Iranians, who have been under pressure from the United States over the country's nuclear program, are enjoying discussing someone else’s nuclear problems for a change. The recently released HBO miniseries “Chernobyl,” focusing on the catastrophic nuclear accident in 1986, has proved to be wildly popular in Iran.

Despite four decades of enmity between Iran and the United States, Iranians have always been big fans of American television series. Among the most popular ones are Breaking Bad, Lost, Prison Break, 24 and Game of Thrones. Unsurprisingly House of Cards, the political thriller involving sex, lies, backstabbing and murder in the White House, also met with success, elicting positive reactions from conservative media outlets, which maintained that it presented a realistic portrait of inside the White House. Iranian state TV broadcast the political drama concurrently with the US presidential debates in 2016.

“Chernobyl,” with Persian subtitles, can be accessed through a number of websites. Iranian streaming services, such as Filimo and Namava, are competing in offering the dubbed version of series. After its launch on June 4, a debate sprung up in the mainstream media, with politicians, opinion leaders and critics engaging in lively discussion over how accurately the series reflects what actually happened in 1986, when a series of explosions destroyed one of the reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, and released a plume of radiation that spread around the world. The back and forth has also focused on the motives behind the series' creation.

The debate got started the day after the series premiered, when presidential adviser Hesameddin Ashena tweeted that politicians and members of the establishment should watch “Chernobyl” and “learn a lesson” from it. He underscored that the final episode raised a key issue: “The main point of [the series] is the shocking question 'What is the cost of lies?'"