Chernobyl (TV series)

[Neil]

Have to say, this is very very well done! If you get a chance make sure you catch it! I didn't realise how bad it nearly was!

[MinionZombie]

As soon as I saw the first trailer I was absolutely in. This is one of my morbid fascinations, if you will, and I agree - this series is absolutely brilliant, so well written and made. I knew a fair bit about the whole thing, more than most folks, but there was still plenty that I didn't know that this show has been shedding light upon. I would also highly recommend listening to the accompanying podcast in which the writer talks about the events of each episode, explains what is real and what was tweaked to fit in the framework of a TV drama mini-series (it's remarkably accurate for a TV drama). For anyone who hasn't watched it yet, one piece of advice - don't eat during episode three.

[kidgloves]

Got these stacked up and ready to watch when I can do them in 1 sitting

[bassman]

Been watching weekly from the first episode, and very curious to see how they end it tonight. Happily ever after ending, maybe?

[MinionZombie]

Gonna watch the finale today. This has been a superb mini-series.

[Neil]

Final episode is very good, and (very minor spoiler)   ...has a beautiful summary of how the disaster happened...

[MinionZombie]

I really enjoyed the final episode.   I particularly liked how it was a sort of courtroom drama (in reality neither Legasov or Sherbina were in attendance IIRC from what Craig Mazin said on the podcast, however it makes sense to take a bit of creative license as you need to wrap it all up for the audience in a clear manner that is true to the spirit of the whole thing). It was, as you say, a good way to explain how and why the CNPP exploded. Going back to the night of the event and seeing it unfold from inside the control room and the other parts of the plant (the actual reactor, for instance, with those rods all jumping about!!!) was scary and thrilling and fascinating all at once. The final montage of photos and text explaining some of the other aspects was also very welcome and further spoke to the show's striving for accuracy as best they could manage inside the goal posts of a 5-part mini-series. The wider themes of truth vs lies and how that infects people, governments, and society in general is hugely relevant for today as well. An utterly excellent series. I'll be picking this up on Blu-Ray, for sure.

[Neil]

The wider themes of truth vs lies and how that infects people, governments, and society in general is hugely relevant for today as well. Indeed! We need only look at the politicians, police and MSM's treatement of events like Oldham (a couple of weeks ago) to see that!

[bassman]

Great series! It’s very minor in the grand scheme of things, but the scene of Legasov(Jared Harris) standing for the start of his presentation absolutely floored me. Whatever they did with the camera to produce that anxious, vertigo-like feeling made me want to cheer!

[Neil]

Great series! It’s very minor in the grand scheme of things, but the scene of Legasov(Jared Harris) standing for the start of his presentation absolutely floored me. Whatever they did with the camera to produce that anxious, vertigo-like feeling made me want to cheer! Yeh, I noticed that "effect" too!

[MinionZombie]

Great series! It’s very minor in the grand scheme of things, but the scene of Legasov(Jared Harris) standing for the start of his presentation absolutely floored me. Whatever they did with the camera to produce that anxious, vertigo-like feeling made me want to cheer! Aye, it was subtle yet effective. I've seen that kind of thing before one or two times - I think the best example would be "IT", where the camera and the subject moving most within the frame kind of become 'attached', so in "IT" the camera and the clown's head were 'static together' and everything else moved. In a similar way that sort of effect was used when Legaslov got up to speak, so we were kind of with him while everything else lurched about. I like how the show never really pandered or oversimplified anything, but instead found a way to explain it clearly on its own terms (e.g. when Legaslov is explaining how an RBMK reactor works in that final episode, or in episode two when he's explaining the essentials to Scherbina. Similarly, the use of that model really helped the viewer understand what was going on and made sense anyway as you'd use that to explain to the judge and jury.

[bassman]

Yeah, I’d imagined it was something similar to those body rigs they often used in the early 2000’s comedies whenever someone was drunk, on drugs, or running in fear. It felt like it had something else to it too, though? Maybe some work done in post, as well? I’ll have to give it another viewing, for sure! Hopefully the home release is packed with goodies!

[Neil]

The explanation of the events leading to the failure was brilliantly done in that final episode! And I was surprised to find out all (three of) the workers who returned to open the valves survived!

[MinionZombie]

And I was surprised to find out all (three of) the workers who returned to open the valves survived! The "Divers"? Aye, that was quite something. To go into all that radioactive water and then survive. It's amazing how you had people who were in the control room surviving for a long time, or people at the plant itself still being alive today, meanwhile that shocking stat that all those who watched from the bridge died as a result of that (so it seems at least). Plus, that figure of 'up to 93,000 deaths' being the best estimate, but the official Soviet count (unchanged since it was first calculated) is a mere 31 deaths!!! It's kind of amazing how it affected some so harshly and others not as much, but it'll all come down to very specific things and where specifically they went and how long they were there for. Also that little bit of video where someone had ventured down into the basement of the Pripyat hospital and found the clothing that was worn by those fire fighters - still there and still highly radioactive (the meter seemed to be reading hundreds of roentgens) ... apparently a dose of 500 roentgens within 5 hours is fatal to humans. Good thing they were wearing some sort of hazmat suit!

[Neil]

BTW, Chernobyl holds 1st place as the worst radiation accident. But Russia also holds 3rd place too with Kyshtym.