First time watching CHERNOBYL (and I'm already so angry)
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- Опубліковано 2 тра 2024
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00:00-02:21 Intro
02:21-15:53 Episode 1 "1:23:45"
15:53-28:04 Episode 2 "Please Remain Calm"
28:04-31:26 My Thoughts!
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Addie cries about the dog... Ohnoz...
Yeah, Episode 4 is going to destroy her!
iykyk
For real… ugh.
She’s gonna need therapy 🫣🙈
I know, when I watched it all I could think was "thank god I'm not a dog person."
Pikalov, the general that drove the truck with the dosimeter, was an absolute legend. He not only drove the truck to take the risk for his men, but he knew that a general would not be able to be ignored. He repeatedly told younger soldiers to stay out of the dangerous areas because "They had not yet become fathers". He worked tirelessly during both the initial disaster and the subsequent cleanup ('liquidation').
He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest award of the USSR) for his efforts at Chernobyl, and passed away in 2003 in his mid seventies.
Decorated war hero, fought at Minsk, Kursk and was part of the assault on Berlin. Got his degree and worked up his way to Commander of the Chemical Troops.
Did reconnaissance himself during the war, even as he was acting commander of Artillery, so I guess there was no question that he would do some pretty dangerous stuff himself.
Damn respectable guy.
Well, NOT every BIG STARs does that!
"I'm So Angry" could pretty much be an alternate title for this show. 😂
And she have not yet read the end credits of episode 5! 😬
Guessing you mean the Chernobyl show, and not the Addie Counts reaction show :)
Welcome to communism
my biggest worry is that people watching this miniseries (which came out in 2019) didn't appreciate that it's not about lies that those in the soviet union told themselves about science but us in English speaking countries. (hence why they speak english). It's not about "those naive communists."
@@valjean76eh. they speak English because it’s produced by an English speaking company, for an English speaking audience, portrayed by English speaking actors.
You can say that the show is highlighting how PEOPLE lie for their personal gain even against Fact or overwhelming evidence, but to say that it’s actually about English speaking countries specifically just because the actors are speaking English and not Russian is a bit of a reach. At least I would require something more substantial than just English speaking people speaking English.
Also there was nothing naive about “those communist” the show goes out of its way to highlight the how far high ranking officials go to “not be embarrassed” and even highlight how the USSR was a “country obsessed with not being humiliated” never mind all the stuff about the KGB and how they silence scientists, of which English speaking countries have no equivalent to unless your implying the FBI,CIA or MI6 are going around silencing American/British scientist?
In Sweden, the radiation alarms went off inside a nuclear reactor. So the workers evacuated, "run outside as fast you can!". But the radiation was much higher outside. "Run back inside!"
Insane to even imagine. I was born a year later, but I had friends whose mothers were pregnant at the time, and they were worried about birth defects.
I remember that news about this accident came to Finland from Sweden two days after the explosion if I remember correctly.
@@vanyadolly there was no risk for pregnant women outside Ukraine, Belarus and Western Russia
"This will be easy to get through quickly."
Yeah if your own tears from watching episode four don't wash you away before you watch episode 5.
I grew up in Moldavian SSR, neighboring Ukrainian SSR. In 1986 I was 9 years old. The Chernobyl announcement appeared on our TV. It was 15 seconds long. You can actually find it on UA-cam. It downplayed everything and made it sound like a routine minor event.
My dad was called up to clean up Chernobyl. His life was saved at the staging site, where people were putting on ineffective masks and stuff. His commander said, "you have a family already, right? Go home".
don't take this for real history. far from it.
this is a very well made, well acted, show, depicting real events and real people, their heroism and cravenness, as well as ingrained problems of a tottering bureaucratic state. but its also problematic; its main overarching narrative is deliberately false and propagandist. that is not good in a show about "cost of lies".
to avoid any spoilers, i will just point to one of many instances from this 1st episode that contribute to that false narrative -
in reality legasov sent his "tapes" to editor of pravda, one of the main propagandist outlets of ussr; to a person linked to the ruling faction at the time. it was quite unlike what is depicted in show with secret drop, under the cover of taking out garbage.
their depicting him as a person living alone(when he was a family man) is forgivable dramatic license to make plot tight. their changing recipient from an elite person, to an implied secret dissident is not.
he was opposed by, and was working against someone, before he allegedly committed suicide, but who? difference between show's answer and real answer, is where falsehood comes in.
and these changes multiply and always with same tendency, for a purpose . that is why show is problematic.
The guy who said that...gave your father his life black. A hero.
Possibly the best 5 hours of TV over the last 20 years. Amazing and heartbreaking and enraging.
I've wondered for years just how we would deal with the aftereffects of the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Having a superpower rival was the best and worst thing to happen to the United States (having competition and a singular opponent to focus our political, social and economic power on helped to push the technological development evident today, however the ideological incompatibility of the two systems forced ours to become deeply ideologically partisan in an unsustainable way for a healthy Republic to function).
Since at its heart the Cold War was an ideological struggle, there isn't a particularly effective means of writing the history in an unbiased manner - which leaves the subsequent generations a gap in understanding that is difficult to fill (I really have a hard time trying to get my kids to understand how the Cold War rivalry of even the 1980's affected the domestic social and political environment in a way that was impossible to ignore, and which is fully lost upon them). I still hold the opinion that losing our external locus of danger/rivalry/ideological nemesis as a nation (and our immediate collective celebration of 'victory' without even the most basic understanding of what it meant, or what the fallout of 50 years worth of global zero-sum-game ideological partisanship was going to look like) directly explains our current domestic and international rudderless-ness as a society.
The brilliance of this particular show was it's ability to bring the Soviet system to life, and expose it's total inability to confront even the most pressing and obvious problems without first rendering them into acceptable ideological terms - regardless of the actual reality of the event. The Soviet system liked to appear as infallible, and the inevitable solution to the future of social and political relations of the world - in reality it was a tenuous, totalitarian system where accountability for mistakes (whether avoidable or not) were hazardous to the individuals' health, and led to a system and culture of finger-pointing at others and ass-covering for yourself. A system incapable of innovation or even basic, honest self-assessment and reflection on its failures - because according to itself, and as an article of faith, it was incapable of making mistakes.
24:24 - "the dog, the dog. That's going to break me". Uh oh 😲
oh it will...so much more...
27:35 Yes, On 4 May 1986, just a few days after the initial disaster, mechanical engineer Alexei Ananenko, senior engineer Valeri Bespalov and shift supervisor Boris Baranov stepped forward to undertake a mission that many considered to be suicide. They were advised that if they did not survive their families would be taken care of. The outcome of their mission would decide the fate of millions of people.
I’m not sure I can fathom the bravery it would take to do that🫡
My favorite anectode about this show is that all of the non-diegetic scoring is a recording from an ACTUAL nuclear reactor. Absolutely genius composer, and it really amplifies the eerieness to me
YES! It adds so much to the show
don't take this for real history. far from it.
this is a very well made, well acted, show, depicting real events and real people, their heroism and cravenness, as well as ingrained problems of a tottering bureaucratic state. but its also problematic; its main overarching narrative is deliberately false and propagandist. that is not good in a show about "cost of lies".
to avoid any spoilers, i will just point to one of many instances from this 1st episode that contribute to that false narrative -
in reality legasov sent his "tapes" to editor of pravda, one of the main propagandist outlets of ussr; to a person linked to the ruling faction at the time. it was quite unlike what is depicted in show with secret drop, under the cover of taking out garbage.
their depicting him as a person living alone(when he was a family man) is forgivable dramatic license to make plot tight. their changing recipient from an elite person, to an implied secret dissident is not.
he was opposed by, and was working against someone, before he allegedly committed suicide, but who? difference between show's answer and real answer, is where falsehood comes in.
and these changes multiply and always with same tendency, for a purpose . that is why show is problematic.
That cliffhanger at the end of episode 2 with that Geiger counter buzzing away while everything goes pitch black... cinematographic gold.
And more harrowing than any horror movie Hollywood has ever produced; made all the more so because unlike “Hellraiser” or “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, Chernobyl actually happened.
Boris' line "This is what has always set our people apart. A thousand years of sacrifice in our veins" reminds me of what an American astronaut who worked aboard the Russian Mir space station as part of an exchange program said. Whenever there was an emergency (and because the station was not incredibly well build, emergencies were common) they first put the American into the Soyuz escape capsule then went and fixed the problem without him. He said that this was because Russians believe that their history and culture make them better prepared for dealing with hardships (and sacrifice) than people in the west, especially Americans. so they thought that he needed to be "sheltered" from difficulties on the station. He eventually had to assert himself to gain their trust and respect so he could participate fully as a member of the crew.
yes and that spirit has been manipulated by sooo many successive Russian regimes to allow them to both cause and ignore untold misery upon their people. Russian history is a tragedy, but often one of their own making.
While I dont disagree that the Russian people are surely used to hardship…It sure is a convenient cultural identity to explain away generations of their own people subjugating them and ensuring they will never even know what a better life is.
The two extremes... the cowardice of the leadership vs. the bravery of the workers. So many did what they needed to do, knowing full well how dangerous and deadly what they were doing was.
40 years later & nothing has changed there😞
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192What do you mean? Even in the midst of a war we still have not had any radiological incidents in Chernobyl. Plenty has changed since ‘86.
@@Ryan_ChristopherI believe he means cowards still sneak about causing disasters and the brave of heart clean up the mess.
It applies to every aspect of human life.
don't take this for real history. far from it.
this is a very well made, well acted, show, depicting real events and real people, their heroism and cravenness, as well as ingrained problems of a tottering bureaucratic state. but its also problematic; its main overarching narrative is deliberately false and propagandist. that is not good in a show about "cost of lies".
to avoid any spoilers, i will just point to one of many instances from this 1st episode that contribute to that false narrative -
in reality legasov sent his "tapes" to editor of pravda, one of the main propagandist outlets of ussr; to a person linked to the ruling faction at the time. it was quite unlike what is depicted in show with secret drop, under the cover of taking out garbage.
their depicting him as a person living alone(when he was a family man) is forgivable dramatic license to make plot tight. their changing recipient from an elite person, to an implied secret dissident is not.
he was opposed by, and was working against someone, before he allegedly committed suicide, but who? difference between show's answer and real answer, is where falsehood comes in.
and these changes multiply and always with same tendency, for a purpose . that is why show is problematic.
bullshit, its mostly lied film about catastrophe
Legasov and Scherbina are my favorite part of the show. Like a good buddy cop movie.
the acting is just out of this world. 2 of my favourite actors. the bench scene, later on, is my favourite moment of the series.
@@CyberBeep_kenshi A pirate and Professor Moriarty, can it get any better?
And the music...
Scherbina died only 4 years after chernobyl. Almost certainly from cancer, but scherbina himself created the law that banned disclosure of the cause of death of people involved in the chernobyl clean-up, so we will never know. What we do know is that, as at january 2022 the ukrainian government was paying disability pensions to over 300,000 victims of chernobyl - and the treatment of chernobyl’s victims was one of the few things that multiple corrupt ukrainian governments did properly. Legasov, of course, died on the second anniversary. His friends all say his death was a protest, but he too may have had cancer. Until russia has honest government, we will never know.
So to better understand the radiation exposure rates they’re talking about, Roentgens per hour is equal to dose (REM: Roentgen Equivalent Man/Mammal) per hour for a person. So when they say 3.6 roentgens per hour, that’s equal to a dose of 3.6 REM per hour. The 50/50 survival rate dose (with proper medical treatment) is 500 REM. The guaranteed death dose (even with proper medical treatment) is 1000 REM. Which means the roentgens per hour the general read means a guaranteed lethal dose at 4 minutes. And that’s only when you’re exposed to radiation. In that disaster, there was tons of radioactive material in the air. When it gets on your skin and in your lungs from breathing, you’re being constantly exposed to radiation, including particulate radiation that is a lot more damaging than the standard gamma radiation.
This is gonna go from anger to a deep sadness really fast.
And then back to anger.
Before Chernobyl, there was an absolute belief among engineers and civilian authorities that a nuclear reactor explosion of the RBMK type was impossible. This conviction was partly due to the design of the RBMK reactor and a lack of understanding of the risks associated with its operation.
What seems frustrating in this series is due to our knowledge of the devastating risks of a reactor explosion, but on many levels, they were so clueless.
This miniseries is a brilliant essay on "the cost of lies". When people think they can concoct a better version of reality by believing hard enough in the lies they're telling, atrocities happen.
in terms of accuracy, there are a lot of details and events that were merged together or smoothed out for the sake of narrative cohesion. like in reality, there were TONS of scientists working around the clock to contain the disaster and minimize loss of life, not just legasov and a rogue belarusian physicist. but condensing the team into just a couple people makes the narrative flow better and emphasizes the struggle of the scientists and workers to make the state understand just how serious the situation was.
certain real people have been portrayed as more rude or blatantly uncharitable than they perhaps were in reality, and conversations you see between different characters may have played out a little differently. this miniseries is a warning not to allow convenient lies to get in the way of recognizing and solving urgent problems, and every moment of runtime is devoted to furthering that message.
(also you'll see what happened to all the people you saw being carted off to the hospital later, and this was one of a few places where they actually TONED DOWN what happened IRL. it's brutal in the show, but the reality was somehow even worse.)
The acting and writing is top tier. It's important to remember that this is a docudrama and not a documentary. Some things have been changed, some simplified, some left out; but overall it gets the situation across and does so very well without diving too deeply into science which might confuse viewers. The one thing I would stress the most is that some of the story is from the perspective of people at the time, many of whom, including medical personnel, believed incorrectly that victims of acute radiation exposure would be radioactive even after removing contaminated clothing and being thoroughly washed. Sadly, even the people who were evacuated from the surrounding area were mistreated because of this misconception.
Actually the case was different for the firefighters because they were so close to the core for such a long time that they actually were radioactive to an extent. Partially by inhaling radioactive particles that then continue to be emitted by the body for some time. That's why the wife was told to stay away, they were buried in concrete, and why she suffered medical complications after from spending so much time near them.
@@vanyadolly That's not how it works. Of the 5 types of radiation, only one can escape the body and also have even a small chance of affecting someone else.
Alpha particles can't pass through a sheet of paper, so inhaled radionuclides which decay by emitting alpha particles are only dangerous to the person who inhaled them.
Beta particles are just high energy electrons/positrons and can only pass through a few layers of skin/tissue. Same deal as the alpha particles and most of the radionuclides released at Chernobyl decay via beta emissions.
Fast neutron radiation is unlikely to strike other atoms and cause damage and also can't ionize anything since they have no charge. Neutrons slowed by a moderator, such as the water in the body, are thousands of times more likely to strike atoms in that person's body than make it out of the body.
Neutrinos barely interact with matter at all.
That leaves just one type of radiation which might make it out of a body after a radionuclide is ingested or inhaled. That is gamma rays (and their lower energy version x-rays). The amount of gamma radiation which could make it out of a victim's body is far less than the background radiation we all receive on a daily basis just by standing in the open air.
For reference, consider that at the very moment you are reading this, you have radioactive isotopes inside of you. Much of the body is made up of carbon. A percentage of all carbon is radioactive Carbon-14. Another major element in the body is potassium, and K-40 is the radioactive isotope. Do you consider yourself to be radioactive? Because K-40 decays either to Ca-40 by beta- decay or to Ar-40 by gamma decay. C-14 decays by beta- decay. There are other radioactive elements in your body besides those two I used as examples.
Here's a hint. Don't "actually" a nuclear engineer and physicist.
The Firemen's clothes were dumped in the hospital basement due to them being irradiated . . . they are still there.
Not because they were irradiated, but because they were still contaminated. They were covered with radioactive particles. That contamination is still on them, mostly the cesium-137 and iodine-131, which have half-lives of just over and just under 30 years respectively. It'll will be hundreds of years of decay of those particles before the clothing is no longer contaminated.
@@Nulli_Di Given how much the clothes have already decomposed, I think they'll cease being recognisable as former clothes and may not even be recognisable as rags and bits of boots long before they're no longer contaminated.
@@StarkRG You're are probably right. The best estimate for the most common of the 3 main radionuclides released, Cs-137, is around 25-30 Kg. At just over 30 years for the half-life it will be more than 750 years before it decays to where it isn't detectable against normal background radiation. That's for the total amount released. We'll never know how much was on the contaminated clothing and the local concentration would determine how long for it to be undetectable.
@@Nulli_Diis still 500 rogen in 2012
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa It's only been a little over 30 years, so only a little over half of the Cs-137 and I-131 has decayed away. The Cs-137 is by far the most dangerous, because its decay mode is 511 KeV beta- particle and then 662 KeV gamma ray or rarely just 1172 KeV beta- decay. For comparison, the standard x-ray for imaging is around 100 KeV.
Awesome! I was feeling like I was too happy this week, can't wait to cry alongside you!!
Hahaha
6:57 The "eyes of Medusa": while you look at the burning reactor, it has already killed you.
Girl, this series will truly tear your heart out: it's one of the best shows I've ever seen, but you will cry a lot.. trust me..
This series is more disturbing and terrifying than most horror movies, and the anger you feel is well-justified (and only just beginning, sadly).
It has a lot to say about our current situation as well.
14:11 I felt the same way when I first watched this. They've LITERALLY had THREE people SEE the lack of a reactor and that one guy kept saying, "you're wrong".
Very true but throughout history it is proven people in power, any level of power, do not need to pay attention to common sense if they don't want to. I am not saying there might not be consequences, but those don't always land on the right people either.
Welcome to the Soviet Union.
I was 8 years old in 1986 (England) and remember seeing the news. So watching this show gave me more insight into the disaster.
was just a little child when this happened, born and living in WEST Germany and i do remember there was a period where me and my brother were not allowed to go outside and everyone was scared shitless.
With all the cancer in the following decades in even healthy living people, the true death toll of this disaster will never be truly known...
also the Geigercounter going crazy will always be the scariest sound for me. no competition comes even close
I remember that too. I don't know if it was because of that, but I also remember the teacher gave us an iodine pill every day for a while (1990) when school started in south west germany. And they didn't want to say why we had to take them.
I don't know which is more terrifying: that you're in the pitch dark, or that you know that the radiation is so severe that it killed all of your flashlights.
actually that type of radiation has no effect on those types of lights. it was more the fact that they had really shoddy equipment and crap flashlight that kept flickering on and off due to bad batteries or wiring.
the fact it was flooded was actually lucky for them along with the fact that the majority of the blast went upwards. Water is a fantastic neutron shield
FYI: Nowadays, one of the most dangerous places on esrth is the basement of the hospitsl where the firefighters were attended. Their uniforms are still there snd staying in the room for enough time can get you permanent consequences.
It's always fascinating to see the frustration younger people experience watching this series. Anyone who didn't grow up during a stretch of the Cold War thinks that the USSR will listen to experts about Chernobyl; the Soviets preferred to make problems go away by pretending they never happened and threatening or killing anyone who disagreed. Stopping the spread of information was paramount.
One of the final performances of actor Paul Ritter who played Anatoly Dyatlov before he sadly died in 2021. Although he has had many roles over the years, he's quite famous in popular culture in the UK for the sitcom Friday Night Dinner where he's a comedic powerhouse
SHIT ON ITTTTT!
23:00 The helicopter didn’t crash due to radiation; its blades hit the steel cables on the crane and broke. It’s not super obvious in the show, but you can see it happen; the crane hook falls as the cables are cut and the helicopter blades disintegrate. It’s how it happened in real life - there’s footage of that crash. That’s not to say the radiation wasn’t absolutely awful, but it didn’t pluck a helicopter out of the sky. The pilot simply got too close to the crane, no doubt due to smoke reducing visibility, and flying in the updraft from the fire probably wasn’t easy to begin with.
Also, the crash didn't happen during the fire-fighting phase. It happened months later, during the construction of "The Sarcophagus".
Since the show doesn't really detail The Sarcophagus structure, they moved the crash to the firefighting phase.
People should know that all the music in the series was remixed with sounds recorded at nuclearpower plants. Makes it even more creepy. What a series.
"i'm curious if that first episode is the angriest i'll be" whoa boy, you in for some stuff.
Your frustration is just beginning. You have barely scratched the surface of the lunacy and heartbreak of this situation. I know certain upcoming scenes are going to wound your soul.
The US nearly had its own Chernobyl at Three Mile Island in New York.
You asked were the people on the bridge too close? I was 14 and lived in London UK 1986, 1299 miles away and that was considered too close!
When this show came out I saw a video comparing side to side scenes of the show with real footage of Chernobyl. It seems pretty accurate. It included footage of the helicopter falling in real life. There are several videos of that on youtube, actually. Crazy footage, you can see the backside of the helicopter bending in the air as it starts falling.
Craig Mazin has really demonstrated that he knows how to effectively bring the horror and emotional depth out of real-world issues. I still get chills at different points in this show just from the reactions. And the ending to episode 2? _That_ was an incredible choice. The radiation ripping apart the cells of their batteries, causing the lights to go out. The sheer darkness. And then the dosimeter going off and getting louder and more in-your-face until-silence.
Everytime I watch a reaction to this show I am reminded that people today have no idea just how bad, controlling, manipulating and cruel the Soviet Union was. From nerve gas use in Afghanistan, to Chernobyl, to pogroms and Siberian vacations. And people complain about 3 decade old arms scheduled for destruction being sent to Ukraine to stop Soviet Union 2.0
"I wasn't sure it would affect the helicopter itself" -- it didn't. Remember, this is a dramatization. Some events were exaggerated for the sake of squeezing everything into a 5-hour miniseries. For example, the helicopter crash happened MONTHS after the explosion, and it had nothing to do with the radiation. It got too close to one of the cranes, and a blade broke off. Another example, remember the firefighter who picked up the graphite? In real life, his hand did not have third degree burns in a matter of minutes. THE NEXT DAY... a full 24 hours later... he was complaining of swelling and stiffness in that hand. (He survived, btw.) There are other examples where the story deviated from actual events, but I'm avoiding spoilers until after you've seen more episodes.
EDIT: Here's another example. The three workers who went in to pump the water from the tanks were NOT dead within a week. In fact, two of them are still alive today. Also, radiation does NOT do that to flashlights. Flashlights are pretty simple... battery, switch, light bulb. Now, if it was something more complicated, like a smartphone, yeah... it'd probably destroy the smartphone. The batteries in the flashlights wouldn't last as long, but they wouldn't just go dead like that.
Stellan Skarsgård. His first movie role was here in Sweden, in Bombi Bitt and Me. In 1968, a four part TV movie. It is a bit of a Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn story, set in 1930´s Sweden. The Southernmost part, where people move and talk slow. But that doesn't mean they think slow, they just think more. The author, Fritiof Nilsson Piraten, who wrote the novel the movie was based on, back in 1932, had a background story very much like the "I" of the novel. Kind of Tom Sawyer. The son of a railway station master, in a quiet Southern Swedish town. He later became a lawyer, practicing law in my home town of Tranås, but spending most of his time writing this novel, and other novels. He was a very good lawyer, so he could do that. Stellan Skarsgård played Bombi Bitt in the movie, a kind of Huckleberry Finn character. Sixteen years old, and larger than life! Like when he drained a river to steal the crawfish in the river! That is a classic!
Oh, and the author. Fritiof Nilsson Piraten. The last part of his name means "The Pirate", and he got that name after being a very young sailor and telling ripping yarns to his friends. His gravestone is famous here in Sweden, it doesn't even carry his name, but only the words "Here lies a man who never did anything on time, until he actually died on January 31, 1972". There is a street named after him here in Tranås, Piratens gata. The Pirate´s Street. Where he had his lawyer's office, but didn't do much lawyering. Well, he did some lawyering, and he was so good at it, he didn't have to do more than that. He was a storyteller. So when Stellan Skarsgård in 1968 played Bombi Bitt, who was a very well known novel character here in Sweden since 1932, he made super stardom immediately!
All three of those volunteers survived. One died quite a whole ago but the other two are still alive. All three have had significant cancer related illnesses throughout their lives.
If you want another short good quality mini-series to cheer you up, try the 2016 BBC version of War and Peace. 6 episodes and a fantastic version of the classic story.
It astonishes me to this day how many nuclear engineers didn’t think the core could blow. For those not in the know, a nuclear core is one big complicated steam pressure vessel. Anything mechanical that involves steam can involve boom if not operated correctly.
Episodes 3 and 4 are the most horrifying. Glad that you are reacting to this show! Don't forget to watch a short epilogue after episode 5. There will be some real footage that is very interesting and will explain what happened to Chernobyl after disaster and what happened to all the people that were involved in the liquidation.
The soundtrack to this series was composed entirely from nuclear power plants. That's why it sounds so eerie.
Some good news about the three guys that volunteered to go to the water tanks; one of them lived until 2005 when he died from a heart attack, and the other two are still alive
That geiger counter at the end of ep2 haunts me. I find myself having anxiety attacks now when I hear a geiger counter.
As well aware person, i need to say that IRL Pr. Legasov at all the conferences was totally quiet, and if he's not - nobody wanted to listen to him, at least at beginning. At the court for Chornobyl after liquidation of the accident (it will be shown in final episode) he also was quiet, bc he knew, that nobody will listen to him. Also the fall of helicopter, shown in 2 episode in reality accured later in times of "Sarcophagus" building and was coused by helicopter's blades colision with a crane cable.
Dude, the ending to episode 2 is one of the most harrowing endings to anything.
So glad you're watching this show Addie. It's definitely a roller coaster of emotions. Not suprising Soviet officials didn't want to take it seriously. Truth isn't what they cared about clearly. Super frustrating.
The series is incredible and heartbreaking. HBO handled this tragedy extremely well. Everyone should watch this series.
Also the actor's were amazing. Its clear they all wanted it to be as authentic as possible.
I watch a lot of horror. It's one of my favorite genres. I've been exposed to scares for decades, since I was a little kid watching stuff wayyy too "mature" for me. I've seen a LOT, and it takes a lot to scare me.
Chernobyl might be the most terrifying television show I've ever seen. This show chills me right into my bones. Each episode left me shaken in a way that very few works have managed. Good luck with this one, Addie, it's a tough (but incredibly rewarding) journey.
The intense feeling I got when the three men volunteered can't be overstated. As portrayed, there's a lot of behavior that can be attributed to ignorance, self interest, fear, and silly stupidity. But that is pure selfless bravery by young men, not even older persons, in the face of apparent certain death (more on that later). Absolutely incredible and, for me, deeply moving.
Here is a sort of standard comment I post on this series...hope you do not mind me copy/pasting it.
This a really good series...one of the best ever made...but the producers did get some things wrong. Some things were changed intentionally for the purposes of storytelling, and the makers of the series put in a series of notes at the end of the last episode of the series explaining some of them. They also have a podcast that they put out along with the show in which they talk about other things they altered from the history and why. However, I do recommend you check out the History vs Hollywood article on Chernobyl when you are done watching the whole series, so you can find out about the other things that the producers got wrong that they do not admit to. Definitely wait until you are done with the series so you do not spoil anything for yourself.
However, the more you learn about the history of the RBMK reactor and of the Chernobyl power plant, the more you may come to feel that a lot of context is left out of the show, and it could have been more accurate if it had revealed some of that...but that only matters if you intend to keep learning about the disaster after you are done with the show. Also, it is important to remember that this show has very few lessons regarding nuclear power in the West...it pretty much only applies to the Soviet Union or other similar totalitarian society.
And on Part 2 I usually post something like...
In this episode, there were a few things the makers of the show changed for various reasons. For one thing, the character who said that they should close off the city in the first episode and is evacuated in this one, did not exist...he was added for dramatic purposes. Also, the helicopter crash did not happen so soon after the explosion...it really happened months later in October, 1986, and had little to do with radiation. As I mentioned in my comment to episode 1, once you are done with the series, the History vs Hollywood article on the show is a must read.
I remember nobody knew what to do when Chernobyl happened. The Republic of Ireland's government at the time eventually decided to send *one* single iodine tablet to every household in the country, to help with radiation sickness. (The radiation was also detected on this island.) That's farcical - in the event of needing such a tablet, every single person would need a few a day, yet there was one only, per household, but that's how it all was back then....
The Tjernobyl disaser was hidden untill it was discovered by Sweden at the Forsmark Nuclear station because the radiation was higher outside the building than inside. (It is a facianting story in itself)
FYI the scene with the helicopter happened a few months after the incident and the rotor blades hit the cable of a crane and it crashed
It was scary watching the news in 1986 and seeing which way the wind was going to blow the nuclear contamination across Europe.
oh boy, you are into a big one here. looking forward to future reactions to the show. RIP Paul Ritter who played dyatlov, he died from cancer :/
“We’re asking for your permission to kill three men.” That line gets me every time.
There's also the Chernobyl podcast that was dropped at the same time as the series.
podcast is EXCELLENT, highly recommend.
08:14 The real Dyatlov was nothing like this at all. He was a harsh supervisor but was popular, and he was one of the first to realize the core had blown up. He tried to save as many people as he could, suggesting several people go home--they chose to stay. This series gets lot of relatively small details wrong, and fictionalizes others. But the overall story is accurate in most ways.
Please, please, please be careful about watching episode four. Give yourself some time before watching it.
There is an inaccuracy worth noting in the 5AM local committee meeting. Plant director Viktor Bryukhanov (1935-2021) initially advocated evacuating Pripyat, but was persuaded otherwise. However, this information was not available in any english sources until after this miniseries aired. Series creator Craig Mazin has gone on record that - had he been aware of this - he would have written that scene differently.
This was such a great watch, happy you're into it.
This show coming out in 2019 was so ironic. I felt like i was living a Truman Show or waiting for Ashton to jump on the screen and shout "Prank'd! 🤪"
I still remember watching the news back then. I live in Denmark and we had one TV station at the time, and they showed maps with estimates of the radioactive cloud as if it was the weather.
I have been to the Tschernobyl museum in Kyiv as well as the actual contamination zone in Prypjat..and that was the single scariest thing I have ever seen in my life. That changes your view on nuclear power as well as war in general. If you in better times ever have the chance to do that..do it
A masterpiece of a show, I almost think it should be required viewing so people understand how close we came to the unthinkable.
Also, it didn't make the edit, but the delivery of "you have made lava?" It absolutely kills me every single time
16:58 There is (yet nowadays) no hospital with that equipment. Radioactivity is unstoppable.
An amazing series for sure, looking forward to more great reactions
One of the best mini series I have ever watched!!!😂
Apparently the IRL helicopter that crashed at 23:00 was so messed up by radiation that when it hit the ground, it shattered like it was made out of pottery.
I felt like my week was just going too well, so lets watch this reaction to Chernobyl that popped up in my suggestions to keep things as they should
“This will be easy to get through quickly.”
Quickly, yes, easy…. Oh boy, oh boy.
This is one of the best docu-series ever done and it's also history that needs to be learned, but you seem to have such a sweet gentle heart! I'm so sorry that it's about to have to break in so many little pieces during each of these 5 parts!
Aw hell yeah! Was really waiting for this one!
Angry, sick to my stomach, scared. All of these will happen during this series, multiple times. So well done and acted. The One helicopter losing its propellers did not happen due to the radiation but another issue (used for dramatic effect here to show how bad it was). Once you make it through this one, you should also watch the miniseries dealing with the nuclear plant issue in Japan caused by multiple earthquakes and a tsunami. What we heard then and now know is about as scary as Chernobyl.
That helicopter crash did actually happen, but it was a few weeks after the explosion and it wasn't because of radiation. IIRC it was releasing boron onto the core. The pilot was partially blinded by the sun and got too close too a couple cables that were hanging from a crane and sheered the blades off.
The helicopter that crashed did really happen, but not until a few months later and it crashed because it struck the crane nearby. If you pay really close attention to the scene you can even see the hook dropping when the rotor hits the cable.
You ask "why is the hospital not equipped". As someone who grew up in USSR, I have to tell you that I grew up from childhood without having anesthetics during dental visits. That's why. USSR was full of systemic scarcity, it was a third-world country. We had no toilet paper, either. We used free government newspapers, it was a routine practice. You had to crumble them a lot before they could be used as toilet paper.
"Please allow me to express my concern as calmly as possible...WE ARE F**KED! WE ARE ALL F**KED!. That's as calmly as I can be given the circumstances."
Is what I wish he had said.
I first saw this series on another reactors’ channel (I follow several 😅, I like getting various opinions and insights) and then I went out and bought the dvd myself. Spent next few months doing obsessive deep dive researching everything I could get my hands on about Chernobyl.
Showed the series to my mom and was able to give commentary on stuff that id researched and explained more of the technical stuff. We watched one episode every couple days because it was so heavy for her, plus it’s alot of information and stuff that happens so it’s good to take a day or two to let everything sink in and let your brain process it all. Anyway one episode every other day or so. She loved it as hard as it was to watch, she learned so much and even now nearly a year later she’ll hear something on the news and she’ll think back to what she saw on Chernobyl and how insane the government was, how hard the experts had to fight just to be able to do their job and help, and how much the people were kept in the dark and suffered so much just because the government was so concerned about image.
I also showed the series to my dad. We watched one episode a night, and I again gave commentary based on what I’d researched and he was glued to the screen and listened to me explain stuff and he’s not very good at following things or keeping up with the plot and such but this series he was glued and laser focused and he really enjoyed it, he said it was amazing and that he learned so much about not just the accident but what Soviet culture was really like and what the people themselves were like etc
the helicopter didnt go down because of the radiation. the blades hit the crane cable. it also didnt happen when they were putting the fire out, it was 6 months later when the were building the sarcophagus
i couldnt get myself to sit and watch this show so thanks for reacting so i can still see it
“The dog! That’s going to break me”.
Little does she know.
It's very accurate and terrifying... I was a USN Navy nuclear power instructor so i know exactly what they are talking about
This show is very accurate on the disaster, but what's even more impressive for me is how accurate it is on soviet reality and it's probably good that it cause anger - I hope those times will never comeback.
A perfect series.
A far from perfect series. Numerous factual errors and intentional misrepresentations serve to undermine the series’ anti-lie message.
@@markhamstra1083I mean, sure, it’s not a documentary, but they got around 90% of the information correct. That’s more than enough for a television mini-series. Most people can understand that aspects of what happened are changed, or timelines skewed, for the sake of continuity, or poetic license. I say ‘most’ people. Obviously not everyone understands that, but you’ll always get that 10-15% on the low side of the IQ numbers as well.
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 The digressions from the truth in this series are not all just accidental, incidental, or artistic liberties taken purely to accommodate the constraints of a television miniseries. For example, there are also falsehoods that consistently overplay the dangers of nuclear power, the effects of radiation, the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, etc. For all of the other merits of their work, the creators of this miniseries were also advocating for an agenda beyond just telling us about the cost of lies, and their willingness to exaggerate and lie to advance that agenda undermines the “cost of lies” morality tale.
The fireman and his wife were 24 hours away from going on vacation. A day later and they would've been out of the city and been perfectly fine.
I remember when this happened. I was far away so it didn't affect me at all, but it was still horrifying.
Later in my life I worked with an amazing person who had been in Minsk when this happened. Later he died from a very rare form of thyroid cancer that was fairly common among people who were exposed to the fallout from Chernobyl. So he was a victim of this.
This mostly accurate. Not perfect. But amazingly good.
22:56 The Helicopter wasn't crashing due to the smoke or radiation, but because it hit the cable of the crane nearby. Not the clearest imaging in that scene.
Chernobyl is one of my all time favourite series I think ep4 is a hard watch for animal lovers. But I would recommend at the end of the final episode there is a epilogue I believe it’s called with photos and details about of the real people definitely worth a watch some reactors have missed it and go back and rewatch/react to it
Yeah, so, this is one of the most terrifying pieces of media I've ever seen. Great show!
So many people have difficulty watching Episode 4 "The Happiness of All Mankind", but I had to go ahead and read Midnight in Chernobyl (I believe that's the title of it, it's been a while), based on testimony and may or may not be completely accurate, but the description of what radiation does to a body and knowing what the men exposed went through, Episode 3 was just as harrowing for me
For anyone who thinks we're safe, the Chernobyl facility was taken over by the Russian army during the early part of the invasion of Ukraine. They eventually pulled out, but the site is still in danger. Control and safe maintenance of the site is paramount, yet this war continues.
Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
Fukushima on the coast of Japan.
The Soviets told the world that everything was under control. But radiation levels in Europe told the truth.
I love this show. It does fill me with anxiety all throughout. It's tough to watch in parts, but is so worth it.
Dyatlov is played by Paul Ritter, a fantastically funny actor who unfortunately and ironically passed away from cancer after this. If you want to see a different side of him watch a British sitcom called Friday Night Dinner.
The helicopter crashed because it hit the rigging from one of the tower cranes shearing off its rotor. This series focuses so much on the villains and the poor decision making by the sycophants in the Soviet bureaucracy but there were truly many brave people who's heroic acts in containing the damage and decontamination liquidators while knowingly risking a slow agonizing death show what good people of conscience and concern for their fellow citizens are capable of.
When I saw this show first time I couldnt stop crying. Still remember many many ppl was dying by cancer intire northern Turkiye because of the tea fields.
I remember that in the days after the accident people here in Germany were warned to not get out if it rained because of the Radiation in the rain. The fear was immense.