Chernobyl (HBO miniseries) - EP5 finale 'Vichnaya Pamyat' out now

What's scary is that you think "how did this happen? How did this person get in this position?"


Our current Secretary of Energy:

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I started the first episode the week it aired but never got around to finishing it. Now I'm on E2. One of those moments when truth is stranger than fiction. I remember when the Fukushima disaster happened in Japan in 2011. It wasn't nearly as bad as Chernobyl, I imagine a lot of lessons were learned from Chernobyl.
 






Thread by @SlavaMalamud: "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 […]"

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 "****, 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.
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It wouldn't have helped.

I found a great description of the effects of radiation:

"You’ll begin to vomit and feel nauseous almost immediately, and within a short space of time, your tongue and eyes will swell, slowly followed by the rest of your body. You’ll feel weakened, as if the strength has been drained from you. If you have received a high dose of direct exposure – as in this scenario – your skin will turn dark red within moments, a phenomenon often called nuclear sunburn. Within an hour or two of exposure, you’ll gain a pounding headache, a fever and diarrhoea, after which you’ll go into shock and pass out. After this initial bout of symptoms, there is often a latent period during which you will start to feel like you’re recovering. The nausea will recede, along with some swelling, though other symptoms will remain. This latent period varies in duration from case to case, and of course it depends on the dose, but it can last a few days. It’s cruel, because it gives you hope, only to then get much, much worse. The vomiting and diarrhoea will return, along with delirium. There will be an unstoppable, excruciating pain throughout your body, from your skin down to your bones, and you’ll bleed from your nose, mouth and rectum. Your hair will fall out, your skin will tear easily, crack and blister, and then slowly turn black. Your bones will rot, forever destroying your body’s ability to create new blood cells. As you near the end, your immune system will completely collapse, your lungs, heart and other internal organs will begin to disintegrate, and you’ll cough them up. Your skin will eventually break down completely, all but guaranteeing infection. One man from Chernobyl reported that when he stood up his skin slipped down off his leg like a sock. At high doses, radiation will change the very fabric of your DNA, turning you quite literally into a person other than the one you were before. And then you’ll die, in agony."
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Only on episode one.

Plan on catching up today, but why were the higher ups so against accepting that the core had blew up?!?!

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And why Lane keep goin out like a sucker!?! :frown:
 
kingkoopa said:
Only on episode one.

Plan on catching up today, but why were the higher ups so against accepting that the core had blew up?!?!

giphy-4.gif


And why Lane keep goin out like a sucker!?! :frown:
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They explain more about that throughout the show, but at the time the scientists had no logical way to explain how a reactor core could explode. Up until then it was impossible, combined with the fact that they hit a switch to shut it down before the explosion.

The higher up communist party leaders were quick to shut down the idea of an explosion because it would make them look bad. Everything about communist Russia at the time was making the country look superior, regardless of the facts. Think North Korea and the rediculous information regarding Kim Jong about his golf tournament. His country reported that his first time playing golf, in a state sponsored tournament he scored a 34 under par, including FIVE hole-in-ones :lol: :lol:

The Kremlin went through great lengths to censor any negative news about the country. Even if it meant risking people’s lives.
 
I asked my mom what it was like around the time of the Chernobyl disaster. I was surprised to hear she didn't really notice a lot of panic over here, though it's a localized anecdotal experience. We grew up in East-Flanders, which is in the north-western part of Belgium. She said it was all over the radio but the reaction was more curiosity than fright at first. It was reported on the radio that the radioactive cloud had reached Belgium but it was described as relatively harmless as far as she recalls. She wouldn't describe the reaction to that as panic but it definitely caused a strong unease amongst the people.
The government urged farmers to not let their cows outside but no such recommendations were given when it came to letting kids play outside for example, that caused some confusion.
My family on my mom's side were farmers and they did struggle for a while as the concern prompted people to prefer imported food for some time.
 
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I’m rewatching episodes 1-4 and it’s just as good again. And caught a few things I missed..
 
Got Gomorrah vibes from the animal hunting scenes. Specifically it reminds me of the young sanitation guy who was learning the ropes. He was witnessing firsthand that the garbage was poisoning people in the area and it bothered him while his superior didn't give a ****.
 
Imagine walking around with a lead banana hammock on. Yikes.

I'm glad they spared us the gory details of Vasily's baby. After everything else tonight I don't think I could've handled that.


And the Icelandic woman who did the score for this did a fantastic job of simultaneously creeping me out and depressing me.
 
This fool said biorobots :rofl: :smh:

At first I was like how they got bio-robotic tech? Like does he mean dogs with robotic parts or some ****?

Men.


Then this guys tells them I wish you long lives. Why?!:stoneface: Adding insult to injury. So cruel.
 
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This is like a real horror movie to me, because it's something that actually occurred and that they tried to hide it.

and we'll never know the full environmental effects and how the people were effected.
 
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