History Series / Chernobyl

* OutsideContextProblem: Legasov states the disaster at Chernobyl as this to Scherbina early on in the emergency. As he puts it, it is something that has never happened in the history of planet Earth until now, and they essentially have to invent solutions to the problem as they go along.

** Khomyuk, a CompositeCharacter representing the greater scientific community, arrives at Chernobyl to reveal to Valery the problem of smothering the fire with sand. Throughout the story she acts as a [[TheConscience voice of reason]] and [[CannotTellALie advocate for truth and integrity]], urging Valery to tell the truth when he would just as soon toe the party line. Even in her introductory scene, her intuition that a serious accident has occurred is played against her male colleague, who is reluctant to believe the radioactive isotopes in the air are the result of anything so large-scale and unthinkable by their technical standards.

* ReadingsBlewUpTheScale: In the immediate aftermath of the explosion at Chernobyl it's mentioned that most of the Geiger counters being used to measure radiation are breaking after being having their measurements maxed out. The Central Committee makes the mistake of trusting the reported "3.6 roentgen" number until Legasov points out that that's the maximum reading for such low-level equipment, and given that he fears that the equivalent of a nuclear bomb just went off, the real number is probably much higher. It takes General Pikalov driving a truck in himself with their most capable dosimeter tied to the front to confirm that actual readings are around 15,000 roentgen for anyone to take this correction seriously.

%%* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: In a social and political system that encourages selfish preservation and emboldens ObstructiveBureaucrat mentality, reason is a liability. But some still manage to use their power for good.

** Dyatlov tries to throw his workers under the bus for the disaster, claiming that he wasn't even in the control room when the disaster occurred. Several witnesses had already testified to his role in the disaster and included specifics, such as how he threatened his subordinates to force the test to go through after they had already warned him that something was wrong. The worst part is that this was in a ''show trial'', where all he had to do was just show some sincere guilt - instead, he's so dedicated to screwing over his workers that he tries a bold-faced lie that doesn't even make sense and that everyone in the room, including the judge, immediately sees through.

** As Shcherbina points out in the final episode, the implementation of the diesel back-up generators in case of a blackout to prevent a core meltdown would not have worked since it took approximately a minute for the generators to pick up the load of the pumps. The safety test being carried out that night was supposed to evaluate a possible solution to this.

* TakeThat: The series contain many of these directed at the Soviet leadership for being more concerned about covering up the sitation instead of fixing it, making everything worse.

* HellIsThatNoise: The creepy music, composed using recordings from an actual power plant and supplemented by Geiger counters, helicopters, and static, fuses seamlessly with the noises of the reactor, both while it is working and as it basically withers and dies after the accident. This creates a background ambiance that greatly enhances the creepy atmosphere.

* VodkaDrunkenski: Pretty much every single male character is shown drinking vodka, at all hours of the day. It is even enforced by the government: the liquidators are given free vodka as reward or to keep morale high. Barry Keoghan's character declines an offer of vodka in one of his introductory scenes, considering it a "bit early", but as the reality of his situation sets in, starts drinking it like, well, water.

** All attempts to cover up the disaster and save face, habits left over from Stalin's rule, fail to do ''anything'' except make more people suffer. Hiding things from Legasov and Scherbina just made Bryukhanov and Fomin look stupid, hiding things from Gorbachev was completely unnecessary because he's a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, and hiding things from the Western nations didn't work because the cloud of radiation moved over Western Europe and was detected by scientists who ''didn't'' have to fear censure, and Western authorities were savvy enough about Soviet ass-covering to realize that the mere ''fact'' that the Soviets were admitting Chernobyl ''was'' a problem (instead of denying everything) meant that they were hiding something ''really'' serious.

** Legasov's idea to smother the fire with sand and to slow the reaction with boron results in the sand being liquefied into radioactive "lava" and pouring towards water pooled underground, threatening to cause an even greater disaster if they interact. The only way to avert this is to send three men into the dark and highly irradiated underground to pump the water out; even if they succeed, it is a SuicideMission, and he needs clearance from Gorbachev himself to order it. In his defense, Legasov was aware that dumping the boron/sand mixture would "create problems of its own" (and much of the sand that the lava was made of was already in situ around the reactor where it was intended to act as a safety blanket), but putting out the fire had to take priority because it was spewing [[FogOfDoom radioactive smoke]], and he wasn't aware of the pooled water until Khomyuk alerted him to it; in addition, unlike [[IRejectYourReality basically everyone else who fucked up to any extent regarding the disaster]], he owns his mistake and sets to work trying to prevent its potential consequences.

* StupidEvil: The disaster gets exponentially worse than it could've because so many people are so focused on saving face that they lose all common sense.

* WhamLine: "It's not 3 roentgen. It's 15,000."

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: In the show, when Dyatlov says that he's "seen worse" after the reactor explosion, it's treated as a sign of how disconnected from reality he is to dismiss the explosion. The original script indicated that Dyatlov genuinely meant that he had seen worse before; in real life, he had been part of another nuclear accident twenty years before that seemed, at least at first, to be worse than the Chernobyl explosion, hence his calm reaction. By removing the backstory but keeping the reference, Dyatlov's delusional attempts to deny the explosion even happened are emphasized even further[[note]]In real life, Dyatlov's previous nuclear incident led to his son's death, which has prompted speculation that Dyatlov's actions on the night of the explosion were designed to "conquer the atom" and get some closure. Mazin thought that this would be too much armchair psychology and simply omitted the whole thing[[/note]].

** Legasov and Shcherbina were aided in their efforts by ''hundreds'' of scientists from around the globe, which is simply impossible to show onscreen. Instead, all of these scientists are represented by fictional character Ulana Khomyuk, a CompositeCharacter who is less of a person and more an abject representation of the scientific community. The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue confirms her fictional status to make the representation clear.

* PyrrhicVictory: Although it's the only victory possible under the circumstances (the whole of Russia doesn't collapse from radiation poisoning), this is invoked numerous times, with characters being sent to awful and inevitable deaths simply because it's the only way to prevent a huge collapse that might lead the whole world into TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* DisasterDominoes: Several factors had to align in order for the Chernobyl disaster to occur, as listed on the [[{{UsefulNotes/Chernobyl}} Useful Notes]] page. Episode 5 serves as a recount of all of those factors: human, scientific and political.[[note]]The short version: RBMK reactors are designed with a positive feedback loop ("positive void co-efficient") which is dangerous, but produces a lot of electricity cheaply. The gas Xenon-135 is a byproduct of the nuclear reaction, which in large quantities will slow the reaction – but at normal reaction levels, the neutron emissions being produced by the reaction outpace the rate at which Xenon is produced, "burning" it off (once an atom of [=Xe135=] has absorbed one neutron, it will absorb no more, becoming effectively transparent to neutron radiation). The danger is that keeping the reactor in low power mode for too long will lead to a Xenon buildup - the "Xenon Pit" mentioned by Toptunov - that "stalls" the reactor. Due to a series of scheduling screwups for political reasons, this is exactly what happened, when the reactor administration left it in low-power mode for too long as part of a safety test, combined with making the less well-trained night shift perform the test, without even being told in advance or given time to prepare for it. When a reactor stalls, you're supposed to '''gradually''' build it back up to normal reaction levels, which takes 24 hours. Instead, the reactor chief ordered the engineers to just '''yank out all the control rods at once'''. The reaction indeed restarted, but due to the feedback loop nature of RBMK reactors, it started increasing too fast. In a last desperate attempt to regain control, the crew hit the emergency shutdown button (AZ-5) which automatically shoves all the control rods back into the reactor to shut it down... not knowing that an inherent design flaw meant the rods were tipped with graphite, which will briefly '''accelerate''' the reaction. Functioning at normal temperatures, the graphite wouldn't have been a problem, but at dangerously high temperatures, the graphite was enough to, in a split-second, '''exponentially increase''' the rate of reaction, which, when combined with all the water in the reactor immediately evaporating into steam and dramatically increasing the pressure, pushed it over the edge, resulting in the explosion. [[/note]]

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: In the show, when Dyatlov says that he's "seen worse" after the reactor explosion, it's treated as a sign of how disconnected from reality he is to dismiss the explosion. The original script indicated that Dyatlov genuinely meant that he had seen worse before; in real life, he had been part of another nuclear accident twenty years before that seemed, at least at first, to be worse than the Chernobyl explosion, hence his calm reaction. By removing the backstory but keeping the reference, Dyatlov's delusional attempts to deny the explosion even happened are emphasized even further.

** Legasov was married with children, but adding them into the story would have detracted from the narrative's main focus and added far more layers to his suicide than they could unpack, so they're AdaptedOut. Shcherbina indirectly mentions them in episode four by saying that the KGB will go after his family, but they never appear nor are they mentioned in the epilogue.

** Several characters are shown having to act on bad orders via literal or metaphorical gunpoint, such as Sitnikov needing an armed guard to take him to view the exposed reactor. In reality, Soviet culture and propaganda was so focused on following orders to aid communism that none of them would have needed any kind of threat - either the inherent threat of reprisals were present in every order, or the culture was so effective that no one would've questioned the benefits of the order in the first place. However, because this does not tend to be true in Western cultures, the only ways to make this clear was to either derail the script with exposition or just have actual threats, and the latter is far less disruptive.

* AdaptationExplanationExplication: In the show, when Dyatlov says that he's "seen worse" after the reactor explosion, it's treated as a sign of how disconnected from reality he is to dismiss the explosion. The original script indicated that Dyatlov genuinely meant that he had seen worse before; in real life, he had been part of another nuclear accident twenty years before that seemed, at least at first, to be worse than the Chernobyl explosion, hence his calm reaction. By removing the backstory but keeping the reference, Dyatlov's delusional attempts to deny the explosion even happened are emphasized even further.

* DisasterDominoes: Several factors had to align in order for the Chernobyl disaster to occur, as listed on the [[{{UsefulNotes/Chernobyl}} Useful Notes]] page. Episode 5 serves as a recount of all of those factors: human, scientific and political.[[note]]The short version: RBMK reactors are designed with a positive feedback loop ("positive void co-efficient") which is dangerous, but produces a lot of electricity cheaply. The gas Xenon-135 is a byproduct of the nuclear reaction, which in large quantities will slow the reaction – but at normal reaction levels, the neutron emissions being produced by the reaction outpace the rate at which Xenon is produced, "burning" it off (once an atom of [=Xe135=] has absorbed one neutron, it will absorb no more, becoming effectively transparent to neutron radiation). The danger is that keeping the reactor in low power mode for too long will lead to a Xenon buildup - the "Xenon Pit" mentioned by Toptunov - that "stalls" the reactor. Due to a series of scheduling screwups for political reasons, this is exactly what happened, when the reactor administration left it in low-power mode for too long as part of a safety test, combined with making the less well-trained night shift perform the test, without even being told in advance or given time to prepare for it. When a reactor stalls, you're supposed to '''gradually''' build it back up to normal reaction levels, which takes 24 hours. Instead, the reactor chief ordered the engineers to just '''yank out all the control rods at once'''. The reaction indeed restarted, but due to the feedback loop nature of RBMK reactors, it started increasing too fast. In a last desperate attempt to regain control, the crew hit the emergency shutdown button (AZ-5) which automatically shoves all the control rods back into the reactor to shut it down... not knowing that an inherent design flaw meant the rods were tipped with graphite, which will briefly '''accelerate''' the reaction. Functioning at normal temperatures, the graphite wouldn't have been a problem, but at dangerously high temperatures, the graphite was enough to, in a split-second, '''exponentially increase''' the rate of reaction, pushing it over the edge and resulting in the explosion. [[/note]]

* BadBoss: All three senior leaders of the power plant are motivated purely by the prospect of career advancement and force the safety test through. Anatoly Dyatlov definitely takes the cake, though, true to his real life counterpart (who was infamous for being a horrible person who was extremely mean and disrespectful to everyone below him). He angrily defies repeated pleas by his staff to halt the test, threatening to destroy their careers and lives unless they obey his extremely dangerous orders. He then repeatedly rejects the warnings and testimony of his subordinates reporting to him (and everyone else) that the core has exploded and that their actions are meaningless (or worse). Put another way: while the fatal flaws in the Soviet RBMK reactor design (and the lies and secrecy that deliberately hid those flaws from the people who operated and ran those reactors) caused the explosion, it was Dyatlov's colossal recklessness, threatening his subordinates, giving false reassurances that he knew what he was doing and that it was safe, and unwillingness to accept anything that he didn't want to hear that put the reactor in a disastrous state where the emergency shutdown was even needed.

At 01:23:45 on April 26, 1986 in the UsefulNotes/{{Ukrain|e}}ian [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn SSR]], Reactor #4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station explodes. It soon becomes clear to personnel on the ground that a catastrophic failure of the reactor vessel has blown up the whole building it's in, and is sending a cloud of radiation all over Eastern Europe. Soviet authorities race to contain the disaster -- or at least some of them do, while others are more concerned with denial and cover-ups.

** The reason everyone is frequently referred to as "Comrade Legasov" etc. isn't a stereotypical assumption about the Soviet Union, but because the alternative was to use a longer patronymic format which doesn't neatly translate into English (real Russians would formally address him "Valery Alekseyevich" instead of just saying "Legasov", but use of given names in English is almost always informal). This longer form does show up occasionally, particularly in the final episode, but not as much as in reality.

* FourIsDeath: Reactor 4 is the one that exploded and caused the Chernobyl Disaster.

* FourIsDeath: Reactor 4 is the one who exploded and caused the Chernobyl Disaster.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** Shares setting, themes, and some character tropes (e.g. the IgnoredExpert, the ReasonableAuthorityFigure, the ObstructiveBureaucrat, the backup scientist latecomer) with ''Film/CitizenX'', an earlier HBO movie about a criminal investigator trying to catch a SerialKiller while the government insists that such a thing doesn't exist in the Soviet Union. Mazin also mentioned this film as [[FollowTheLeader an inspiration]] in deciding to not use FakeRussian accents.
** It can also be considered an interesting follow-up to ''Series/TheTerror'', which also starred Creator/JaredHarris and Adam Nagaitis and also was inspired by a famous historical disaster (though ''The Terror'' was an adaptation of a novel, not a docudrama, and had a few supernatural flourishes, which ''Chernobyl'' does not).
** Several viewers have also stated that the bleak atmosphere, '80s setting, docudrama format and brutal depiction of the horrors of nuclear disaster remind them of ''Film/{{Threads}}''.

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** Some people complained about the plausibility of a female scientist being as involved as Ulana Khomyuk. In reality, though Khomyuk is a CompositeCharacter and the Soviet Union was systematically sexist in many ways, the sciences were fairly egalitarian and there were indeed plenty of female scientists involved in the DamageControl.
** Creator/writer Craig Mazin had been unaware that "Comrade" was ''really'' used so extensively as a style of address.

* IronicEcho: Dyatlov and the other bureaucrats running the nuclear reactor keep repeating that a radiation reading of 3.6 roentgen is "not great, not terrible" - even though the technician who gave the reading to Dyatlov explicitly protested that 3.6 is the ''highest reading'' that their low-level meter goes, so that actual radiation count is officially off the charts, but he is ignored. At the meeting of the reactor leadership, Dyatlov and the bureaucrats keep parroting the line "3.6 is not great, but not terrible" back and forth at each other, as if to reassure themselves. The true climax of this comes when the their report is read out to the Soviet politburo in Moscow, which assures them that 3.6 roentgen is merely equivalent to a single chest x-ray. Legasov, the actual nuclear scientist, then interrupts that this is a ''blatant lie'': 3.6 roentgen is truly equivalent to ''400'' chest x-rays, and is in fact ''quite'' "terrible". Even ignoring that Legasov goes on to point out that 3.6 is just how high their meters go, that there's reports of reactor chamber graphite on the ground, etc. this is a farce. The way this line gets echoed back and forth is essentially a microcosm of the Soviets' "perfect system" based on ass-kissing and denial: if everyone repeats the same lie back and forth to each other enough times (that "3.6 roentgen isn't terrible" when it measurably is), it will become accepted as truth.