Chernobyl HBO Miniseries

I'm not sure this episode carried the emotional weight of the past episodes. Certainly seeing the "bio robots" carrying out what was, essentially, another suicide mission to clean up "Masha" was startling, but we have already become desensitized to the waste of life by the Russian government to solve a solution caused by other foolish men. The young kid getting initiated on killing animals was done well. That seemed like an ultra crap job. Give me moving earth or cutting down trees any day.

Looks like the finale will deal with the causes of the explosion and Legasov presenting the findings to the Vienna conference plus a look back at things before the explosion.

I do have one, perhaps, stupid question: why do a lot of workers wear white surgeon like caps when they're in or around the reactor? What purpose does that serve? Even Legasov has one on, but Skarsgård, for instance, does not.

 

The animal sequences was the worst part of the episode for me, but in previous episodes I had been wondering what happened to the pets. I thought it was handled well and the primary guy did a good job in explaining to the kid and to us why it has to be done humanely.

 

I was thinking that Ricky Gervais should skip part 4.

 

this episode felt more "artistic" to me, for lack of better word. lots of dialog-free sections. heavy on the juxtaposition. i thought the pet hunting arc was pretty masterfully shot & edited. there were so many ways it could have been done wrong, and i don't think i caught a single one.

i do think this should have been about 8 episodes as the whole story does feel a little compressed right now. for instance: they probably could have done an entire episode just about the evacuation of pripyat alone.

 

Yeah, maybe I am just appreciating the series too much and so I'm just disappointed it's only five parts, but I definitely think they could have pulled it out to eight. The animals sequence was just one way they were able to communicate the sort of random way that even non-military people got pulled into it all, having their lives forever changed as a result. It's definitely one of the most depressing and troubling shows I've ever seen, but it's so brilliantly done as a production from top to bottom.

 

Yes, my wife and I hare huge animal lovers, so we "braced ourselves for impact," but the actual killings were quite tasteful, all things considered. The dumping of their bodies was hard to watch, though. I guess the hunters didn't think about the air being toxic enough to sicken the animals but it OK for them to walk around in it!

 

Was that something which had to be done, killing all of the pets? Trying to understand this. They were the pets of the people who were evacuated? So, why weren't those people allowed to take their pets with them? Also, did everyone leave all of their belongings behind and leave on the buses? What about people who owned cars? Could they get in their cars and leave on their own and if they did, would they have been able to bring their pets with them?

 

They jumped from couple weeks to 4 months in episode 3 to 4. That is a big jump but it is still fascinating.

 

The pets had radioactive fallout in their hair and were unsafe to be around and be close to.

 

If you need a Chernobyl fix between episodes, Adam Higgonbotham’s MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL is meticulously researched but also dramatic and paced like a novel. It’s incredibly well done. Could not put it down. One impression it leaves is how the HBO series does a great job with historical accuracy despite the constraints of simplifying a complex disaster. Conflating a few real-life figures is a fair compromise for their deeper-truth depictions of the corruption leading to the accident and human costs afterward.

 

Seems to be a IMDb rating darling. Is it that good?

 

No, the hunters knew they were walking around in a toxic environment hence the lead ‘egg cups’ around their genital area.

Most who took jobs after the Chernobyl disaster and worked in the area knew they were risking their health and likely shortening their life span.

 

It’s very good.

 

Higher rating than Breaking Bad & Game Of Thrones.

 

Less number of reviewers for one thing. It’s a five part mini series not 73 episodes or whatever.

 

Really want to see this, holding out for a Blu-ray release hopefully at some point.

 

IMHO when the discussion starts getting into "is it the very best" or 9.4 vs 9.7 vs 9.8 ratings, it gets silly (not a criticism of anyone here, just a general opinion). But that said, in my view this miniseries so far, after 4 out of the 5 episodes, is certainly worthy of whatever numerical rating indicates a truly excellent show deserves. It's first-rate.

 

Well, sure, but one would think they'd be fitted with more protective gear than the "egg basket."

 

One would I think, yes.

 

This is probably blocked by country IP address, but Sky have Episode One for free here

Chernobyl

 

This isn’t available in the UK?

 

Yeah its on Sky Atlantic. I don't want yet another subscription service though, already paying for Netflix, Amazon Prime and the old TV license.

 

Another incredible but bleak episode this week. The animal scenes were sensitively handled but still very difficult to watch.

 

At least, they decided to 'tell and not show' what happened to the baby.......

 

Chernobyl is now a tourist destination and has been for years.

Check out all of the YouTube video's of the tours there.