Chernobyl - HBO/Sky *Spoilers*

InTheShadows

errlloyd wrote: »

Europe is fairly inhabitable right now tbh.

Don't get you?

errlloyd

InTheShadows wrote: »

Don't get you?

Haha, sorry I was being a dickhead.

I think you probably meant to say "uninhabitable"

Sardonicat

Just watched episode 3

That was the longest 90 seconds ever!

Great 'face acting' by our Barry. What an horrific job to have to do ( I mean the actual guys who had to deal with the animals, not Barry acting his lead lined socks off with his eyebrows )

The old woman, just think for the people of her generation who had survived wave after wave of crisis, to get to that age after all that and instead of finally being able to live out the rest of your life in tranquillity where you've fought so hard to just hang on, the bastards contaminate your whole world and you have to leave it all behind.

is_that_so

Sardonicat wrote: »

Just watched episode 3

That was the longest 90 seconds ever!

Great 'face acting' by our Barry. What an horrific job to have to do ( I mean the actual guys who had to deal with the animals, not Barry acting his lead lined socks off with his eyebrows )

The old woman, just think for the people of her generation who had survived wave after wave of crisis, to get to that age after all that and instead of finally being able to live out the rest of your life in tranquillity where you've fought so hard to just hang on, the bastards contaminate your whole world and you have to leave it all behind.

Episode 4 I hope!

CrankyHaus

Any possibility of some sort of manufactured media backlash against the show funded by the nuclear industry?

Short of an actual nuclear disaster it's hard to imagine worse PR for nuclear energy than this.

Standman

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Why couldn't they just collapse the roof? What was below it that meant it couldn't just be collapsed and the sarcophagus built around it as well?
Collapse the roof, bury it in concrete, jobz a goodun?

I was thinking as well, couldn't they have dangled a heavy metal girder from one of the choppers and kind of dragged it across the roof to push some of the stuff off?

Or couldn't they have just used a really, really long stick!

2smiggy

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Any possibility of some sort of manufactured media backlash against the show funded by the nuclear industry?

Short of an actual nuclear disaster it's hard to imagine worse PR for nuclear energy than this.

I think only the USSR made these types of reactors , and there is only 10 left in existence on 3 different sites, all in Russia. All due to be decommissioned over the next 10 years. Apparently other types of nuclear power is a much much safer process

2smiggy

Standman wrote: »

I was thinking as well, couldn't they have dangled a heavy metal girder from one of the choppers and kind of dragged it across the roof to push some of the stuff off?

Or couldn't they have just used a really, really long stick!

I'd be saying the same thing if it was a film, like it was a plot hole !! yet this was very real and I'm sure they would have thought of all this :eek:

PhilOssophy

No need for a backlash against the nuclear industry, it has a safety record that is second to none. But that is for another thread.

OleRodrigo

With so much political discourse surrounding capitalism/ democracy/ marxism in recent years ( especially in universities ) ..the show also serves as an insight into how things actually work under communism, that it isn't the panacea for the excesses of capitalism that people might think it is.

Also...it's refreshing to have a drama series that doesn't need to bait you with sex (so far). Much as I like the odd pair of boobies wobbling around on the screen..:pac:

2smiggy

OleRodrigo wrote: »

With so much political discourse surrounding capitalism/ democracy/ marxism in recent years ( especially in universities ) ..the show also serves as an insight into how things actually work under communism, that it isn't the panacea for the excesses of capitalism that people might think it is.

Also...it's refreshing to have a drama series that doesn't need to bait you with sex (so far). Much as I like the odd pair of boobies wobbling around on the screen..:pac:

just a bit of wobbling cóck

Ri_Nollaig

This show is amazing! one of the best I've seen in ages!
Up there with band of brothers.

Almost ...almost, making up for that bad taste left behind from Game of Thrones season 8.

mickdw

mickdw wrote: »

I didn't find that episode very good.
It was all based around the suspense / terror of having to kill the animals.
I didnt find that particularly upsetting against a background of nuclear disaster.
Roof scene was good and you could see the panic.

I wouldn't say it was a bad episode but I agree regarding the animals. I could detach myself from it. My gf couldn't watch it but it was small fish compared to what we saw in the hospital. Why did they need to kill the dogs anyway?

Anteayer

2smiggy wrote: »

I think only the USSR made these types of reactors , and there is only 10 left in existence on 3 different sites, all in Russia. All due to be decommissioned over the next 10 years. Apparently other types of nuclear power is a much much safer process

RMBK is a particularly flawed design but that being said the General Electric MK1 boiling water reactors in Fukushima weren’t supposed to be able to fail like they did either. They had a containment which at least kept them from showering the place with reactor fuel but they still had hydrogen explosions which caused huge damage and multiple meltdowns and released a hell of a lot of radioactive materials, mostly into the sea in that case.

Also the plant owner in Japan kept people in the dark about what was going on, including the Japanese government.

There's also been considerable issues about how that accident was handled and a lot of questions about transparency.

What concerns me about the nuclear industry at the moment is all of these life extensions being given to old reactors. There are plants operating way beyond their expected lifetimes often by decades and that's because of cost and also controversies about building new plants.

Increasingly in Europe and North America we are mostly living with 1970s era nuclear plants without any real plans to replace them. The risk is because they're so significant as power producers, regulators are convinced to soften rules and keep granting licence extensions and eventually something bad happens when a brittle old vessel cracks or something similar.

I know nobody's all that comfortable with new nuclear power but it's probably significantly safer than this notion that you can just keep recertifying decades old power plants again and again.

Add to that that the RMBK fleet in Russia has had controversies and accusations of staff are being extremely poorly paid and trained since the collapse of the USSR. That's sotmething that could also be a risk a direct repeat and I wouldn't be entirely confident that Russia would be able to deal with such an event like the USSR was.

They have modified those reactors to prevent the exact circumstances that caused the Chernobyl incident and they've much more sophisticated control systems than they had in the 1980s but they still have the same problems including no containment.

minikin

Barry Keoghan really was the go to guy for the pet shooting scene!

Killing cats, deer and now dogs... this lad is an animal - they should put him up on the roof to kill the radiation.

is_that_so

Deleted User wrote: »

I wouldn't say it was a bad episode but I agree regarding the animals. I could detach myself from it. My gf couldn't watch it but it was small fish compared to what we saw in the hospital. Why did they need to kill the dogs anyway?

It wasn't just dogs, it was all pets. People were not allowed to take them out with them. They certainly would have starved to death and it was also to limit the spread of radiation.

CrankyHaus

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

This show is amazing! one of the best I've seen in ages!
Up there with band of brothers.

Almost ...almost, making up for that bad taste left behind from Game of Thrones season 8.

While their output is less consistent in recent years every now and again HBO do a show like this to reaffirm that they invented the Golden Age of TV and they're not giving up the crown.



The standard of everything, script, acting, cinematography, sets, is 10/10.


It really shows up the competition.


Like Band of Brothers it's an excellent miniseries: in the sense that each long episode has a distinct feel and focus on different non-core characters while maintaining a consistent overview of the subject.

Anteayer

The one thing that's standing out to me is the vodka consumption. Is that accurate? I mean even the seemingly very sensible looking nuclear physicist knocks it back like she's having a cup of tea, yet they never get drunk.

Sittingpretty

Anteayer wrote: »

The one thing that's standing out to me is the vodka consumption. Is that accurate? I mean even the seemingly very sensible looking nuclear physicist knocks it back like she's having a cup of tea, yet they never get drunk.

I shared a flat with a Russian once. HOLLOW LEGS, they’re born with

is_that_so

Anteayer wrote: »

The one thing that's standing out to me is the vodka consumption. Is that accurate? I mean even the seemingly very sensible looking nuclear physicist knocks it back like she's having a cup of tea, yet they never get drunk.

Yes it is, scarily so. A bottle or two was normal, still is unfortunately for some.

mickdw

Deleted User wrote: »

I wouldn't say it was a bad episode but I agree regarding the animals. I could detach myself from it. My gf couldn't watch it but it was small fish compared to what we saw in the hospital. Why did they need to kill the dogs anyway?

I know a lot of people who seem to place more importance on dogs / animals than humans. Whether it be with health care or just general attitude. Ive a feeling the show was written by people with that kind of thinking as there was far too much screen time given over to the animal thing.
A comment about having to kill the pets would be enough. They tried to portray the absolute terror of Keoghs situation whereas he had the easy role in the grand scheme of all that we saw.

If drafted into such a nightmare scenario as a liquidator and if it was luck of the draw as to whether you would be put on the roof or roaming the countryside looking for animals, Id be hoping to be put on animal duty.

A huge area had to be bulldozed to bury the top layer of soil. We only got a quick shot of that - the animals imo should have got similar treatment.

I love the moment when the rover successfully moves; Legasov lets out a slight smile and Shcherbina hugs him. They've come so far.

crisco10

Standman wrote: »

I was thinking as well, couldn't they have dangled a heavy metal girder from one of the choppers and kind of dragged it across the roof to push some of the stuff off?

Or couldn't they have just used a really, really long stick!

Who would have flown that chopper directly above the open reactor? And getting a beam to "brush" the roof would be a tricky, fiddly move that would take time to do while hovering overhead.

The dumping of sand was a lot more transient exposure.

GrumPy

is_that_so wrote: »

They certainly would have starved to death and it was also to limit the spread of radiation.

It was solely to limit the spread of radiation. The soviets did not send in shooters to prevent domestic pets dying of hunger. Taking the animals out of their misery was simply a lucky bonus in reality.
Imagine slowly dying of hunger or worse, slowly dying of ARS and not knowing what's happening you. Fairly sh1te craic.

Thargor

I want to read all the articles that are being posted about why it blew but at the same time Im worried the rest of the series will cover the investigation of what went wrong and I dont want to spoiler it, think Ill hold off until its over.

bnt

Thargor wrote: »

I want to read all the articles that are being posted about why it blew but at the same time Im worried the rest of the series will cover the investigation of what went wrong and I dont want to spoiler it, think Ill hold off until its over.

I’ve read a lot about it, and am curious to see how technical they get in the last episode. It wasn’t just about the control rods, as Khomyuk mentioned already : that was just the last domino to fall. It took days to screw things up that badly.

Slydice

Thargor wrote: »

I want to read all the articles that are being posted about why it blew but at the same time Im worried the rest of the series will cover the investigation of what went wrong and I dont want to spoiler it, think Ill hold off until its over.

just need to wait for next week. the last episode!

the directors commentary I've seen so far does seem to suggest it's easy enough to take yourself out of the moment by knowing too much

buried

Can't wait for this to come out on blu-ray. Trying to stop myself from watching it too much until then. The sound design is really brilliant, can't get over it. Been delving into the soundtrack creator Hildur Gudnadottir's other works. Some fantastic ambient LP's like 'Mount A' and 'Saman', all of them up on the spotify too.

Gimme A Pound

Deleted User wrote: »

I wouldn't say it was a bad episode but I agree regarding the animals. I could detach myself from it. My gf couldn't watch it but it was small fish compared to what we saw in the hospital. Why did they need to kill the dogs anyway?

It was the kindest thing for them - they'd otherwise have died of radiation sickness/starvation. And as said, would spread radiation also.

GavRedKing

Finally caught up on the 4th episode last night and its still delivering some top notch drama and intense scenes.

The lads on the roof and the talk about the roentgen count on the most dangerous part of the roof makes it terrifying and compelling all in one.

I can see why the dog scenes struck home hard for a lot of people but I applaud them for showing it, its part of the messy clean up that would often go unnoticed.

The podcasts are pretty essential listening too IMO, they add an extra dimension to the show about why this was done and why they didnt show certain scenes even if they were shot.