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HBO's Chernobyl (2019)

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eagleoftheninth Shop all day, greed is free from a dreamed portrait, imperfect Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
Shop all day, greed is free
#1: Mar 30th 2019 at 3:14:41 PM

Coming out on May 6th and looking good so far. I'm just hoping that they'll go for a fact-based retelling that details the causes and extent of the disaster as it happened instead of hopping into anti-nuclear scaremongering right away.

One day, we will read his name in the news and cheer.
MrTerrorist Since: Aug, 2009
#2: May 17th 2019 at 5:57:16 AM

I already watched the 1st episode and going to see the 2nd episode.

I love karma hit that asshole manager who insist and kept denying the core exploded despite everyone, including himself, saw it and when he tried denying again to his bosses despite one of his subordinates telling the truth, he's vomiting from radiation poisoning.

The horror of watching people suffering from the radiation was effective.

theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#3: May 17th 2019 at 9:59:59 AM

Yeah, from what I've seen of it so far (I don't have HBO so I can only watch clips on You Tube) it's a very solid series. It's conveying that sort of silent horror very well.

MaxwellDaring Unearthed Horror from Interzone (Ten years in the joint) Relationship Status: Desperate
Unearthed Horror
#4: May 19th 2019 at 12:08:16 PM

Fuck you HBO, you made this show specifically to keep me subscribed now that Game of Thrones is shitting itself to death.

I'm not sure how I feel about the Composite Character representing multiple scientists who tried to warn the Kremlin. Having one character represent this group is certainly less messy for TV, but it still feels like a misrepresentation of history. I'm also wondering about the fireman's wife b-plot. It feels too fillery but considering which series I have given up on, I might just still be salty.

Other than that, the tone is absolutely impeccable. And boy am I glad half of eastern Europs is still habitable.

[I LIVE AGAIN]
InkDagger Since: Jul, 2014
#5: May 19th 2019 at 2:56:26 PM

Impeccable filmmaking, excellent tone and editing, and A LOT of just showing rather than dialogue. And it's all horrifying.

Also, probably the best-worst case of Dramatic Irony in film ever. Oh my god.

It's great. Just hard to watch. Painful to watch. I watched the first episode with my boyfriend and his mom and she slowly started sliding deeper and deeper under her blanket and holding herself just watching it.

theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#6: May 20th 2019 at 3:36:35 PM

Yeah, there's always that sense of constant unease. Everyone who's not in some sort of building is internally rotting right now because of all the radiation pouring out of the plant. Everything that everyone does exposes them to more radiation. You know all of this will only succeed in the worst possible way, that the Chernobyl and Pripyat area will be essentially uninhabitable for millennia to come.

It's like that train wreck analogy. You want to look away, but you're too engrossed.

InkDagger Since: Jul, 2014
#7: May 20th 2019 at 4:23:54 PM

Honestly, I would consider using parts of this if I were to ever teach a history class that covered Chernobyl. Obviously, not the full 5 hour show but certainly sections of this are enough to just... take in the catastrophe of it all and even learn some valuable life lessons.

"The truth does not care for your lies." is one we really need to learn.

Or, more accurately, LISTEN TO YOUR FUCKING SCIENTISTS GODDAMNIT.

theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#8: May 20th 2019 at 7:07:42 PM

You can actually kind of apply this to the current climate change debate, too, how governments refuse to take a pressing issue that could have dire repercussions for the world seriously because they're too busy with their own self-interests.

MaxwellDaring Unearthed Horror from Interzone (Ten years in the joint) Relationship Status: Desperate
Unearthed Horror
#9: May 20th 2019 at 10:19:30 PM

This show has done an incredible job illustrating the alien threat that radiation poses. The funeral, for unmarked metal caskets welded shut, buried in a bed of concrete, will stick with me.

Also, for those who don't know there's a podcast about the making of Chernobyl.

Edited by MaxwellDaring on May 20th 2019 at 11:08:48 AM

[I LIVE AGAIN]
InkDagger Since: Jul, 2014
#10: May 21st 2019 at 12:15:28 AM

[up][up]That's actually exactly what I've been thinking since episode 1.

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
InkDagger Since: Jul, 2014
#12: May 22nd 2019 at 5:31:31 PM

So, question, been talking a lot with my old high school and might potentially be hired there in the near future and I've been wondering; Do you think a series like Chernobyl would be effective for use as a teaching material?

Obviously, not the full series, but I think works like this would help with understanding the gravity of certain things that happened and I found that a lot of my high school classes, like ones on WW 2 and the Holocaust, were more effective when visually examined. Plus, I do kind of think lessons like "Truth does not care about your lies" might be ones needing to be taught these days. But I'm not sure.

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#13: May 22nd 2019 at 5:45:19 PM

Depends on the amount of time you have, but I'd broadly say yes.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#14: May 22nd 2019 at 6:56:27 PM

Yeah, I would definitely say so.

akanesarumara Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: Abstaining
#15: May 25th 2019 at 6:52:11 AM

I just caught up and despite the overall "wtf this is terrifying"-ness of the whole situation in general, I couldn't help but laugh when the Minister of Coal went to the mine to order the miners around. "Now ya look like a Minister o' Coal" indeed xd

123tbones Since: Aug, 2015
#16: May 25th 2019 at 7:11:38 AM

I heard great things about this miniseries, and i can't believe the creator is the same guy who directed Superhero Movie.

akanesarumara Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: Abstaining
#17: May 25th 2019 at 7:17:56 AM

[up] It really is great, it has good characters, solid writing, and is a master of Show, Don't Tell.

InkDagger Since: Jul, 2014
#18: May 25th 2019 at 6:19:14 PM

Ok, here's a question I thought of today.

Been watching Chernobyl like all of you and I remembered Lindsay Ellis' video on Nostalgia and 30-Year Cycles and I suddenly realized... Chernobyl was 30-ish years ago. And I wondered if the 30-Year Cycle might also explore traumatic events too?

Kind of a random thought and I totally need to do more research, but it just kind of makes me wonder. Does this mean we'll get some 9/11 movie/limited series in 12 years? Or other traumatic events examined in film once the thirty year mark has passed?

eagleoftheninth Shop all day, greed is free from a dreamed portrait, imperfect Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
Shop all day, greed is free
#19: May 28th 2019 at 1:09:13 AM

Could be. Just look at where the Iran-Contra boys are now.

A little observation from the latest episode: a lot of the actors are Lithuanian. Garo is Armenian, Bacho is probably Tajik or something, and you can spot a Kyrgyz SSR flag at the army camp at one point. It's pretty unusual for a Western production to acknowledge the diversity of the USSR to this degree.

One day, we will read his name in the news and cheer.
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#20: May 29th 2019 at 8:41:12 AM

A nuclear physicist here has been watching the show, because of course he has (Chernobyl specialist):

The steam explosion suggested that would cause a pressure wave that would lead to the destruction of Kiev and Minsk isn't something that can actually happen. You'd need an actual hydrogen bomb for such an explosion.

Lack of iodine pills in the hospital is somewhat unbelieveable, as most of the Pripyat population got iodine within 36 hours.

That's a couple of things he picked up. He's got a really detailed blog on it as well. Likes the show though, especially the sort of creeping horror of it.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#21: May 29th 2019 at 9:19:34 AM

So was there not a threat of the entirety of Eastern Europe becoming uninhabitable and Kiev and Minsk being wiped off the map IRL then?

InkDagger Since: Jul, 2014
#22: May 29th 2019 at 12:46:06 PM

It's possible that it is a error of beliefs at the time. Maybe they thought at the time it was a serious threat and possibility, but 30 years later we know it wasn't? Or maybe the point is that they're exaggerating the damage because they know it's the only way to get the state to pay attention?

As for the iodine pills, that's totally Artistic License - History (same as that one guy in the first episode surviving even being in the basement) and probably more to illustrate just how unprepared and unthinkable the disaster was, even with the people who are supposed to be helping.

TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#23: May 29th 2019 at 12:51:14 PM

The explosion is apparently a ridiculous idea, but the water contamination was a concern, although it never actually melted through the pools at the base.

EDIT:

So I checked the blog, and he notes that Episode 2 has a lot of persistant myths. A steam explosion would carry contaminated particles a lot further and made rescue operations even more difficult, which was probably the original concern. But the idea that Eastern Europe would be destroyed is absurd. At some point, history twisted this into an idea that it would somehow result in a nuclear explosion. Which is emphatically not what nuclear reactors can do.

As far as the melted core is concerned, it cooled down before it could break through the entire base and get into the water (which was a genuine concern). The operation to build the thermal regulator was successful, but was seen as unnecessary at this point.

Edited by TerminusEst on May 29th 2019 at 1:11:26 AM

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
InkDagger Since: Jul, 2014
#24: May 29th 2019 at 3:24:43 PM

Maybe it was still an exaggeration. 'Steam carring particles further -> destroy parts of Europe' as a sense of not LITERAL explosion but destroying via making it uninhabitable or hazardous to live there?

Though, I realize I'm playing Devil's Advocate and I'd need to rewatch the episode again (not something I exactly want to do) on exactly how they phrase things. You got a link to the blog?


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