Chernobyl HBO Miniseries

Strangely, that never bothered me. I thought (and no offense to my relatives across the pond whom I love and respect), I think so, too. Once I got used to it, it was fine for me. Of course, I've had years of Nazi's being played by folks from the UK.

 

Slow but grim episode, especially considering that each of the people we saw eventually died quickly of radiation poisoning or slowly of cancer.

 

But.... those 'tuff-as-nails' miners, though....

 

I was going to cancel my HBO subscription after the series finale of GOT...…..not now, I'm more engaged with Chernobyl than I was with Game Of Thrones.

 

hmm... i found this latest episode rather meandering with a few striking set pieces held together by boring melodrama and disingenuously written boldness. it felt like they really, really wanted to show their amazing makeup effects but didn't have much else to flesh the story out with. i'm really not interested in the doomed firefighter/wife stuff. they didn't write that very well.

 

Depends on how 'horror-show' they get, when she gives birth.....THAT'S the 'high-wire-act', right there!

 

The doomed firefighter/wife stuff was effective in showing how radiation poisoning killed someone and how ineffective the hospital staff was in preventing exposure. I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing them again.

 

Same here. Good thing it’s a “mini” series. So just 2 more episodes then bye HBO.

 

Not gonna watch it. Too many bad memories. I was around two years old when it happened and my parents said in the upcoming days the sky turned greenish, even though we lived 1000km west from Chernobyl, in Hungary. Everyone was advised to stay indoors and fruits and vegetables were not permitted to be harvested and consumed. Of course it was only days after the tragedy, due to the secretive nature of that stupid communist leadership in Moscow. Gosh, how much I hated that system. I've lost numerous childhood friends since then who all died in their 20s, due various incurable cancers.

 

I found it moving and sad. I find absolutely no melodrama in it. The characters weren’t simply drawn nor were they cliched.

 

The first two episodes were great. The third episode was good.
The accents don't bother me at all.
Rule 1 dont pick up the graphite.

 

Well episode three focuses on the human cost and that isn’t as dramatic as what came before but it’s also about the human cost ultimately. Some fine acting moments. Small moments that help define us.

 

That's tragic particularly since they kept it a secret as much as they could. The tragedy is that is that, if the disaster had been handled better, many less would be exposed or die of cancer. Given that this was the first time this had ever happened on Earth though it would have made it tough to predict how exactly one could prepare. The lack of protective gear was inexcusable.

 

No one's ever seen British accents being used before to represent Russia? I'd say at least HALF the movies about Russia use British accents. Crazy to make all your actors try and learn a Russian accent. Some people just don't have the chops. And if one or two of your leads can't do it, it makes the whole show a laughable

This is a great show. Well written and beautifully acted. Halfway through episode two and every minute great. How nice to see something that's not a stupid piece of fantasy for a change.

 

Wow, what a great show. And the DIRECTION superb - artful, yet taut. Two episodes done and it just crackles. Director is Johan Renck. Reminds me of Villeneuve. The music is beautifully done. Such a well done series.

 

Very sad episode.

I was working at the Fermi 2 power plant when this happened.....

 

The last scene with the concrete pouring was powerful and very sad.

 

Absolutely. The whole episode was completely heartbreaking. The fact that we didn't see the third guy being interviewed in the hospital, but you could tell from her reaction how awful it was, then later the line "his face was gone"... Jesus...

 

Two episodes of this show had me glued to the set in a way that bit of dumb fluff never did.

 

And many many classic war movies had Germans speaking with a British accent.

 

I haven't started watching this yet, but plan to. Over the years i've read several books about this event and a few others-
takeaways- I recall that shortly after the thing blew, some firefighter/scuba diver types had to go into the core to shut something off. Basically a suicide mission, given the massive amounts of radiation they were exposed to;
the town to which everyone was evacuated was well within the zone of the 'fall-out' and some off the charts secondary effects- birth defects, crazy cancers, resulted from that population.
I guess there have been a few documentaries and there are tours of parts of the area. I think there was a huge radio transmitter in the area that was never put into use- I can't remember whether it was meant as a some sort of spy weapon, i do recall seeing pictures of this huge array that was in pretty bad condition at the time it was filmed.
There was also some woman who rode a BMW moto through the area a while ago and filmed it.
There is a decent book I read some years ago that had studied nuclear plant accidents-most caused by human error and failure to use back up procedures.
If I recall, the States adopted a type of reactor based on what was designed for atomic subs- where the availability of water as coolant was not a big issue. Apparently, there were better designs for land-based reactors, but I'm not sure how many of those were deployed.
Some of the ones at the universities used in nuclear science are safe, not sure they put out the kind of power needed for the grid, though.
I remember when Three Mile Island blew and was imagining radioactivity coming through my air-conditioner - I lived on the other side of Pennsylvania at the time, in school.

 

TMI was nothing compared to Chernobyl.

 

True.

 

The third episode was almost too depressing to bear. The miniseries is incredibly well done, but I'm starting to feel relieved there's only five episodes. I do hope they flashback and show what precisely transpired before the mishap.

 

The firefighter and his wife, Lyudmilla, are based on real people.
A lot of happened in the hospital, him playing cards and joking with the others when she arrived, how his body looked as it was breaking down, her hiding her pregnancy, was based on interviews done with her.
Events were condensed for the miniseries but I think some of the dialogue was taken from Lyudmilla‘s accounts.