Chernobyl - HBO/Sky *Spoilers*

Pero_Bueno

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48559289

unbelievable!!!

What's causing this ? are some Russians still living in the soviet days ?

valoren

33 years later with corners of Russia who are still in denial about what happened.

Atlantic Dawn

I'm going to watch it all a 2nd time, rewatched episode 1 earlier, spotted lots of stuff I missed first time around, particularly the opening scene when characters were not established.

Foggy Jew

Unearthly wrote: »

Trevor from Eastenders

Mind. Blown.

robindch

Zorya wrote: »

The miner's leader was one of my favourite characters.

Not unlike Marshal Zhukov - played by Jason Isaacs - in Armando Iannucci's excellent "The Death of Stalin".

robindch

Pero_Bueno wrote: »

What's causing this ? are some Russians still living in the soviet days ?

Penn wrote: »

Apparently Russia aren't happy with the programme [...]

Not happy? I'd say the Kremlin is furious.

Was it Shcherbina who's scripted as saying "Russia is a nation that is obsessed with not being humiliated"?

You wouldn't need a degree in comparative history to see that some things haven't changed all that much in the intervening decades.

Itssoeasy

I've the 4th and 5th episode to watch which I'll do this weekend. I did listen to the podcast from the creator that posters here talked about. I've only listened to the three episodes I've seen. I know the score on IMDB is very high and rightly so, the biggest endorsement for me of this series is the amount of reviews on IMDB from pripyat or the former Soviet Union who rave about the depiction of the whole incident.

Shoes and Boots

I think to answer of this comedy from HBO russians has to make movie Hirosima ! Well,because this movie will be made by rusians nobody will believe it.

Shoes and Boots

Before speak about Russia,You have live in Rusia !

Paddy Cow

Arghus wrote: »

I thought the show was excellent. Riveting and often terrifying stuff.

Thought perhaps episode 4 was a bit weaker than the others, they really over egged the pathos of having to shoot all the dogs. As much as I love dogs, I don't know how horrifying that thought is amongst all the other horrors. We watched a man slowly turn into lasagna the week before, Barry Keoghan feeling a bit queasy about putting down pooches is going to seem like a walk in the park in comparison.

Read this interesting, somewhat dissenting, view to all the praise, the show has been receiving. Do I agree with everything in the article? No. But it's an interesting read all the same -

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-hbos-chernobyl-got-right-and-what-it-got-terribly-wrong

Heckler

Have the last episode downloaded to watch. Outstanding TV and to their credit they could have stretched it out to 10 episodes which would have diminished the impact but didn't. I hope Jared Harris and the show get the recognition they both deserve come award time. He's a terrific actor (see The Terror) And his auld fella sang McArthurs Park, the most mental brilliant song of all time.

Alex Ferns (never seen eastenders) was fantastic too. His disregard for authority but at the same time attention to duty was stirring. I've read headlines in papers of Eastenders fans laughing when he came out of the mine naked. I nearly cried when I saw that scene. As hard a job it is for any man to do, its twice as hard to do balls naked. Those boyos were hard as nails. Brilliant, brilliant TV.

Asus X540L

Were the three "bad guys" not a bit comic book evil?
The dude with the tashe, Afro Stephen Rea, and speccy four eyes?
Those three were made scapegoats for the whole communist system tbh

sydthebeat

Shoes and Boots wrote: »

Before speak about Russia,You have live in Rusia !

No we don't.

Listen to the podcast and realise the research that went into the series.

We don't have to live in ancient Egypt too talk about the pyramids.... And with this incident there are many first hand accounts of what happened.

Wibbs

Pero_Bueno wrote: »

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48559289

unbelievable!!!

What's causing this ? are some Russians still living in the soviet days ?

I know E, crazy or what? What's unbelievable is how anybody could be so gullible to believe that the CIA would be even close to being able to get a spy into a Soviet nuclear plant, bypass all safety features in front of other technicians and cause a core meltdown and explosion and then get away with it. Ironically the CIA being "all powerful" is American/Hollywood propaganda. Even a glance at their history shows a succession of amateur hour screwups and missed opportunities.

That the Russian government would use that as a narrative is the very definition of irony. Then again they spread the opposite of the American reds under the bed stuff swapping it out for capitalist pigs under the bed, so I suppose... Farcical though. Mad that they think the Russian people would believe it, given unlike many Americans they've always been much more skeptical of their leaders and what they tell them. Even if they admire them.

astrofool

Wibbs wrote: »

I know E, crazy or what? What's unbelievable is how anybody could be so gullible to believe that the CIA would be even close to being able to get a spy into a Soviet nuclear plant, bypass all safety features in front of other technicians and cause a core meltdown and explosion and then get away with it. Ironically the CIA being "all powerful" is American/Hollywood propaganda. Even a glance at their history shows a succession of amateur hour screwups and missed opportunities.

That the Russian government would use that as a narrative is the very definition of irony. Then again they spread the opposite of the American reds under the bed stuff swapping it out for capitalist pigs under the bed, so I suppose... Farcical though. Mad that they think the Russian people would believe it, given unlike many Americans they've always been much more skeptical of their leaders and what they tell them. Even if they admire them.

It'll be interesting to see who they throw under the bus as the person that allowed the CIA operative to get access.

Asus X540L

Wibbs wrote: »

bypass all safety features in front of other technicians and cause a core meltdown and explosion and then get away with it.

What safety features?
What technicians?
The senior engineer was 25 years old.

There would have been a ton of fluent Russian speaking CIA agents. Soviet Citizens in fact.
It's believable if the senior engineer was 25 a sleeper CIA agent could have been working there for years waiting for a right moment.

humberklog

bingbong500 wrote: »

But we know that about him. The programme doesn't make him out to be a hero for anything else he had ever done, he is clearly a flawed man who has advanced to a good position, and to have done that he had to play the system and be a good party man. But even before the disaster he was making himself unpopular by pushing for new safety measures, and when he told the truth at the trial he would have honestly anticipated that it could mean a sudden and violent death for him, and did it anyway. And when it didn't, he knew that his suicide would draw the attention to the issue that he couldn't do alive.

No matter what went before, there is no question that he was a courageous man who was one of the main reasons Europe is still inhabitable.

Just to be clear Legasov didn't attend the trial at all. The writer used him in that role as a dramatic construct to simplify and shorten the long, complicated and boring trial.

Heckler

Asus X540L wrote: »

What safety features?
What technicians?
The senior engineer was 25 years old.

There would have been a ton of fluent Russian speaking CIA agents. Soviet Citizens in fact.
It's believable if the senior engineer was 25 a sleeper CIA agent could have been working there for years waiting for a right moment.

Why ? To what end ? Take off the tinfoil hat lad.

Asus X540L

Heckler wrote: »

Why ? To what end ? Take off the tinfoil hat lad.

It's pretty much common knowledge that Chernobyl contributed to or even brought down the Soviet Union.

Wibbs

Asus X540L wrote: »

What safety features?
What technicians?
The senior engineer was 25 years old.

This is the problem with 90% of conspiracy nuts; ignorance of the facts and their cast iron confidence in displaying same. Facts reported by the Soviets and the Ukrainians after(and many of the latter don't exactly have much love for the former). Never mind the international teams that have been on the ground, soon after and ever since.

1) You clearly have zero clue how nuclear reactors work, in particular the type in operation at that plant and how a mixture of cost cutting and rushed building led to a lack of safety in a very particular kind of situation. Indeed when it happened actual nuclear experts the world over were scratching their heads over how it could have happened. So the notion of some James Bond character on his own setting off what was seen as impossible is some feat.

2) You do understand that a nuclear power plant isn't run by one person right? Maybe Homer Simpson has skewed your ideas but that's not how it works. It was a skeleton team as it was the night shift, but there was a team of people in the control room and in the plant itself. Nuclear plant technicians and electrical engineers.

3) The senior engineer was 55, not 25 and he was one of the most senior people in the Soviet industry with nearly 20 years experience. Try reading up on this stuff before you let your keyboard display your total ignorance.

So for your moronic notion to have legs the "CIA" would have to place someone right at the top of the team, someone who would be in place on that night and someone who would also somehow know in advance that Kiev would require more power that night, who would also know of a way to make this chain of events occur, that wasn't even a theory before it happened, who would also know that inserting the control rods failsafe would actually make things worse, when any nuclear scientist anywhere at the time would have said the complete opposite. Or... it was an unfortunate set of screw ups.

There would have been a ton of fluent Russian speaking CIA agents. Soviet Citizens in fact.

A "ton" eh? Maybe Austin Powers informs your notions of international espionage... Jesus you have to bloody wonder.

Rewatching episode 1, just spotted Legasov hangs himself at 1:23:45am. The exact time of the explosion.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Probably the best TV series I've ever watched.

Heckler

Asus X540L wrote: »

It's pretty much common knowledge that Chernobyl contributed to or even brought down the Soviet Union.

No its not. Neither common knowledge nor true..

buried

3.6 Trolltgen, not great, not terrible.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

May have been asked but is there any really good documentaries on this? Or other tv shows that come close.

Heckler

Pheonix10 wrote: »

May have been asked but is there any really good documentaries on this? Or other tv shows that come close.

There are clips on youtube of the lads clearing the roof. You'll think you're watching the TV show.

Paddy Cow

Asus X540L wrote: »

What safety features?
What technicians?
The senior engineer was 25 years old.

There would have been a ton of fluent Russian speaking CIA agents. Soviet Citizens in fact.
It's believable if the senior engineer was 25 a sleeper CIA agent could have been working there for years waiting for a right moment.

They worked out exactly how it happened. It was a mix of incompetence and graphite tips which never should have been there. The CIA had nothing to do with it.

Asus X540L

Wibbs wrote: »

This is the problem with 90% of conspiracy nuts; ignorance of the facts and their cast iron confidence in displaying same. Facts reported by the Soviets and the Ukrainians after(and many of the latter don't exactly have much love for the former). Never mind the international teams that have been on the ground, soon after and ever since.

1) You clearly have zero clue how nuclear reactors work, in particular the type in operation at that plant and how a mixture of cost cutting and rushed building led to a lack of safety in a very particular kind of situation. Indeed when it happened actual nuclear experts the world over were scratching their heads over how it could have happened. So the notion of some James Bond character on his own setting off what was seen as impossible is some feat.

2) You do understand that a nuclear power plant isn't run by one person right? Maybe Homer Simpson has skewed your ideas but that's not how it works. It was a skeleton team as it was the night shift, but there was a team of people in the control room and in the plant itself. Nuclear plant technicians and electrical engineers.

3) The senior engineer was 55, not 25 and he was one of the most senior people in the Soviet industry with nearly 20 years experience. Try reading up on this stuff before you let your keyboard display your total ignorance.

So for your moronic notion to have legs the "CIA" would have to place someone right at the top of the team, someone who would be in place on that night and someone who would also somehow know in advance that Kiev would require more power that night, who would also know of a way to make this chain of events occur, that wasn't even a theory before it happened, who would also know that inserting the control rods failsafe would actually make things worse, when any nuclear scientist anywhere at the time would have said the complete opposite. Or... it was an unfortunate set of screw ups.

A "ton" eh? Maybe Austin Powers informs your notions of international espionage... Jesus you have to bloody wonder.

lol no not really.
Have you worked in the industry yourself?

Not looking at any posts here because of Spoilers. Just finished the first two and going onto a third in a while.

My God it is horrifying. So well done and so gripping I don't think I've felt like this watching a show before knowing it's real.


Edit: 1.07am Let's go #4. I need more depression in my life apparently.

This was a great thread until a few posts ago.

Loved the TV series. I am now a Chernobyl fanatic. I'm reading and watching all the books and documentaries I can. Soon I'll know as much about nuclear fission as some of the guys in the control room that fateful night.(slight exaggeration).

Episode 2 is tough viewing though. After the firefighters laughing and joking in the hospital and playing cards, to rot and practically dissolve a few hours or days later.. you can only imagine the horror for those around them and them themselves.

I've read criticism of episode 4, that it was filler, that the euthanising of pets "wasn't so bad", but it gives you an idea of the scale of the recovery operation and you had seen some of the jobs carried out by others. Divers, miners, soldiers who cleared the roofs, many of whom died before the age of 40. Killing the pets was grim work but so much better than other jobs that were had.

The killing of the animals was necessary because they were all, or many were irradiated. Dogs and cats don't generally live long enough for cancer to become a factor in their death, however, both creatures have been known to travel great distances in search of food. You don't want an irradiated dog wandering over to downtown Kiev. So they all had to go.

There was a question earlier in the thread, why the animals just got buried while some of the firemen were entombed in lead caskets with concrete on top. The answer: those were nuclear plant workers and firemen, they were directly exposed to the core and were seriously radio-active. The animals were not.