Chernobyl - HBO/Sky *Spoilers*

Gimme A Pound

Dave147 wrote: »

Can anyone enlighten me about the appeal of Barry Keoghan? Haven't rated him in anything I've seen him in, his punchable face from Love/Hate is still there and don't feel his performances have been anything special.

He's supposed to be very good in The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

The Black Oil

recyclops wrote: »

That was harrowing great TV

Yeah. It didn't seem like they were trying to play with our emotions as TV viewers, so much as showing what a mess it was. I thought initial explosion seen from the apartment was quite arresting, tbh. Shortly after it's the blokes in the control centre and then the effects are fairly immediate. I was trying to think of a word that fits and it was somewhat of a horror show and you get that when the enemy is essentially invisible. 'Unpredictable' is what mainly came to mind for me. Even those mere seconds where they looked at the core. There were a few beats in there about how much of the future is at stake with the people watching from a distance, children, etc. The whole section with suits was rather grim - browbeating, head in the sand, groupthink, all those human factors (a field in its own right) that only make an accident much worse. I look forward to seeing how Jared Harris irritates the state in the next episode.

theteal

Watched it last night, gripping stuff.

Is the constant attachment of armed guards a communist state thing or a nuclear plant during the 80's thing, or a combination of both? The whole time there was a sense of the front line engineers afraid to speak up for fear of punishment.

expectationlost

podcast with creator of show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUeHPCYtWYQ

expectationlost

con o'neill (the head manager) looks a lot like milton jones especially with that hair

gandalf

Watched it tonight on Now TV. It's grim but excellent telly. Didn't mind the accents, I think if they did fake ones it would have detracted from it a lot. Will watch this to the end

Anteayer

I'd agree it's grim. It's amazing when you consider how people knew so little about what the plant was. I mean not only was it an era before the internet but it was the USSR and information was very much on a need to know basis only.

If you compare that with today, even in Russia, you'd likely know most do the detail about what something like that was I'd it were near by.

It seems in the docudrama anyway that the majority of the first responders hasn't any idea what they were actually dealing with and many of the residents didn't have either.

I actually like the fact that it's in familiar accents as it really removes the "it's in a land far far away" sense from it.

plodder

fritzelly wrote: »

Accents a real put off for me especially Michael Socha (I know a bit part at least at the moment) - took me out of the story a bit
Fortitude had many foreign actors all speaking perfect English - would have preferred them to do that considering where it was filmed rather than so many easily recognisable English actors speaking with very English accents

Found the English accents annoying too.

Also, I agree with the comment above that it would have been better to have started a bit before the explosion, to set the context. But, it was very well written and convincing other wise. Looking forward to the rest of it.

2smiggy

plodder wrote: »

Found the English accents annoying too.

Also, I agree with the comment above that it would have been better to have started a bit before the explosion, to set the context. But, it was very well written and convincing other wise. Looking forward to the rest of it.

i listened to the podcast , the makers started the casting with people doing the fake eastern europe accents, and they agreed it did not sound right. I took no notice of the accents after a minute or two

plodder

2smiggy wrote: »

i listened to the podcast , the makers started the casting with people doing the fake eastern europe accents, and they agreed it did not sound right. I took no notice of the accents after a minute or two

Not quite sure what is meant by "fake" in this context. There is a Russian accent, and whether they are speaking English or Russian, it sounds similar. It's a UK production, so I suppose the English accent sounds more neutral to them though.

2smiggy

plodder wrote: »

Not quite sure what is meant by "fake" in this context. There is a Russian accent, and whether they are speaking English or Russian, it sounds similar. It's a UK production, so I suppose the English accent sounds more neutral to them though.

why would all russians be speaking to each other in english ? Let them use their natural accents, or get a russian cast and use subtitles

plodder

2smiggy wrote: »

why would all russians be speaking to each other in english ? Let them use their natural accents, or get a russian cast and use subtitles

A Russian/Ukranian cast and subtitles would have been the most authentic definitely, and I would have preferred that. And yeah, I get it that non Russian accents will sound neutral to whoever speaks with that accent. So, you will never please everyone. I just found the powerful scene with Paul Ritter refusing to believe what he was being told, diminished a bit, because he just sounded too English to me. The other characters less so.

Credit Checker Moose

You never saw the Germans speaking German in war movies.

recyclops

Brilliant again I felt. Some of the terror is portrayed far better than modern horror films.

Hurrache

Yeah, another great gripping episode. I know the outcome, I know the details and yet I'm glued to the screen.

plodder

Excellent episode all right.

Drumpot

God it’s such a haunting show. Similar to the terror (and with some actors from it aswell).

It’s so good. I just love Harris in pretty much everything he does...

buried

This is fantastic work. Absolutely terrifying. The sound design to go with the visual sequential editing and the soundtrack is next level stuff.

Hego Damask

Excellent episode again.
I did read the book Midnight in Chernobyl some weeks ago and it's really enhancing my enjoyment of the show, regognise the characters and mostly it is true so far.
What does annoy me is that Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson) never existed, they added her for gender quota reasons ??? dunno.
Pity, it's either historical drama or it isn't.

Mongfinder General

Hego Damask wrote: »

Excellent episode again.
I did read the book Midnight in Chernobyl some weeks ago and it's really enhancing my enjoyment of the show, regognise the characters and mostly it is true so far.
What does annoy me is that Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson) never existed, they added her for gender quota reasons ??? dunno.
Pity, it's either historical drama or it isn't.

So who in real life figured out what she figured out about the potential for the other reactors exploding within 48-72 hours?

Hego Damask

Mongfinder General wrote: »

So who in real life figured out what she figured out about the potential for the other reactors exploding within 48-72 hours?

Was a group of theoretical physicsts in Moscow working in a lab that did experiments with uranium pellets, they worked out the issue of corium possibly melting down in a "China Syndrome" effect.

Also causing the possible steam explosion

Hego Damask

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/05/231958/ulana-khomyuk-chernobyl-real-person-scientist-emily-watson-interview

"She was a truth ninja" ?? Who is she talking about here ?
using "was" implies she's talking about a real character - the ministry of truth would be proud.

Slydice

2: OH F*CK! F*****K!

That was tense, gripping, a nightmare, scary.


If there were english accents this time, i didn't notice them at all this time at all.

F***! to think the end of the first episode was hard!

Hego Damask

Pretty incredible the geiger counters getting louder and louder !! f*ck!!!

fritzelly

Slydice wrote: »

2: OH F*CK! F*****K!

That was tense, gripping, a nightmare, scary.


If there were english accents this time, i didn't notice them at all this time at all.

F***! to think the end of the first episode was hard!

Yeah, the English accents were gone, felt much more grittier for want of a better word

How much of this is factual or fiction, cannot believe a woman in soviet Russia having that much influence

mcdaids69

the female scientist is symbol of all the 20-30 scientist who added their knowledge over those 20 hrs after they spotted the accident,at the end of web episode (sorry i pirate) they explain why shes only scientist and at time time why she declared so much power

plodder

For all its faults, the Soviet Union did have more rights for women, compared to much of the West at the time. The article linked above provides some stats about women researchers, and it's believable that female nuclear physicists were involved in that effort.

weldoninhio

This is one of the grimmest shows I’ve ever watched, but it is completely compelling. If it keep up to this standard right through I think it’ll be one of the best shows made in 2019. Absolutely gripping.

Wanderer78

Completely forgot about this show, must get it today

Unearthly

Agree with the consensus here, excellent episode