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Original poster

To think that Chernobyl is not suitable telly for a 9 and 13 year old. At Christmas.

94 replies

WakingUp55643 · 22/12/2020 20:41

Dh has put it on to watch, but the kids were in front of the telly too. I haven't seen it myself but I don't think it's really very cheerful, horrifying in fact. Especially at Christmas. I've taken the youngest upstairs out of the way, dh thinks I'm making a fuss over nothing. Am I?

OP posts:
HeIsAVeryBadBoy · 22/12/2020 23:43

The later episodes, where the victims faces are falling apart... probably the most horrifying thing I've ever seen on TV.

Brilliant make up effects but the impact stays with you. Not child friendly.

HeIsAVeryBadBoy · 22/12/2020 23:46

Also (flashbacks coming to me now)... A Scottish man gets his peepee out.

Passmeabottlemrjones · 22/12/2020 23:48

Do not show this programme to your children - as others have said, the scenes in hospital with the radiation burns are absolutely horrific and not something that a 9 year old would be able to understand, especially as it actually happened!

What's wrong with Home Alone?!

Griselda1 · 22/12/2020 23:49

You could link in with some of the Chernobyl projects who bring children to the UK each year, subject to covid of course. My children have learnt so much from hosting and volunteering with the project. It shows the long term reality of the disaster.

MissDollyMix · 22/12/2020 23:51

I’m very relaxed about what my dc watch but there’s no way I’d let my 10yo watch it. I found it traumatic at 35! Had to watch bits from behind a curtain, and the sound of the siren was extremely haunting. My 10yo would be scared stiff!

StCharlotte · 23/12/2020 00:17

I watched it at the beginning of the first lockdown and frankly it did my head in - trying to avoid contamination - way too close to home.

Apart from the hospital scenes the scenes of the disposal of pets was also very upsetting and I think that alone would upset a child.

Extraordinary television though and chilling to think how close the rest of the world was to a mass disaster...

june2007 · 23/12/2020 00:21

Perhaps watch the top gear when they go to chenobl instead. But TBH i don,t think my 10-13 year olds would want to watch them. But at 13 most of my mates were watching 18 films.

ConquestEmpireHungerPlague · 23/12/2020 00:28

@Ritasueandbobtoo9

As a child there was a Geiger counter on my farm which I remember playing with. My dad is dead now from cancer as are many of his farmer friends.
Excuse my ignorance, @Ritasueandbobtoo9, but why would a farm need a geiger counter? Are there particular nuclear biohazard issues associated with farming? Or do you mean that you grew up somewhere that was directly affected by Chernobyl? Sorry to pry if so. Flowers
Catsup · 23/12/2020 00:42

It's brilliantly done and I found it very interesting. But as pp stated the shooting of the dogs (especially the mum and pups), the hospital scenes, the fire fighters wife and her baby. If it's something that would go over the kids heads then it seems pointless for him to watch 'with them', and if they find it distressing then it's not suitable viewing.

MasterBeth · 23/12/2020 01:11

You know your 9 year old better than us. I would imagine our kids would have been bored rigid by Chernobyl. It’s very definitely an adult show, quite slow paced, thoughtful... I can’t imagine many 9 year olds sticking with it.

So then you get to the gory radiation sickness scenes. I’m sure some 9 year olds would have nightmares and some would shrug them off. Are the images themselves any worse than something you might see in Doctor Who or a Marvel movie (the Red Skull, anyone?). It’s the context - this happened! - that makes them horrifying so only someone who was paying attention to the story would grasp the full horror.

But even then, I’m not sure watching Chernobyl now is like watching Threads or When The Wind Blows in the 80s. The horror of those was that this could happen to us. Chernobyl at least feels like history. Yes, the broader theme of the show is that government lies rebound on the public and has amazing resonances for us now, but the literal risk of a nuclear power plant exploding feels far away.

Marty13 · 23/12/2020 02:10

I think a 13yo is old enough. 9yo it depends how mature they are.

I've only seen the first three episodes (the show stopped being included in my country netflix) but if there was anything truly traumatizing in there, hasn't left much of an impact on me. Good series though. I do imagine the 9yo would get bored.

lovelemoncurd · 23/12/2020 02:44

The youngest would find most of it boring. Men sat around a table talking. It's the description of events that are horrifying. There's not much in the way of killing or blood and guts.

Kokeshi123 · 23/12/2020 03:05

I would totally show it but my main concern would be to emphasize that nuclear power today is VERY VERY different (and we will almost certainly need nuclear as well as renewables to decarbonize, so I really don't want the younger generation traumatized away from nuclear power!)

Sinful8 · 23/12/2020 03:10

@DoubleHelix79

I'm still traumatised by an animated movie about a nuclear accident that I saw as a kid. I'm pretty relaxed about movie content (witin reason) but really wouldn't show it to a 9 year old.
"I'm still traumatised by an animated movie about a nuclear accident that I saw as a kid. I'm pretty relaxed about movie content"

I rally don't think these two sentences can go together?

How the hell does any grown adult say they are "traumatised" by an animated movie the saw as a kid Hmm

Sinful8 · 23/12/2020 03:11

@Kokeshi123

I would totally show it but my main concern would be to emphasize that nuclear power today is VERY VERY different (and we will almost certainly need nuclear as well as renewables to decarbonize, so I really don't want the younger generation traumatized away from nuclear power!)
Its not that different chernobyls other reactors ran till 2004.
Kokeshi123 · 23/12/2020 03:34

Any reactors being built now will be really really different though!

tootesuite · 23/12/2020 04:14

Incredible show but not very Christmassy.

I am trying to psyche myself up to watch it again, it'supsetting but riveting.

Sinful8 · 23/12/2020 04:21

@Kokeshi123

Any reactors being built now will be really really different though!
Some are theres still 9 of the chernobyl design reactors running today and due to carry on for a number of years.

The reactor design wasnt inherently dangerous, the testing program was.

Big thing these days after fukushima is to try and get them to passively cool (ap1000 which is the current main reactor design iirc has this) so if all pumps all power fails they will just boil their cooling water and it will recondense on the containment shell and fall back onto reactor and so on without a pump

bettxmascake · 23/12/2020 04:59

I haven't seen it and won't watch it. I saw Threads when I was in my mid teens and it was horrendous, I can only imagine that Chernobyl with the modern graphics would be worse.

wellthatsunusual · 23/12/2020 05:01

It's nowhere near as disturbing as threads. It's gripping but it's mostly people sitting around in meetings trying to decide what to do.

bettxmascake · 23/12/2020 05:49

@wellthatsunusual

It's nowhere near as disturbing as threads. It's gripping but it's mostly people sitting around in meetings trying to decide what to do.
I'm clearly not missing much then !
Bronzino · 23/12/2020 05:58

I don’t think they’ll enjoy it at all. There’s a lot of dry political caper going ob, interspersed with some pretty harrowing scenes. It’s excellent! But I can’t imagine children enjoying it.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 23/12/2020 06:14

Earlier this year DH accidentally showed our 9&7yos a travel programme about Russia with an episode about Chernobyl. Non graphic. Our younger DD did get a bit upset by it (mainly by the power station near by) but was fine after we looked at different types of power station, what went wrong there, precautions etc. I wouldn't say they were too young to know about Chernobyl.
But dramatised accounts are not always the best way to learn history.

Nowaynothappening · 23/12/2020 07:14

Wouldn’t let my 9 yo watch it but think 13 is ok. I watched all sorts by 13 and I don’t feel traumatised.

winechateauxjoy · 23/12/2020 07:23

I wonder if the reference to the geiger counter in a farm is due to the effect Chernoybyl had on some parts of the UK. It carried radioactive material over to parts of Wales and Cumbria in the rain if I remember correctly? I do remember that farmers in some parts of the UK were not allowed to move or sell their sheep.