Chernobyl

[NannaNoodleman]

Bloody hell! We've just watched episode 1. That was intense.

I'm a bit shocked.

I think this is the best drama I have ever watched and we have been very spoilt lately for good drama. That it was played out through the impact on those involved and the the aftermarth rather than focusing on the actual event the actual event is so incredibly powerful. My background is in social science and social politics and the portrayed of life in the Soviet Union and how individuals are expendable for the good of the state was masterfully done. The whole series is incredible but the final episode is the best piece of television I have ever seen.

It really is the best television. I cannot stop thinking about it

Gonna go against the grain here and say I found it pretty dry. It could have been condensed into a good two hour film but as it was....meh. Don't get the hype. Drawn out and a bit dull considering it was about a disaster.

It wasn't a disaster movie. It was about the incident, the impact on real people, the aftermath and the utter lies and cover ups by the Kremlin and KGB. It wasn't meant to be exciting.

It wasn't a disaster movie. It was about the incident, the impact on real people, the aftermath and the utter lies and cover ups by the Kremlin and KGB. It wasn't meant to be exciting.

^^ This. In spades.

I think that was the point though, it wasn't about the disaster, that's been done and discussed a million times over in documentaries.

This was portraying the story of the human impact and the cover up.

I watched Ep1 again last night, its even more chilling knowing what's to come. The behaviour of Diatlov, Brukhanov and Fomin

What I can't get my head around is the fact that they kept the other 3 reactors going for over 10 years after the accident. Surely they had to be manned? So they evacuated everyone in a few hundred square miles but allowed those poor chaps to continue working right at the epicentre?? Madness!

Considering all the dross and tat we have to wade through these days to find something half decent to watch, I have to say I was totally blown away by this mini-series.

Superb casting, brilliantly written and first class acting - and as someone who remembers this incident happening back then, it is a chilling reminder of all that went on.

After watching this, I can honestly say I have learn an awful lot, especially in terms of the science behind the nuclear industry, not to mention the heart breaking stories of those affected by the disaster.

One only has to look at pictures of Chernobyl and Pripyat today to see and reflect upon the epic scale of what happened and the aftermath.

Absolutely superb viewing.

Absolutely superb viewing ! I was 14yrs old when the disaster happened so didn’t really fully comprehend the scale and horror of the incident. This series has played on my mind like no other and I can’t stop thinking about it. The unquestioning bravery of the firefighters and conscripts was mind blowing !

Yes this is not a 'IT'S GONNA BLOW!' Hollywood film. Which is why it's so brilliant.

I have been spending ages now reading on Wikipedia what caused it to explode and also the individuals involved at the very start, the crew etc. To be honest, I feel like you need to be a bit of an expert in engineering to even follow just the Wikipedia description about what went wrong, but it is still really interesting.

I found it quite difficult to keep up with who was who in the first episode, and some of the men (with those 80s glasses on!) look quite similar and I couldn't keep up with the names - so I might have to watch it again now I have read about the individuals!

I initially put this series off as I thought it would be too traumatic to watch (I'm a wimp and very squamish). So glad I decided to watch it all in the end!

I grew up in a Scandinavian country and was 14 when it happened. Tbh I don't remember a great deal and I think it largely went over my head at the time. To us Chernobyl was far far away, could have just as well as been in the moon.

I am ashamed to admit though that most of us didn't really care what happened to the Russians. Our country has a long and bitter history with Russia and the ordinary folk basically hated them. Attitudes have come a long way but the older generation still class Russians as a mortal enemy. So, in the light of this, it was really eye opening to see how it all affected the ordinary people. I am familiar how the communist state operated but have never given really a thought how covered up it was and how much they lied to their people.

It only now also occurred to me that this was the same year that my step dad was on a secondment in Moscow. We also visited him as a family on December 86. Moscow isn't at the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl but just bit surprised that I had never made the connection.

Most amazing is thought that the director Johan Renck is same guy as Stakka Bo Nearly fell of my chair when I discovered this. Their one and only hit (here we go again) is one of my all time 90's favourites!!

@maxiflump1 i thought that too! I guess they couldnt just abandon them, they had to keep them running so that there were no other accidents?

@wetpants i am the same i put it off but then was very glad i watched it.

Another thing i was thinking about, i dont know if anyone else was the same but watching it with hindsight put me more on edge, if that makes sense, as i knew what was going to happen and was thinking "just get out", "GET OFF THE BRIDGE", "no fire fighters no!"

A bit like when watch things about the Twin Towers and you know whats going to happen.....

I can't stop thinking about it. Wasnt quite 6 when it happened but heard about it in school later on. I found the facts at the end brutal. I've been keen to find out a lot more but I'd stop short of visiting the site. Just really quite unbelievable and yet, sadly, totally believable that this could happen AND be covered up.

I remember it on the 6 o’clock news.

I don’t know how long it was before we all realised/ were told that the cloud was over us but my Mum stopped buying lamb that day and we never ate it again until into the 90s.

I’ve heard there are still more cancer deaths than there should be in the Highlands which got the most fall out in the U.K.

The death toll is still rising and will for decades to come.

I don’t believe what we are being told about Fukushima not being as bad. Only 1 death?

I'm definitely going to watch again, it was truly superb.
I was 11 and a very anxious child and remember being worried about radiation

I want to read more, are there any good sites?? The Wikipedia page is mind boggling

Like a PP, I struggled a bit to work out who was who in the first episode, too many men in white overalls and hats, it was much better second time round knowing who all the main characters were.

Yes, I think I'm going to watch episode 1 again now that I have a better idea of who is who, but the last episode was quite helpful with that as well, I didn't realise it would go back to the night of the explosion that day.

Have started listening to the podcast, it's great! It was interesting what they were saying about the accents, that they didn't get them to do Russian accents because, amongst other things, they wanted us to hear the characters as they would have heard each other. I think that worked really well actually.

I think the way they ordered it all was really clever as well, and they were talking about that in the pod as well. So they got the suicide in at the start, so we know that happens and then went straight to the explosion, because we know that happens, rather than have a big build up to it. And then do the build up to that in the final episode. I thought it all came together so well. And the way they showed the explosion, silently at first, in the background of the window of that couples flat. It really conveyed how unexpected it all was.

Joining the bandwagon. Only watched the first three episodes but I think this might be the most powerful TV I've ever seen. So much going on politically, intellectually and emotionally. It really hits at all levels and it hits hard. No easy or comforting answers here and I think that's fitting for the victims of this disaster who have never really had a proper resolution. I am still completely haunted by the Vasily/Ludmila storyline, it is unimaginably horrible

Watched 4 episodes yesterday & really enjoyed it. I'm curious though why have half the characters got British accents?

Oh never mind, Google is my friend
I should have looked that up at the start, it's really confused me watching the episodes, I was trying to figure out why there were so many British people involved

Serenajoy I liked that they didnt do accents and just spoke in their normal way, it makes it seem more serious somehow.

Just finished, I think I need to watch the whole thing back. The final episode was excellent at explaining everything

What I can't get my head around is the fact that they kept the other 3 reactors going for over 10 years after the accident. Surely they had to be manned? So they evacuated everyone in a few hundred square miles but allowed those poor chaps to continue working right at the epicentre??

According to the book Midnight in Chernobyl (which is very good btw), they did shut down Reactor Three for a while (reactors 3 and 4 were built back to back). It was heavily contaminated and had to be cleaned. But you can't just abandon a working nuclear reactor and walk away so they had to send crews in, and Reactors One and Two were protected by thick concrete barriers. They brought Reactor Three back on line after a few months partly for reasons of Soviet prestige, and partly because the USSR desperately needed the electricity. And there have been people working in the zone around the reactor literally every day since the incident, rotated out when their total dose got too high. Travelling to Reactors One and Two in a closed vehicle from outside the restricted zone and then working inside a massively thick concrete structure is much less risky than living permanently in the contaminated zone (which is unevenly contaminated, so they've been able to reroute some roads within it).