Chernobyl Miniseries (2019)

[TheBeanz]

The Helicopter broke apart cause the blades hit a crane cable.
Y'know... Like what actually happened in Chernobyl. Only the realy crash happened 6 months after the attack, but as a bit of artistic liberty, it's okay to change this up a little to show how absurdly difficult the whole operation was.

And that's my stance on the whole show. It does more things right than what it gets wrong and the few things it gets wrong usually are meant to serve a point. Like having the guy that shoots the dogs being a young conscript. It's meant to symbolize how a bunch of naive people were send to do the dirty work in Chernobyl, even though it was completely beyond their grasp to even fully understand just what the hell was going on. Or turning a bunch of people into the amalgamation character Khomyuk.
the s
Overall, it's not a 100% correct recreation, after all, they need to tell a story, but as a viewer, you get the general idea of what was going on and how bad it was for most people.

You see the way I remember it being played on the show involved the smoke being super radioactive (obviously it was) and Legasov warning Scherbina to tell the helicopter pilots not to fly into it. Almost the very next scene, a Hind flies over the reactor and breaks apart for apparently no reason, implying that the radiation or heat from the fire fucked the helicopter up. It was the main thing that had me scratching my head.

Otherwise though, great series as I said

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Almost the very next scene, a Hind flies over the reactor and breaks apart for apparently no reason, implying that the radiation or heat from the fire fucked the helicopter up. It was the main thing that had me scratching my head.

Maybe you watched it in a bad quality stream? The crane cable was maybe hard to see.

 

[TheBeanz]

Maybe you watched it in a bad quality stream? The crane cable was maybe hard to see.

I watched it on TV so it wasn't a picture quality thing. Maybe I'd missed the cable!

 

[Pol Pots Pooter]

You see the way I remember it being played on the show involved the smoke being super radioactive (obviously it was) and Legasov warning Scherbina to tell the helicopter pilots not to fly into it. Almost the very next scene, a Hind flies over the reactor and breaks apart for apparently no reason, implying that the radiation or heat from the fire fucked the helicopter up. It was the main thing that had me scratching my head.

Honestly that's a bit of a dramatization I can understand and don't have a problem with. I can't remember which documentary it was -- Battle of Chernobyl, maybe? -- that had the interviews with Tarakanov, Gorbachev, Igor Kostin, and Nikolai Antoshkin where they discussed the helicopter sorties to put out the fire. That plus the numerous books about it paint a pretty surreal picture.

The dosage at 200m altitude was 3,500 roentgen/hour, with a temperature between 250-350 degrees Fahrenheit. Helis and pilots were routed from Afghanistan and Siberia to be a part of cleanup, crews flew an average of 30-odd sorties per day and initially had to hover over the rooftop to manually throw bags before they got the drop rigs, crews had to boot and rally from early-onset ARS between sorties, ground crews built makeshift lead redoubts to hide behind while the helis were touched down, pilots and ground crews bypassed pre-/post-flight procedures because the aircraft were contaminated. I could swear I read once that later, helis weren't even cleared to land unless they needed fuel because of the contamination.

Considering what those helis flew into, it's a fucking miracle only the one crash happened.

 

[TheBeanz]

Battle of Chernobyl

I think I remember watching that documentary years ago. Found a link on Youtube if anyone's interested: https://youtu.be/IjOJlHULsaM

 

[Jeb-sama]

Why didn't one of the workers jump into the burning reactor core, and then use their newfound superpowers to fix the situation?

See, the americans would have figured this out. That's why they have a Dr Manhattan and the soviets don't

 

[XYZpdq]

I think I remember watching that documentary years ago. Found a link on Youtube if anyone's interested: https://youtu.be/IjOJlHULsaM

if we're sharing docus then

BBC - Horizon - 1996 - Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus - video dailymotion

Watch BBC - Horizon - 1996 - Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus - Barbu George on Dailymotion

www.dailymotion.com

it's got a lot of good stuff of exploring the wreckage, fucking around near the remains of the reactor, and looking for what would become known as The Elephant's Foot

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

Bionerd23 has a channel chocked full of good stuff:

bionerd23

www.youtube.com

This episode touched me the most since it was the anniversary of the disaster and it has a visit to the memorial the workers built for Valery Khodemtchuk, the pump operator who still remains buried inside the power plant.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Bionerd23 has a channel chocked full of good stuff:

bionerd23

www.youtube.com

This episode touched me the most since it was the anniversary of the disaster and it has a visit to the memorial the workers built for Valery Khodemtchuk, the pump operator who still remains buried inside the power plant.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KRHnApxVFQU

Would there still be remains in pretty good condition? I've read the high levels of radiation disproportionately negatively effect decomposers. Of course I've also heard there's some weird fungus living inside the sarcophagus that uses melanin as a pigment for some kind of radio-autotroph shit.

 

[ProfDongs]

Just watched through all of this the other day and it was fantastic. I was a little iffy at first on the lady oc but like others have pointed out she rounded out the cast and worked well as an amalgamation for the scientific community. The fact that they point out that she was meant to represent the work of hundreds at the end of E5 made any worries moot because they aren't trying to hide anything from you for the sake of diversity. I think my favorite shot in the show is when Valery is meeting with all of the party officials and they show a shot down a beautiful hallway that looks like it stretches on forever with the white pillars and guards along the way.

This only tangentially related but I would love to see a miniseries on Roadside Picnic. STALKER is one of my favorite movies, but it is very different from what it was based on.

 

[Maltninja]

...
This only tangentially related but I would love to see a miniseries on Roadside Picnic. STALKER is one of my favorite movies, but it is very different from what it was based on.

Roadside Picnic series? I'll drink to that. They've had long enough. The film is a masterpiece, but Tarkovsky cleary had no desire to recreate the book, and I think the Strugatskys agreed he should do his own thing.

 

[Ahriman]

Finished watching it last sunday, unsure if the hype was real so I had to check it out for myself. Damn good show, the last time I've been hooked on a show since episode 1 like this, was with True Detective S01 (which I highly recommend). Definitely it played like a 6-hour long movie. Valery's incident timeline in the last episode was fantastic.

Also, been reading that a part of Russian media and government (along with the usual suspects) are butthurt about it, because it doesn't paint a pretty picture of socialism, but the general consensus is that many Russians and Ukrainians love the show, especially the accuracy.

Here is a long-ass Twitter thread from a known Russian sports writer, geeking out over the autistic attention to detail to portray '80s soviet life - down to the shitty soviet kitchenware and kitchen wallpaper shown in the scenes. He goes into detail as to what he loved about each episode and again, praising its authenticity. Pretty good read.

https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1132029943297265664

And here is a pretty good article praising the show.

The Heroic Bitter Land of 'Chernobyl' - The Moscow Times

A television series about the U.S.S.R. written and produced in the West that has Russian viewers raving.

www.themoscowtimes.com

 

[kadoink]

Just watched through all of this the other day and it was fantastic. I was a little iffy at first on the lady oc but like others have pointed out she rounded out the cast and worked well as an amalgamation for the scientific community.

Thats a huge problem for these types of shows because there are too many people involved to have in a movie or TV show. You cant have 4 characters who pop up 4 different times in the story for like 1-2 scenes and what they have to say/do is vital to the story. You could have 2 characters who did that, but then it'd just be 2 characters with 3-4 scenes. If they're so important to the story they need to be present more. Condensing it into 1 character who is vital to the story and has 11-12 scenes in the story. Then the character isn't wasted, they're active in the story and they add to it.

 

[not william stenchever]

and the helicopter completely breaking up in the radioactive smoke

I thought the first helicopter's rotors hit the unexplained crane's cable and it broke them, causing them to fall to their death.

 

[Anonymous For This]

Honestly that's a bit of a dramatization I can understand and don't have a problem with. I can't remember which documentary it was -- Battle of Chernobyl, maybe? -- that had the interviews with Tarakanov, Gorbachev, Igor Kostin, and Nikolai Antoshkin where they discussed the helicopter sorties to put out the fire. That plus the numerous books about it paint a pretty surreal picture.

The dosage at 200m altitude was 3,500 roentgen/hour, with a temperature between 250-350 degrees Fahrenheit. Helis and pilots were routed from Afghanistan and Siberia to be a part of cleanup, crews flew an average of 30-odd sorties per day and initially had to hover over the rooftop to manually throw bags before they got the drop rigs, crews had to boot and rally from early-onset ARS between sorties, ground crews built makeshift lead redoubts to hide behind while the helis were touched down, pilots and ground crews bypassed pre-/post-flight procedures because the aircraft were contaminated. I could swear I read once that later, helis weren't even cleared to land unless they needed fuel because of the contamination.

Considering what those helis flew into, it's a fucking miracle only the one crash happened.

The Mi-17 is the ugliest goddamn thing, but holy shit if it isn't an extremely durable airframe.

 

[mindlessobserver]

If there's one bad thing.... it's all of the exceptional political takes that have come from people who've watched this movie. There are tons of "hot take" videos on youtube of people claiming the narrative reinforces their own political bias, or that it shits on something that they like. Some people have claimed its message is anti-nuclear power, some have claimed it is pro-nuclear power. Some have claim it bashes Communism, others claim it praises Communism, Some claim it's bashing Russia/nationalism, others claim it's praising Russia/nationalism. Some think it's full of GirlPOWER, others think it's full of Toxic Masculinity. The writer of the show (Craig Mazin) claims it's an analogy of the dangers of ignoring Global Warming, and that Dyatlov represents Bad Orange Man Trump, and you know what? His take sounds just as exceptional as everyone else's!

The one thing that separates good art from bad art is meaning. And by meaning I mean positive enlightenment.All the way back to the ancient Greeks it was understood that that without a grounding in meaning, the art had no impact. Or value.

But what is meaning? You have to think in religious terms to get the concept here. Meaning is an expression of the divine. Or more broadly, it is an expression of universal truth. Things we all know to be true but have no way to articulate. Edgar Allen Poes "Cask of Amontillado" shows a true expression of what we know to be true about feelings of being slighted and taking revenge. The Mona Lisa is a true expression of what beauty is. Enigmatic, indescribable, but so increadibly self evident.

And chernobyl? The series? It is a true expression of...the truth. The absolute audacious arrogance of the men and women who made this artifact of culture. I am wracking my brains and I can come up with absolutely no examples of art that dared and succeeded to make Truth itself the subject of its expression. When the films Legasov stands in that court room and proclaims "That is how an RBMK reactor explodes...lies", they are not presenting a cliche. They are presenting the crescendo of a masterful work of art that was building to that moment. The outtro about "the final lesson of chernobyl" was unnecessary simply because we all got the lesson.

And how do you know they succeeded? Anyone, no matter who they are or what they believe, will watch this show and be able to apply meaning to it.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

The one thing that separates good art from bad art is meaning. And by meaning I mean positive enlightenment.All the way back to the ancient Greeks it was understood that that without a grounding in meaning, the art had no impact. Or value.

But what is meaning? You have to think in religious terms to get the concept here. Meaning is an expression of the divine. Or more broadly, it is an expression of universal truth. Things we all know to be true but have no way to articulate. Edgar Allen Poes "Cask of Amontillado" shows a true expression of what we know to be true about feelings of being slighted and taking revenge. The Mona Lisa is a true expression of what beauty is. Enigmatic, indescribable, but so increadibly self evident.

And chernobyl? The series? It is a true expression of...the truth. The absolute audacious arrogance of the men and women who made this artifact of culture. I am wracking my brains and I can come up with absolutely no examples of art that dared and succeeded to make Truth itself the subject of its expression. When the films Legasov stands in that court room and proclaims "That is how an RBMK reactor explodes...lies", they are not presenting a cliche. They are presenting the crescendo of a masterful work of art that was building to that moment. The outtro about "the final lesson of chernobyl" was unnecessary simply because we all got the lesson.

And how do you know they succeeded? Anyone, no matter who they are or what they believe, will watch this show and be able to apply meaning to it.

You're thinking too hard lobster man.

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

The one thing that separates good art from bad art is meaning. And by meaning I mean positive enlightenment.All the way back to the ancient Greeks it was understood that that without a grounding in meaning, the art had no impact. Or value.

But what is meaning? You have to think in religious terms to get the concept here. Meaning is an expression of the divine. Or more broadly, it is an expression of universal truth. Things we all know to be true but have no way to articulate. Edgar Allen Poes "Cask of Amontillado" shows a true expression of what we know to be true about feelings of being slighted and taking revenge. The Mona Lisa is a true expression of what beauty is. Enigmatic, indescribable, but so increadibly self evident.

And chernobyl? The series? It is a true expression of...the truth. The absolute audacious arrogance of the men and women who made this artifact of culture. I am wracking my brains and I can come up with absolutely no examples of art that dared and succeeded to make Truth itself the subject of its expression. When the films Legasov stands in that court room and proclaims "That is how an RBMK reactor explodes...lies", they are not presenting a cliche. They are presenting the crescendo of a masterful work of art that was building to that moment. The outtro about "the final lesson of chernobyl" was unnecessary simply because we all got the lesson.

And how do you know they succeeded? Anyone, no matter who they are or what they believe, will watch this show and be able to apply meaning to it.

The meaning of the show may be clear, but the problem is, everyone brings their own strongly held biases into it. Two different people could have very similar views of what good and evil are in principle, but very different ideas of what they are in execution. Still, it's a testament to the show that it was able to inspire such passion within people, both exceptional and unexceptional.

 

[Gordon Cole]

I'm finally watching this for the first time. I honestly think that "Period dramas with Jared Harris" may be my favorite genre of television now.

 

[Trig.Point]

I just read an article about Boris Shcberbina, chernobyl wasn't even the worst disaster he dealt with, two years later he led the response to the Armenian earthquake that killed nearly 40000 people.

Chernobyl: What happened to Boris Shcherbina in real life?

CHERNOBYL has finished airing on Sky Atlantic and HBO, leaving fans wondering what happened in real life to its cast of characters. Here’s what happened to Boris Shcherbina, played by Stellan Skarsgård in Chernobyl.

www.express.co.uk