History YMMV / Chernobyl

* AngstAversion: Brilliant as the series may be, it's also an unrelentingly grim and intense portrayal of utterly catastrophic damage that indirectly resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, the [[BodyHorror most gruesome extent]] of which is shown in unflinching detail, as a direct result of easily avoidable bureaucratic incompetence. Understandably, this makes it a rather difficult watch for casual audiences and even some critics. It's not for nothing that many people have described the series as a "[[CosmicHorrorStory historically accurate horror movie.]]"

** 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 Soviet criminal investigator trying to catch a SerialKiller while the government insists that such thing doesn't exist in the country. Mazin also mentioned this film as [[FollowTheLeader an inspiration]] in deciding to not use FakeRussian accents.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: When Legasov says early on that Dyatlov doesn't deserve prison, he instead deserves death, is he saying that Dyatlov doesn't deserve to live after being in some way responsible for the deaths of so many people? Or is he saying that Dyatlov doesn't deserve to [[FateWorseThanDeath live suffering from ARS?]]

* AssPull: The Ignatenko and Legasov plots remain unconnected until the end of Episode 4, when Khomyuk tells Legasov and Shcherbina that she has learned of Lyudmila and been checking up on her offscreen.

** Shitposting groups about the series on Website/{{Facebook}} make [[BlackComedy jokes]] about how Vasily's [[{{Squick}} final]] [[{{BodyHorror}} state]] makes him look like a pizza or a lasagna, and how some characters actually [[CrossesTheLineTwice confuse him]] with such and eat him.

* RewatchBonus: On the first watch, it is easy to overlook that Dyatlov sees graphite lying on the floor with his own eyes in Episode 1, ''before'' he starts to berate his subordinates for thinking that the core indeed exploded and that graphite was scattered on the ground. As if there were not enough reasons to hate [[HateSink Dyatlov]], this scene in retrospective shows how willing is he to [[IRejectYourReality reject the reality]] and knowingly endanger the lives of his workers only to shift the blame from himself.

** The images of radiation poisoning would once again return to headlines in 2022 when it was reported that Russian soldiers occupying UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} during the invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} got radiation poisoning (mostly after staying/camping/moving dirt in the Red Forest). Russian soldiers also disturbed the decommissioning and cleaning work in the New Safe Confinement until the Russian assault on Kyiv failed and they retreated from the area. Even worse was that allegedly the soldiers whom were supposedly mostly young ill-trained conscripts with a smattering of seniors were not told they were on still contaminated grounds, and Russia has only admitted to a single soldier dying of ARS. Despite this, dozens of soldiers were reported to have been ''hand digging'' trenches in the Red Forest, [[NothingIsScarier and as to what happened to these men, nobody knows.]]
** The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue notes with a somewhat triumphant tone that some of the major characters-- including two of the three divers and Lyudmila Ignatenko-- survived until the release date of 2019 and were living safely in Kyiv. In March of 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, shelling Kyiv heavily and laying siege to the city, putting these survivors at risk; the Daily Mail [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10581803/Hero-diver-62-forced-flee-Kyiv.html reported]] that Alexei Ananenko was forced to flee the city with his wife.

** The images of radiation poisoning would once again return to headlines in 2022 when it was reported that Russian soldiers occupying UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} during the invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} got radiation poisoning (mostly after staying/camping/moving dirt in the Red Forest). Russian soldiers also disturbed the decommissioning and cleaning work in the New Safe Confinement until the Russian assault on Kyiv failed and they retreated from the area.

To the above edit, "Tankie" is a pejorative akin to a racial slur, so must not be taken seriously. While its doubtless that the Soviet authorities made grave errors in hindsight, most of the errors and problems with the Chernobyl facility were a case of the USSR having little choice, a limited budget compared to the U.S., or of being a straw that broke the camel's back rather than generic cartoonishly evil maliciousness. The above troper misses the point that the Soviet response was still very fast for the time period and the technology level at the time. Within less than 24 hours, a response was already being prepared. It wasn't until after a few days of the Soviets doing their best to contain the disaster and move civillians out of the way that they were forced to admit the tragedy. And given that the Soviet Union was engaged in an unofficial war against the capitalist United States, it makes a certain kind of sense of not wanting to publicize every single fault, mistake, wrong-doing, or technological achievement or misshap, for security and counter-surveillance reasons. To say that those pointing to the Soviet's better then average response are mentally insane is dishonest, manipulative, sociopathic, callous and ableist. At least the Soviet authorities eventually did the right thing, where as the U.S. would rather shoot innocent brown people during Katrina than address the problem, or not publicizing when U.S. aircraft almost accidentally activated a nuclear bomb. So your imaginary accusation of "whataboutism" has no merit and is chauvanistic.

* AssPull: The Ignatenko and Legasov plots remain unconnected until the end of episode 4, when Khomyuk tells Legasov and Scherbina that she has learned of Lyudmila and been checking up on her offscreen.

* AssPull: The Ignatenkos and Legasov plots remain unconnected until the end of episode 4, when Khomyuk tells Legasov and Scherbina that she has learned of Lyudmila and checking up on her offscreen.

** Its applicability to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic became more and more relevant in the [=US=], with many individuals and media providers advocating any number of false narratives/potential treatments related to the virus, alongside denial of science (particularly vaccination reluctance in the wake of the Delta variant in mid-2021). "The price of lies" indeed...

** "If these worked, you'd be wearing them." [[labelnote:explanation]] Andrei says this in response to the proposed facemask the miners needed to wear to protect them from radiation, which became applicable during the Covid-19 pandemic where a great deal of mask skepticism came from the politicians, media outlets and celebrities constantly advocating them while flaunting doing that themselves. [[/labelnote]]

** There's been reactions by several right-wing pundits about the series is a damning indictment of all leftist thinking, mostly (if not exclusively) due to the fact that the setting is the Soviet Union, leading to Mazin [[https://theintercept.com/2019/06/05/what-the-horror-of-chernobyl-reveals-about-the-deceit-of-the-trump-era/ defending the series as an argument against]] ''any'' short-sighted bureaucracy unwilling to listen to experts about ongoing RealLife catastrophes.

* AmericansHateTingle: As was to be expected, the series was far more controversial in UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} than in the rest of the world. In particular, its use of artistic license had attracted criticism even from the "liberal opposition-aligned" commentators with firsthand knowledge of the situation, while both the pro-state media, and many older generations in the wider society of UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia who tend to be Soviet-nostalgic, (unlike UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}}) had seized on the inaccuracies to dismiss the entire show as a lie and a work of propaganda. On the other hand, the more Western-oriented and "liberal" youth had often praised it in line with the Western opinion, thus intensifying the split. The entire controversy had even resulted in the creation of ''VideoGame/ChernobylTheUntoldStory'', an indie video game that parodies the claims in the series by taking them UpToEleven. The 2021 film ''Film/ChernobylAbyss'', which shifts focus away from the many mistakes and failures of the Soviet system involved to the firefighters and liquidators, was praised in Russia meanwhile (although its director and producer have acknowledged the quality and impact of the 2019 mini-series).

* SpiritualAdaptation:
** With its portrayal of a disastrously overworked and understaffed labyrinthine government bureaucracy (that ranges from catastrophically incompetent to maliciously authoritarian) working desperately to contain a [[CosmicHorrorStory seemingly unstoppable force of pure, indiscriminate destruction]], often through trial and error by throwing hundreds and hundreds of soldiers and workers into the (metaphorical) maw of the monster so that [[TheNeedsOfTheMany the destruction might be minimized]], and is told from the perspective of a few [[OnlySaneMan desperate scientists who truly understand the nature of the threat]], a strong argument could be made that this is the best ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' TV show ever made.

* AmericansHateTingle: As was to be expected, the series was far more controversial in UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} than in the rest of the world. In particular, its use of artistic license had attracted criticism even from the "liberal opposition-aligned" commentators with firsthand knowledge of the situation, while both the pro-state media, and many in the wider society of UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, which is patriotic and/or Soviet-nostalgic at large (unlike Ukraine and Belarus), had seized on the inaccuracies to dismiss the entire show as a lie and a work of propaganda. On the other hand, the more Western-oriented and "liberal" youth had often praised it in line with the Western opinion, thus intensifying the split. The entire controversy had even resulted in the creation of ''VideoGame/ChernobylTheUntoldStory'', an indie video game that parodies the claims in the series by taking them UpToEleven. The 2021 film ''Film/ChernobylAbyss'', which shifts focus away from the many mistakes and failures of the Soviet system involved to the firefighters and liquidators, was praised in Russia meanwhile (although its director and producer have acknowledged the quality and impact of the 2019 mini-series).

* AmericansHateTingle: As was to be expected, the series was far more controversial in UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} than in the rest of the world. In particular, its use of artistic license had attracted criticism even from the "liberal opposition-aligned" commentators with firsthand knowledge of the situation, while both the pro-state media, and many in the wider society of UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, which is patriotic and/or Soviet-nostalgic at large (unlike Ukraine and Belarus), had seized on the inaccuracies to dismiss the entire show as a lie and a work of propaganda. On the other hand, the more Western-oriented and "liberal" youth had often praised it in line with the Western opinion, thus intensifying the split. The entire controversy had even resulted in the creation of ''VideoGame/ChernobylTheUntoldStory'', an indie video game that parodies the claims in the series by taking them UpToEleven. The 2021 film ''Film/ChernobylAbyss'', which shifts focus away from the many mistakes and failures of the Soviet system involved to the firefighters and liquidators, was praised in Russia meanwhile (although its director and producer have acknowledged the importance of the 2019 mini-series).

* AmericansHateTingle: As was to be expected, the series was far more controversial in UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} than in the rest of the world. In particular, its use of artistic license had attracted criticism even from the "liberal opposition-aligned" commentators with firsthand knowledge of the situation, while both the pro-state media, and many in the wider society of UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, which is patriotic and/or Soviet-nostalgic at large, had seized on the inaccuracies to dismiss the entire show as a lie and a work of propaganda. On the other hand, the more Western-oriented and "liberal" youth had often praised it in line with the Western opinion, thus intensifying the split. The entire controversy had even resulted in the creation of ''VideoGame/ChernobylTheUntoldStory'', an indie video game that parodies the claims in the series by taking them UpToEleven. The 2021 film ''Film/ChernobylAbyss'', which shifts focus away from the many mistakes and failures of the Soviet system involved to the firefighters and liquidators, was praised in Russia meanwhile (although its director and producer have acknowledged the importance of the 2019 mini-series).

** The German robot sent to remove the graphite is named Joker. A year later, the series composer won an Oscar for [[Film/Joker2019 a film of that name]].

** If you're into haunting drone-based ambience soundtracks, the way Music/HildurGudnadottir's compositions for the series conveys the horror of nuclear contamination (using a number of sounds from the nuclear power plant where the series was filmed) is particularly chilling, especially with [[https://youtu.be/WI44ZIJMiLM "Evacuation"]]. The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue also owes much of its emotional impact to the [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Slavic Chanting]] of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZPfMHWPWk "Vichnaya Pamyat"]][[note]]"Vichnaya Pamyat" means "Memory Eternal," an Eastern Orthodox funeral prayer for the deceased[[/note]].

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Or rather, He Really Can Write. Craig Mazin's previous work? Movies like ''Film/ScaryMovie3'', ''Film/SuperheroMovie'', and ''Film/TheHangover'' ''2'' and ''3''. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yup, we're serious.]] No one in a million years would have thought he would have a series like ''[[CosmicHorrorStory this]]'' kicking around inside his head.

* FountainOfMemes: Dyatlov, mainly for his increasingly absurd downplaying of the disaster being ripe for BlackComedy.

** The images of radiation poisoning would once again return to headlines in 2022 when it was reported that Russian soldiers occupying UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} during the invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} got radiation poisoning (mostly after staying/camping/moving dirt in the Red Forest). Russian soldiers also disturbed the decommissioning and cleaning work in the New Safe Confinement until the Russian assault on Kyiv failed and retreated from the area.

** In the French dub, Dyatlov is voiced by Creator/PhilippePeythieu, aka [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]], who also works in a nuclear power plant.

** The German robot sent to remove the graphite is named Joker. A year later, the series composer won an Oscar for [[Film/{{Joker}} a film of that name]].