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Chernobyl: You didn’t see this thread, because it’s not here (Potential Spoilers) (3 Viewers)

Sputnikv8 said:
Which book?  Do u recall?
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I thought, "I'll just do a quick Google search and get the title."  Wow. Didn't realize how many books were written on it.  Makes me wonder what made me pick the one I did.  Looking over the titles, I think it might be the one called Ablaze.  I think I still have the book at home packed away somewhere.  I'll double check tonight if I remember, but I'm about 97.3% sure that's the one.  

 
I was in Kyiv last year and went to the Chernoby museum with my son.  The heroism of the workers absolutely floored us.  On the other hand, the exhibits regarding the reaction of the USSR government were downright shocking.  The museum displayed the front pages of Swedish, UK, and US newspapers 3 days after the disaster (when the clouds starting reaching Scandinavia) that reported on the likelihood of a nuclear accident.  Meanwhile, no mention in the Moscow or Kyiv papers.  The school children in Ukraine and Moldova weren't even advised not to go outside for the May Day parades.  Not to get all PSF, but I think of that a lot when I hear all the attacks on the free press here.

 
DVR is set for tonight and next week. Just two parts, correct?

Some of you may find this short documentary called Chernobyl 3828 (2012) interesting as well. Footage of the leaders and workers tasked to cleanup. They knew the government was lying about radiation levels but still did the best they could. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfDa8tR25dk

 
matuski said:
Is it a documentary or just the basis for a drama/suspense series?
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It's a dramatization of actual events. He tried to change as little as humanly possible when writing it. He also has a companion podcast that will be released right after the conclusion of each episode wherein he explains what was completely fact-driven and what was amalgamation of characters or events, in the interest of complete transparency. 

It's charting 100% on RT with very high scores. I e-mailed him yesterday joking that it's running almost 60% higher than anything else he's ever written. 

 
Thought it was really well done. The first five minutes felt like politics in the US today. I really don't know much about the details of Chernobyl but man what a blatant disregard for human life right off the bat. 

 
Evilgrin 72 said:
This isn't horror, although the trailer has a "horror vibe," if you will.  This isn't "The Walking Dead, Eastern European Edition."

The conceit of the show is that it focuses on the people who sacrificed to keep an enormous problem from becoming apocalyptic.  It's all based on true events and is designed to look/feel as close to what actually occurred as it can possibly be.  The goal is hyper-intense realism - to put the viewer inside what occurred there in a way that hasn't been done previously and to tell the portion of the story that many people may not know unless they're very well-read on the subject.

That's (paraphrased) from the creator/writer/showrunner/one-time pot-smoking buddy, fellow Pink Floyd devotee and writing partner of your ol' pal EG72.  Whether or not it achieves these aims remains to be seen, I guess.  I know he got a lot of quality people to work with, from the actors mattyl mentioned to a producer/director from Broadchurch and Breaking Bad, respectively.  I hope it's good so I don't have to lie to him.
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it's really good IMO!!

 
Neo said:
Thought it was really well done. The first five minutes felt like politics in the US today. I really don't know much about the details of Chernobyl but man what a blatant disregard for human life right off the bat. 
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yes and that the "state" knows what is best for the people.  

 
I thought that was incredible!  A lot of it seemed to follow the book I read pretty closely, although I didn't see any credit given to it, so who knows..  (I did check and the book I have is ABLAZE.  It was written by the guy who wrote ALIVE about the plane crash in the Andes.)  The amount of heroism in some of those men was amazing.  They thought they were already dead (and in some cases, didn't actually die) so they did anything they could to save millions of others.

I know it's easy to look at the one guy and think of him as evil, but the truth is actually much more layered.  These people were terrified to be wrong.  Making mistakes was a direct path to a life of pain and torture.  I'm not saying the guy was a saint, obviously.  But these people were not evil.  And I think that's what really humanizes this whole tragedy.  In the book, there's much more about the lead up to the events.  All the corners that were cut and deadlines that were made because of rushing work.  All just little tiny lies or fibs that lead to a catastrophic disaster.

When I read the book (and again, it doesn't seem to be affiliated with the mini-series but follows it closely) I remember thinking it needed to be made into a movie.  I think this mini-series is a much better option.  Excited for the rest of it.

Side note:  Funny seeing everyone talk with a thick British accent.  

 
The Russian government really is just evil. Our own government has been complicit in covering up health dangers as well, but Russia takes it to another level.

This Vice episode on asbestos is rather incredible. From Russians saying that asbestos can only hurt you if you fear it, to top Russian health officials claiming that asbestos has no ill effects, it's quite shocking.

 
Was watching the "our planet" series on netflix and in the forests episode they showed footage of chernobyl. Pretty amazing to see how trees are taller than the buildings now and how overgrown everything was. And green.

There were wolves running around and other animals. Just crazy. 

 
TheIronSheik said:
I thought that was incredible!  A lot of it seemed to follow the book I read pretty closely, although I didn't see any credit given to it, so who knows..  (I did check and the book I have is ABLAZE.  It was written by the guy who wrote ALIVE about the plane crash in the Andes.)  The amount of heroism in some of those men was amazing.  They thought they were already dead (and in some cases, didn't actually die) so they did anything they could to save millions of others.

I know it's easy to look at the one guy and think of him as evil, but the truth is actually much more layered.  These people were terrified to be wrong.  Making mistakes was a direct path to a life of pain and torture.  I'm not saying the guy was a saint, obviously.  But these people were not evil.  And I think that's what really humanizes this whole tragedy.  In the book, there's much more about the lead up to the events.  All the corners that were cut and deadlines that were made because of rushing work.  All just little tiny lies or fibs that lead to a catastrophic disaster.

When I read the book (and again, it doesn't seem to be affiliated with the mini-series but follows it closely) I remember thinking it needed to be made into a movie.  I think this mini-series is a much better option.  Excited for the rest of it.

Side note:  Funny seeing everyone talk with a thick British accent.  
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Like I said, I don't have the background, but from how they portrayed him in the episode, he clearly saw the graphite ruble with his own eyes (early on too) while he was walking along that shelled corridor and he ignored it.  He then ordered more people to come after blatantly not believing any of his subordinates that the core was gone...then continued to downplay everything even after the radiation readings.   From the perspective on being terrified to being wrong, I get that, but I clearly understand why in the opening monologue, Legasov said he deserved death not prison. 

 
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Neo said:
Like I said, I don't have the background, but from how they portrayed him in the episode, he clearly saw the graphite ruble with his own eyes (early on too) while he was walking along that shelled corridor and he ignored it.  He then ordered more people to come after blatantly not believing any of his subordinates that the core was gone...then continued to downplay everything even after the radiation readings.   From the perspective on being terrified to being wrong, I get that, but I clearly understand why in the opening monologue, Legasov said he deserved death not prison. 
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Oh yeah.  He knew.  But it was all about trying to downplay it to save themselves.  Just like when they made the guy go up and look at the core.  And even when he said it was blown up, they didn't "believe" him.  Again, these people weren't saints or good people, even.  I don't want to sound like I'm defending them or their actions, because I'm not.  

 
TheIronSheik said:
Oh yeah.  He knew.  But it was all about trying to downplay it to save themselves.  Just like when they made the guy go up and look at the core.  And even when he said it was blown up, they didn't "believe" him.  Again, these people weren't saints or good people, even.  I don't want to sound like I'm defending them or their actions, because I'm not.  
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And to say something was wrong (like the core exploding) was the same as saying someone above you and more powerful made a mistake.  It's easy to blame people below you.  But I couldn't imagine having to say that a high level Soviet official made a mistake.

 
Capella said:
Yea I found that it took me right out of the whole thing. Baffling decision. You gotta go all in with this. 
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I asked him a while back if they were going to go full-blown "authentic" and have everyone speak Russian and subtitle it, and apparently that was taken off the table very early.  Whether that was a creative decision or HBO saying they didn't want a show with not a word of English spoken, I don't know.

He talked about it some in the companion podcast (good listen if you're interested in knowing more both about the actual events and how/why they are presented as they are on the show.)    On the podcast, he does discuss originally having everyone speak in Russian accents, but said it came off more comical than anything (think Teddy KGB) and was not only distracting to the viewer but was affecting the performances as well.  So, they ultimately decided the lesser of all evils was to just have the actors speak in their actual accents.  What I found amusing was that he specifically mentions not wanting to have American actors because they feared hearing American accents on the characters would have the effect of taking a US TV audience out of the narrative.  However, this was a joint venture between HBO and Sky in England and is also airing on British TV, so I guess #### the UK viewers?  :lol:

 
Evilgrin 72 said:
I asked him a while back if they were going to go full-blown "authentic" and have everyone speak Russian and subtitle it, and apparently that was taken off the table very early.  Whether that was a creative decision or HBO saying they didn't want a show with not a word of English spoken, I don't know.

He talked about it some in the companion podcast (good listen if you're interested in knowing more both about the actual events and how/why they are presented as they are on the show.)    On the podcast, he does discuss originally having everyone speak in Russian accents, but said it came off more comical than anything (think Teddy KGB) and was not only distracting to the viewer but was affecting the performances as well.  So, they ultimately decided the lesser of all evils was to just have the actors speak in their actual accents.  What I found amusing was that he specifically mentions not wanting to have American actors because they feared hearing American accents on the characters would have the effect of taking a US TV audience out of the narrative.  However, this was a joint venture between HBO and Sky in England and is also airing on British TV, so I guess #### the UK viewers?  :lol:
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I think it was the right choice.  No need for subtitles.  We do it all the time in America, we just don't notice it.  It just really stands out because it's a different accent pretending to be another language.  I thought it was funny, but it didn't take away anything for me.

 
Neo said:
Like I said, I don't have the background, but from how they portrayed him in the episode, he clearly saw the graphite ruble with his own eyes (early on too) while he was walking along that shelled corridor and he ignored it.  He then ordered more people to come after blatantly not believing any of his subordinates that the core was gone...then continued to downplay everything even after the radiation readings.   From the perspective on being terrified to being wrong, I get that, but I clearly understand why in the opening monologue, Legasov said he deserved death not prison. 
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I have no idea if anyone is remotely interested in the companion podcast, but he does get into this in some detail as well.  It was more nuanced than simply ignoring the reality their eyes were telling them too - at the time, the very idea of a core exploding was considered inconceivable.  As in, literally impossible - they didn't think that a nuclear reactor like that was capable of exploding, so that was a part of it as well.  Some of those guys seemed to really understand what was happening fairly quickly, but some of them were seeing things that were akin to pigs flying in their minds.  Then you add in the factor that Iron Sheik mentioned of having to inform a superior that he made a mistake..

Apparently this is something the show is going to explore in far greater depth in the next few episodes.

 
TheIronSheik said:
I think it was the right choice.  No need for subtitles.  We do it all the time in America, we just don't notice it.  It just really stands out because it's a different accent pretending to be another language.  I thought it was funny, but it didn't take away anything for me.
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I liked the part at the very beginning where the warning messages/calls were spoken in Russian and subtitled.  I wouldn't have minded personally if the whole show was like that, and I think it would have really made it immersive, but I can also see HBO saying : "So, you're going to have a 5 hour mini-series that's dialogue heavy in which not a single word of English is spoken?"  Could have been a deal-breaker for them.  This was Craig's passion project that he wrote on spec, I don't think he had enough juice coming off Hangover 2 and 3 to get a project like this made without concessions.  :lol:

 
Evilgrin 72 said:
I liked the part at the very beginning where the warning messages/calls were spoken in Russian and subtitled.  I wouldn't have minded personally if the whole show was like that, and I think it would have really made it immersive, but I can also see HBO saying : "So, you're going to have a 5 hour mini-series that's dialogue heavy in which not a single word of English is spoken?"  Could have been a deal-breaker for them.  This was Craig's passion project that he wrote on spec, I don't think he had enough juice coming off Hangover 2 and 3 to get a project like this made without concessions.  :lol:
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One reason I hate subtitles is that is takes my focus away from the visuals.  

 
Evilgrin 72 said:
I have no idea if anyone is remotely interested in the companion podcast, but he does get into this in some detail as well.  It was more nuanced than simply ignoring the reality their eyes were telling them too - at the time, the very idea of a core exploding was considered inconceivable.  As in, literally impossible - they didn't think that a nuclear reactor like that was capable of exploding, so that was a part of it as well.  Some of those guys seemed to really understand what was happening fairly quickly, but some of them were seeing things that were akin to pigs flying in their minds.  Then you add in the factor that Iron Sheik mentioned of having to inform a superior that he made a mistake..

Apparently this is something the show is going to explore in far greater depth in the next few episodes.
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I loved the scene where the scientist was questioned whether he was dumb or not....and couldn't explain how a core would explode. He then said....BUT it did.  Tell your buddy I watched the episode 3 times already to fully ingest what was happening.  Fantastic television, haven't been this drawn in on a series in a while....can't wait for the next one. 

 
Neo said:
I loved the scene where the scientist was questioned whether he was dumb or not....and couldn't explain how a core would explode. He then said....BUT it did.  Tell your buddy I watched the episode 3 times already to fully ingest what was happening.  Fantastic television, haven't been this drawn in on a series in a while....can't wait for the next one. 
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I'll do that.  I watched it once, then listened to the podcast, then watched it again - doing that really crystallized everything that was happening and gave a lot more color as to WHY the things that were happening were happening.

 
TheIronSheik said:
One reason I hate subtitles is that is takes my focus away from the visuals.  
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I find that to be the case as well, and I suspect it might have gotten tiresome after a while.  There was probably just no "perfect" way to do it and have it be intelligible to an English speaking audience, so at some point a decision has to be made that you know a lot of people won't like - it's just a matter of figuring out what will turn people off the least.

 
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Evilgrin 72 said:
I'll do that.  I watched it once, then listened to the podcast, then watched it again - doing that really crystallized everything that was happening and gave a lot more color as to WHY the things that were happening were happening.
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Going to checkout the podcast next, thanks for the heads up on that. 

 
Evilgrin 72 said:
It's called The Chernobyl Podcast - I think the episode is about 50 minutes.
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Downloading now.  It's the top recommended feed on Doggcatcher.  People are definitely into it.

 
Chaka said:
Downloading now.  It's the top recommended feed on Doggcatcher.  People are definitely into it.
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That's cool to hear.  I've known this guy a very long time and this project is really important to him.  I'm passing along all the messages here and it seems to really make him happy to know that people are enjoying it.

 
Capella said:
Yea I found that it took me right out of the whole thing. Baffling decision. You gotta go all in with this. 
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Do you watch a lot of series that entirely have subtitles?

Not sure the audience would lap that up.

 
Argh, missed the first one.  I assume it's in the usual on demand places?  

EG, thanks for the perspective from your friend.  Extremely cool!  

 
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