Lots of moments of people looking into the camera and going "how could communism do this?" which is cringe, but otherwise it's a fantastic story of human drama and how bad shit can get. Funny, I read this morning that Gorby is now dead, weird timing.
I think in the director's commentary they do mention of how interesting it was that people would sacrifice a lot for the common good and it wouldn't happen in US. Also though, I wouldn't give too much credit to the show, due to showrunners literally breaking the fourth wall every 30 minutes to say "Did you know that Soviet Union is baaaaaaaad?"