Chernobyl - HBO/Sky Spoilers

cozar · 15-05-2019 9:01am

the three lads in the plant at the end, i felt i was getting radioactive burns just by watching it, gripping stuff.

recyclops · 15-05-2019 9:23am

just listened to the podcast driving into work, great companion piece to this weeks. I know they didn't show it in the episode so its not really a spoiler but the fact they kept reactors 1-3 still running with staff is absolutely insane.

theteal · 15-05-2019 9:40am

It really is engrossing telly. Very very sad obviously, MrsTeal didn't thank me for making her watch the first 2 eps last night.

I was thinking the whole time that surely the nuclear experts (Mad Men guy especially) are aware that their proximity was having a significant effect on their health. That bombshell really landed when he informed the government guy in the hotel room. Serious heroism involved in directing the containment effort at the cost of his own life.

It's definitely a subject I will look into in more detail.

Drumpot · 15-05-2019 9:54am

theteal wrote: »

It really is engrossing telly. Very very sad obviously, MrsTeal didn't thank me for making her watch the first 2 eps last night.

I was thinking the whole time that surely the nuclear experts (Mad Men guy especially) are aware that their proximity was having a significant effect on their health. That bombshell really landed when he informed the government guy in the hotel room. Serious heroism involved in directing the containment effort at the cost of his own life.

It's definitely a subject I will look into in more detail.

Oh yeh, when he said "we will be dead in 5 years" it was just a savage gut punch and quite brutal even if honest. And then hes in the hotel bar having a drink and telling a friendly couple that everything is grand. Oh my god you can already see why he hung himself.

Imagine that, you know for every second you are in the vacinity of the blast you are getting zapped with radioactive "bullets" that will reduce your life.

I was saying to my wife imagine you are one of those workers who they needed to go down into the radioactive water to save millions. That would be horrible position to be in, if you didnt do it I would say that some ended up with survivors guilt.

I also thought it was great showing how quickly Boris learned to trust Valery. "Why was there graphite on the roof", loved it when he called out the chancers who thought he was thick when he arrived. Also thought the chopper that crashed because it flew over the flames was a great reminder of how close Boris came to killing them at the start when looking for them to fly over the site!!!

One of the great things about this show is that there wont be much "people wouldnt do that" waffle that you get on other shows. If this was a fiction show people would be whinging about how these things couldnt happen and how people wouldnt bury their heads like this. Its a great record of how insidious denial, self preservation and group thinking can be in the wrong environment.

CrankyHaus · 15-05-2019 10:10am

recyclops wrote: »

just listened to the podcast driving into work, great companion piece to this weeks. I know they didn't show it in the episode so its not really a spoiler but the fact they kept reactors 1-3 still running with staff is absolutely insane.

Yeah it's crazy, until around 2000 I think, and it and the surrounding complex is still a place of work. When I visited I thought it was mad to see some guy casually walking out with his briefcase wrapping up his 9 to 5.

The dogs being left behind during the evacuation in the last episode intriqued me. The Zone has stray mongrel dogs around all the inhabited areas that are very friendly. The idea that these might be several generations descended from the abandoned dogs of Pripyat that survived in a nuclear disaster zone and retained their affinity for humans is a fascinating reflection on the species.

Walter Bishop · 15-05-2019 10:28am

Outstanding episode, this is really excellent drama. I had never heard about the potential for the water tank explosion before and that scared me. Very few tv shows that can get a reaction like that from me nowadays.

Drumpot · 15-05-2019 10:43am

Walter Bishop wrote: »

Outstanding episode, this is really excellent drama. I had never heard about the potential for the water tank explosion before and that scared me. Very few tv shows that can get a reaction like that from me nowadays.

I know, when Ulana stood up and said there could be an explosion that could effectively wipe countries off the map, I was thinking "that doesnt sound right, I dont remember hearing about that!".

The podcast (linked on this thread) is really good as the writer puts it very good. Everybody knows how the Titanic sank and what happened. Most people equally know of Chernobyl but not the details of what happened, why it happened and how bad things got. Its frightening as it shows how we selectively record and remember history.

Hector Savage · 15-05-2019 11:11am

fritzelly wrote: »

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

No, HBO made her character up to implement 2019 PC nonsense on the show.

Such a shame, factual dramas should stick to the facts, even if they are uncomfortable to our 50/50 equality of outcome utopian society.

plodder · 15-05-2019 11:17am

I remember when it happened and there was general talk about the coverup and delay in warning the outside world. There was a lot of attention initially towards the radioactive cloud and where it ended up in Western Europe (places like the Scottish Highlands and Scandinavia). But, after a few weeks, it dropped from public consciousness and life carried on.

A French colleague was just telling me as well that the authorities there declared that there were no negative consequences to France, which provoked the cynical interpretation among many that the radiation must have just stopped at the French border. Of course, nuclear power was (and still is) very important to France.

So, all of this is the first time I've seen a proper explanation for what actually happened. The only detail I heard about at the time was that the reactor didn't have a containment building surrounding it, which must have been a risky design decision, but might partly explain the initial disbelief that it had actually blown up. They had to convince themselves it couldn't in order to justify the design.

Hector Savage · 15-05-2019 11:25am

I clearly remember my mother telling me about it in the kitchen of our house.
We were out with friends talking about it in the streets, and the rumours were crazy, people dying of radiation sickness on the streets in England!!!

I remember looking at my globe (still have it) and convincing myself that it was too far away to effect Ireland.

Hector Savage · 15-05-2019 11:30am

and regarding the book Midnight in Chernobyl I am about halfway through, really really interesting I highly recommend it.
In fact it was this book that made me wonder about Emily Watson character, at first I assumed I hadn't reached that part but when I saw she was the one briefing Gorbi on the dangers of the other reactors exploding I knew something was fishy.

Then I found
https://www.bustle.com/p/ulana-khomyuk-from-chernobyl-is-not-based-on-a-real-person-but-emily-watsons-character-is-important-all-the-same-17304139

As you may expect from a miniseries set in the Soviet Union during the 1980s, there isn't much diversity or female representation in HBO's Chernobyl.

Hurrache · 15-05-2019 11:41am

There was a lot of talk about the east coast of Ireland being affected as it rained and brought down the radiation into some farm animals, via grazing. I believe countries, Ireland included, still need to certify the level of radiation from Chernobyl in food exported outside of the EU.

weldoninhio · 15-05-2019 12:00pm

I'm a bit freaked after watching it. A good few years ago, maybe 20, We were at a house party and my friends parents had taken in one of the Chernobyl children for a few weeks either that summer or the previous one.

Anyway they had been told to throw any presents that the child brought over out, however they forgot about a bottle of vodka she had brought. Now this was just in a clear bottle, with no label or anything. Long story short, I drank the lot over the night. I presume I'd be dead by now if it was anything really dangerous? My friend texted me there to say the show reminded him of me drinking the Chernobyl vodka.

Hector Savage · 15-05-2019 12:05pm

weldoninhio wrote: »

I'm a bit freaked after watching it. A good few years ago, maybe 20, We were at a house party and my friends parents had taken in one of the Chernobyl children for a few weeks either that summer or the previous one.

Anyway they had been told to throw any presents that the child brought over out, however they forgot about a bottle of vodka she had brought. Now this was just in a clear bottle, with no label or anything. Long story short, I drank the lot over the night. I presume I'd be dead by now if it was anything really dangerous? My friend texted me there to say the show reminded him of me drinking the Chernobyl vodka.

Let's just hope it wasn't irradiated with Alpha or Beta radiation..

plodder · 15-05-2019 12:08pm

weldoninhio wrote: »

I'm a bit freaked after watching it. A good few years ago, maybe 20, We were at a house party and my friends parents had taken in one of the Chernobyl children for a few weeks either that summer or the previous one.

Anyway they had been told to throw any presents that the child brought over out, however they forgot about a bottle of vodka she had brought. Now this was just in a clear bottle, with no label or anything. Long story short, I drank the lot over the night. I presume I'd be dead by now if it was anything really dangerous? My friend texted me there to say the show reminded him of me drinking the Chernobyl vodka.

I'd say you'd be glowing after drinking a whole bottle of vodka, wherever it came from.

recyclops · 15-05-2019 12:23pm

Hector Savage wrote: »

No, HBO made her character up to implement 2019 PC nonsense on the show.

Such a shame, factual dramas should stick to the facts, even if they are uncomfortable to our 50/50 equality of outcome utopian society.

ahh to be fair to the writer he even says on the podcast and in that article you quoted that whilst being heavily run by men the one aspect were the soviets could be viewed as ahead of its time is in science and medicine so having the composite character female makes sense.

we could be cynical and say its nothing more than PC Nonsense but when you read the below quotes its makes sense that the character is female where as most others we see are male.

"Very few women were ever in the kind of overall ruling political body of the Soviet Union," Mazin told TV Take. "But one area where the Soviets were actually more progressive than we were was in the area of science and medicine, particularly medicine. The Soviet Union had quite a large percentage of female doctors."

Smithsonian.org wrote in 2013, "Between 1962 and 1964, 40 percent of the chemistry Ph.D.s awarded in Soviet Russia went to women" compared to America's five percent. And as of 2012, the U.S. still hadn't achieved that 50-year-old statistic. "

"The 2014 study "Women's Participation in the Medical Profession" also noted how, "Russia differs from much of the West in that since the 1950s, women have comprised approximately 70 percent of the physician workforce."

The Specialist · 15-05-2019 12:24pm

Hector Savage wrote: »

and regarding the book Midnight in Chernobyl I am about halfway through, really really interesting I highly recommend it.
In fact it was this book that made me wonder about Emily Watson character, at first I assumed I hadn't reached that part but when I saw she was the one briefing Gorbi on the dangers of the other reactors exploding I knew something was fishy.

Then I found
https://www.bustle.com/p/ulana-khomyuk-from-chernobyl-is-not-based-on-a-real-person-but-emily-watsons-character-is-important-all-the-same-17304139

"There isn't much diversity or female representation in HBO's Chernobyl" - Oh jesus is there not? Lets re-write a ****ing real historical event that actually happened just to include women cos ya know, its like totally sexist not to.

Such utter nonsense really pisses me off, particularly when they look to re-write actual history.. The video game Battlefield V did a similar "woke" update to a historic WW2 operation by a group of MEN, and completely whitewashed them out to tell the story through the eyes of a single female :rolleyes:

Hector Savage · 15-05-2019 2:28pm

recyclops wrote: »

ahh to be fair to the writer he even says on the podcast and in that article you quoted that whilst being heavily run by men the one aspect were the soviets could be viewed as ahead of its time is in science and medicine so having the composite character female makes sense.

we could be cynical and say its nothing more than PC Nonsense but when you read the below quotes its makes sense that the character is female where as most others we see are male.

"Very few women were ever in the kind of overall ruling political body of the Soviet Union," Mazin told TV Take. "But one area where the Soviets were actually more progressive than we were was in the area of science and medicine, particularly medicine. The Soviet Union had quite a large percentage of female doctors."

Smithsonian.org wrote in 2013, "Between 1962 and 1964, 40 percent of the chemistry Ph.D.s awarded in Soviet Russia went to women" compared to America's five percent. And as of 2012, the U.S. still hadn't achieved that 50-year-old statistic. "

"The 2014 study "Women's Participation in the Medical Profession" also noted how, "Russia differs from much of the West in that since the 1950s, women have comprised approximately 70 percent of the physician workforce."

Great , I like all that , I really do, but still I want historical drama to be as accurate as possible.

It even annoyed me when the helicopter crashed, that didn't happen either.

Sittingpretty · 15-05-2019 2:34pm

Absolutely superb TV. The claustrophobia and terror created with the three workers as their torches burnt out, terrifying.

Tokyo · 15-05-2019 2:38pm

Hector Savage wrote: »

It even annoyed me when the helicopter crashed, that didn't happen either.

It did, albeit not at the time depicted in the TV show. Footage of the actual helicopter crash (on 2 October 1986) can be seen here.

Savage_Henry · 15-05-2019 3:00pm

I remember one documentary / reenaction, where they had parallel timelines with the accident and how nuclear energy was discovered (maybe manhattan project). Anyone knows, which one im talking about?

RobertKK · 15-05-2019 3:09pm

This is an excellent series as others have stated.

I remember this as a child. I also remember hearing 'we all have a bit of Chernobyl in us'.
I read we ended up with being exposed to 3% more radiation than normal in Ireland.

Hector Savage · 15-05-2019 4:09pm

mike_ie wrote: »

It did, albeit not at the time depicted in the TV show. Footage of the actual helicopter crash (on 2 October 1986) can be seen here.

oh wow!
Thanks for that, didn't mention it in the book - so far anyway.

edit - makes sense, happened on 2 October '86...

Padraig Mor · 15-05-2019 4:31pm

mike_ie wrote: »

It did, albeit not at the time depicted in the TV show. Footage of the actual helicopter crash (on 2 October 1986) can be seen here.

It (the real one) crashed due to getting entangled in cables though IIRC, not massive radiation etc as suggested in the show (not knocking the show - it's great).

theteal · 15-05-2019 4:36pm

Padraig Mor wrote: »

It (the real one) crashed due to getting entangled in cables though IIRC, not massive radiation etc as suggested in the show (not knocking the show - it's great).

You can see it hit the cable in the video

Savage_Henry · 15-05-2019 4:37pm

In hbo series it also hits the cable (but its easy to miss and isnt narrated).

Tokyo · 15-05-2019 4:43pm

Padraig Mor wrote: »

It (the real one) crashed due to getting entangled in cables though IIRC, not massive radiation etc as suggested in the show (not knocking the show - it's great).

Just took a look at the crash scene in Episode 2 again, and it's pretty apparent that the main rotor clipped the cables from the crane, which brought it down...

Anteayer · 15-05-2019 5:52pm

Apparently the pilots had refused to start until the cranes were secured, but the crew needed some degree of dampening down of the reactor to even begin to do that, so the pilot of a smaller helicopter agreed to fly over the reactor and dump initial doses of boron onto it.

I've never heard where the helicopter crashed though. I hope they didn't end up in the reactor building. Unthinkable really.

Wibbs · 15-05-2019 7:45pm

It'll be interesting to see what they make out of the cliffhanger this week of the three lads going under the plant to manually switch the pumps on.

It's a staple of the story and dramas and documentaries to say they all died horribly from radiation sickness, but the reality is all three survived and two are still alive, one still working in the nuclear industry, the third chap died of a stroke or heart attack I believe, but years later and worked in the same industry until retirement.
Here's his story. Needs an oul google translate from the Russian

Padraig Mor · 15-05-2019 7:52pm

Savage_Henry wrote: »

In hbo series it also hits the cable (but its easy to miss and isnt narrated).

Didn't spot that - definitely easy to miss, which I imagine is intentional.

Chernobyl - HBO/Sky *Spoilers*

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Chernobyl - HBO/Sky Spoilers