HBO's Chernobyl trailer wants you to understand that radiation is some seriously scary shit

Living in the post-atomic age—a time when every cellphone is kicking out god-knows how much radiation, streaming directly into our heads, every single minute of the day—it’s easy to lose sight of just how powerful that particular primeval force can be. And while the entertainment industry normally does its best to re-establish radiation’s horrifying potential for death via measured applications of our old friend Godzilla, sometimes you’ve just got to lay it out for people a little more simply.

Such is the case with the new trailer for HBO’s upcoming miniseries Chernobyl, which features Jared Harris ranting about the trillion utterly lethal little bullets about to be fired at the titular Ukranian city from its nearby burning nuclear reactor. No adorable, uncuddle-able puppies here: Craig Mazin’s take on this material looks to be the grimmest of the grim, as Russian officials haphazardly race to contain information about the disaster, and hair—and skin, ugh—starts coming off all over the place.

Chernobyl debuts on HBO on May 6. The nightmares are expected to persist through the rest of the month.