Chernobyl (Miniseries)

[Dukefrukem]

[Dukefrukem]

LOVE this miniseries so far. My wife and I watched it last night- and she was ready for the second episode. I had to remind her, "this isn't netflix, we have to wait a week for the next episode".

[Ezee E]

I didn't realize this started. Thanks!

[amberlita]

LOVE this miniseries so far. My wife and I watched it last night- and she was ready for the second episode. I had to remind her, "this isn't netflix, we have to wait a week for the next episode".

Felt the same - really wanted the next episode right away. You could recommend to her what I did. I read the Wiki page because I wanted to know immediately how this happened (wasn't sure how much they'd get into the science on the show). I don't know much about nuclear energy but it is an extremely well-written wiki page for lay people to understand.

Listened to the podcast that discusses the episode with the writer and it was great too.

Also got about half way through a youtube doc about Fukushima.

I feel properly satiated until next episode.

[Dukefrukem]

Felt the same - really wanted the next episode right away. You could recommend to her what I did. I read the Wiki page because I wanted to know immediately how this happened (wasn't sure how much they'd get into the science on the show). I don't know much about nuclear energy but it is an extremely well-written wiki page for lay people to understand.

Listened to the podcast that discusses the episode with the writer and it was great too.

Also got about half way through a youtube doc about Fukushima.

I feel properly satiated until next episode.

OMG we did the same thing. We watched several Chernobyl videos, and a couple on nuclear fission and the Fukushima one! This disaster has always terrified me as a kid- nuclear energy is super crazy to grasp and it's mind boggling that the nuclear engineers at Chernobyl could not quantify why the power plant's core exploded and did not meltdown.

[Morris Schæffer]

Gonna watch it for sure too. Looks gripping.

[Dukefrukem]

Good second episode with much more Jared Harris and the intro of Stellan Skarsgard. Loved the opening; indicating the severity of the radiation leak 200 km away, and then of course Harris proving his theory about the core. The episode ending and wife again was left hanging.

[Peng]

So 5 hours of constantly slow-seeping dread that combines the elemental horror of nuclear radiation with the banality of evil that is bureaucratic power? Cool. (And I mean that sincerely) First hour is like watching a slow-motion car crash, while the second one ups the stakes foreboding horror at every turn with its potential consequence that keeps widening. Can't wait for the next one.

[Dukefrukem]

As expected, the fear kinda dropped off in the third episode. Was hoping they would find a way to keep it consistent with the first two episodes. Those miners are a hoot.

[Peng]

I dunno, the pace does slow down, but understandably so to let us linger in the many consequences and increasingly paranoid atmospehre. And those consequences, especially in the hospital scenes, are horrific and sobering in details enough to stand with the first two episodes' rush of dealing with the immediate aftermaths. The make-up and prosthetics of radiation's brutal effects on the bodies...no word. And that last scene just gutted me.

Also, I thought for a good minute that the minister of coal was played by Ben Mendelsohn.

[Peng]

Slava Malamud, a Russian reporter, has some interesting thoughts to share on the show’s verisimilitude. If anyone doesn’t want to read a twitter thread, here:

I have just finished watching Episode 1 of Chernobyl on @HBO. My perspective is that of someone born and raised in the Soviet Union who has vivid memories of 1986, the catastrophe itself and how it was handled by the Soviet politicians and the state media.


First of all, it is almost inconceivable that a Western TV show would go to this amount of detail authentically portraying Soviet life in that era, knowing full well that its target audience (Western viewers) would never appreciate the effort or indeed even understand it. Trust me, I try very hard to find inaccuracies, however minor. The Americans, a show with similar fetish-like obsession with authenticity, had plenty of small and big Soviet errata to be entertained with. Improperly fastened military shoulder bars, that sort of thing... Not here.


Everything, and I mean everything so far has been incredibly authentic. The typical provincial babushkas talking outside, the kitchen supplies and utensils, the white "celebratory" uniforms of school children (the tragedy occurred just before May Day), the shoes, the hair. Even the little buckets used by Soviet citizens to take out the trash. They even found that crap somewhere! But I'm impressed by much more than the mere minutiae of Soviet everyday life. Yes, in this regard, Chernobyl is much more true to life than any Western show about Russia..


But, what is more impressive, is the characters, their actions, their thoughts, their motivation. The deep, ruthless drilling of the Soviet mind, what governed us, drove us and shackled us. Chernobyl pulls no punches and lays it all bare. And this is really the key to its magic, for me at least. Not only is Chernobyl more realistic than any Western show/film about Russia, it's more realistic than anything Russians would have ever made about themselves, at least on this topic. I am not hyperbolizing. Not at all.


In fact, there have been several Russian films about Chernobyl, and only one, made in 1990, during final stages of Perestroika, does justice to the sheer brutality of this deplorable event. And even this one is more about a hero struggling against the odds, a melodramatic trope. As for the more modern product, there is a film about heroic KGB agents trying to stop a CIA saboteur, for example. Modern Russian cinema, unable to unshackle itself from political expediencies and the "glory of the Motherland", could never make a drama like this one. As an aside, I am particularly happy about the decision to have the characters speak normal British English, not mangled Russian or English with a corny "Russian" accent. Poor Matthew Rhys and Kerry Russel... Their tortured attempts to speak Russian almost ruined The Americans...


In conclusion, yes, the nit-picky Russian viewer in me was utterly satisfied. The initial "Wait a minute, why are kids going to school on a Saturday?" response quickly gave way to "Shit, that's right! We didn't switch to the 5-day week until 1989!" Pure delight, I tell ya. But, far more importantly, the intellectual honesty in how the show treats an extremely traumatic event is more than impressive. It's important. Knowing how many fans HBO has in Russia, my hope is that it will elicit more than just knee-jerk defensive responses. Also, my 17 year old son watched with me, and his first reaction was to immediately dive into the Google rabbit holes trying to research as much as possible about Chernobyl. I don't know about you, but to me this is as good a testimony of the shows greatness as anything


I have just finished a thread where I review Episode 2, scene by scene, if anyone is interested.

Now I’m off to read his views on the other two episodes.

[Dukefrukem]

Oh damn. That's some great insight.

[[ETM]]

From my experience, this is only the third "western" portrayal of Soviet Union that's anywhere close to reality, the others being the amazing "Citizen X" (which I feel would be a nice companion piece for Chernobyl) and "Enemy at the Gates".

Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

[Dukefrukem]

Good 4th episode. I wasn't sure how they were going to handle the birth of the firefighter's child, so I was preparing for the worst type of hospital scene imaginable. I was a little bit relieved (and disappointed) when it was handled off screen. I didn't like the introduction to a new character in the 4th episode; it would have been nice if there were able to string someone along from episode one to handle that part of the story.

[Peng]

I feel they're trying to aim for some realism, and to have many clearly divided-by-task groups a throughline of one person might be breaking that a bit. I think it's fine we keep encountering new people so we have a rotating fresh perspective for every aspect of this story. That they cast a semi-recognizable face might be the creators feeling the same as you though (Didn't know Barry Keoghan is going to be in this).

Very harrowing episode. That truck full of dead pets is a real gut punch every time...

[Dukefrukem]

Yeh, my wife had a hard time with the pet scenes. I tried to explain to her that they would all die horrible deaths if not continue to contaminate innocent people if they weren't put out of their misery.

[Dukefrukem]

Some pretty great footage that's represented in this series.

[Peng]

Great finale, and the ending montage kinda broke me.

[Dukefrukem]

Great finale, and the ending montage kinda broke me.

Yeh that was well done. I loved the court scene; Harris turns slowly around to the room and realizes what he said.

[Peng]

lmao that Russian reporter in his twitter thread, and so many other Russian commentators, were dead on about how it will be portrayed from the other side.

[Dukefrukem]

I would watch that too!

[dreamdead]

Like the others here, we watched and listened to each podcast explaining the changes. It kinda takes away from the courtroom scene, but it remains a likely expedient (and surely narrative) switch. I liked Mazin talking about how he and the director never wanted to seem gleeful at showing the bodies decaying and dying, but I almost wish there had been just a little more in that episode.

Otherwise, it's a series that makes its argument about the necessity of not telling small lies lest those lies be used as the foundation for greater lies. In that regard, it succeeds most wonderfully. Strong stuff.

[Morris Schæffer]

Seen eps 1 and 2. Exceptional.

[Ezee E]

1-3 is a political horror movie that I can't really compare to any movie out there. It's exceptional. Looking forward to the rest.

[Ivan Drago]

1-3 is a political horror movie that I can't really compare to any movie out there. It's exceptional. Looking forward to the rest.

I constantly have the foreboding feeling in my gut that everyone in this show will die horribly. The atmosphere on display is made more haunting by the fact this actually happened.

I'm just starting the fourth episode now. This is harrowing, but remarkable stuff.