that isn't strange considering the similarities and way too long duration of 436 minutes. As such, I unfortunately can't come further than a score of 5.9/10. This with the remark that for a japanese audience, it may score maybe a point extra "for relevance".
And wait, as a final remark I'd like to say that they could have chosen a way better title than "The Days"...
The next question would be why I would say this?! Well, if you put "The Days" and "Chernobyl" side-to-side, it shows that "The Days" put as much emphasis on topics like (1) "the control room", (2) "rescue mission where workers knowingly put their lives at risk", (3) "politics", (4) "effects of radiation poisoning", ...
Of course many of these items are involved in both situations. But upon watching "The Days", the scenes have so much in common with "Chernobyl" that you start thinking that you are watching a similar dramatization of events! And this whilst both accidents are of course very unlike!
And there are more factors that make "Chernobyl" so unique as compared to "The Days". First of all, it is the world-class acting of e.g. Stellan Skarsgard, Jared Harris and Emily Watson that make "Chernobyl" really stand out. Combine that with breathtaking scenes plus a unique script, and you have as result one of the best mini-series ever.
Where I think that "The Days" may have some success for the Japanese audience, I don't think it has much appeal for an international audience. By making it so similar to "Chernobyl", the producers missed a big opportunity of putting an original twist to the events that happened in Japan. For instance the tsunami - a major factor in the Japanese incident - was covered only very shortly in "The Days". I personally would have liked to see way more of what exactly were the effects of the tsunami on the nuclear power plant.
Summarizing, I clearly recommend to (re-)watch "Chernobyl" instead of "The Days". This mini-series is so much a deja-vu that I even fell asleep two times (true!). Something that isn't strange considering the similarities and way too long duration of 436 minutes. As such, I unfortunately can't come further than a score of 5.9/10. This with the remark that for a japanese audience, it may score maybe a point extra "for relevance".
And wait, as a final remark I'd like to say that they could have chosen a way better title than "The Days"...