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Highly recommend the HBO's new miniseries Chernobyl. One episode left. It's already at the top of IMDB TV show rankings. [1] https://www.imdb.com/chart/toptv/

by gukov 7y ago

Highly recommend the HBO's new miniseries Chernobyl. One episode left. It's already at the top of IMDB TV show rankings. [1] https://www.imdb.com/chart/toptv/ https://www.imdb.com/chart/toptv/

bitL 7y ago
HBO offsets the GoT S8 disappointment, Chernobyl is so far the best show I've watched in the past 5-10 years.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
asah 7y ago
+1 - we saw last night's episode... the dogs and the baby... this must be seen but it's also something you can't un-see.
legitster 7y ago
A bit over-dramatized, but very, very good. Although I do not really like the decision to reduce the entire engineering team to a single character. I get that it simplifies the writing and casting, but it just perpetrates the lone scientist myth. It could have been really compelling to take the time to show the group effort.
- wefarrell 7y ago
  The lone scientist hero myth is hardly unique to science, it's an abstraction that you see in all narratives that use a leader to represent a group. There are few scientific characters because the show chooses to focus on the political/systemic failure rather than the technical one. It shows us the leaders who bury their heads in the sand, the clueless residents who suffer as a result, and the liquidators who are aware of the dangers and make the sacrifice regardless. It's more a show about communism than it is about nuclear power, and I really like their take on the disaster.
  - effie 7y ago
    It is a show about what happens when the state officials and secret state organizations have all the power to keep that power. It corrupts the people, because there is not much left to keep them honest.
- equasar 7y ago
  It amazes me how there can be a small digit number of people that always will be complaining for something that is truly remarcable well done.
  - switch007 7y ago
    What is remarkable? Everyone who recommended it to me didn’t articulate an actual reason. I find this quite often. It was over hyped to me There’s nothing amazing about people disagreeing, surely?
  - rawTruthHurts 7y ago
    I feel you... that pesky people with different and well argumented opinions... tsk tsk...
- gideon_b 7y ago
  It's worth listening to the podcast that the screenwriter put out alongside the show. He discusses the decision to collapse the scientists into one character, and explains why he chose to do it this way. Whether or not you agree it's interesting to see the though process that goes into a decision like this.
SomeOldThrow 7y ago
I don't get the feeling it's very accurate, but it is very entertaining. EDIT: the accuracy I am referring to is about the actual sequence of events of the plot, which I understand to be simplified as people replying have pointed out :)
- orblivion 7y ago
  This Twitter thread speaks to this, (supposedly) from a Russian guy. He said that as far as Soviet life goes it's extremely accurate. https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1132029943297265664 https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1132029943297265664
  - papito 7y ago
    Yes. I lived in Soviet Ukraine at the time. While the British actors do take away some authenticity from it, the look and feel of 1980's Soviet Union is incredibly accurate. I showed a clip to my parents and they were like "wait, what, this is not a documentary?"
- keldaris 7y ago
  It varies. The physics part is oversimplified and, at times, overdramatized (the threat of a megaton-range explosion being a particularly egregious example). The range of characters is highly limited by the format of the series (hence the fictional Belarusian physicist meant to be a composite of many characters, but really just serving as a narrative shortcut to compress the whole thing into the length constraints they have). At the same time, the visual setting is very accurate (part of the filming is done at Ignalina, the site of another RBMK reactor plant with a similar workers' town, etc.) and the general atmosphere is vastly more true to life than any other dramatization of the accident I've ever seen.
  - ghshephard 7y ago
    The question about the series, when something particularly unrealistic occurs, like the movie trope of three heroes volunteering to open the sluice gates, and having to swim through water, and having their lamps all go out at the same time - that happened - is whether the mini series is showing something unbelievable, but true, or something that just didn't happen. By and large, the creators always tried to be biased away from the fantastical elements. That is, they left parts out of the movie, that while 100% true, just sounded too unrealistic.
lqet 7y ago
Agreed, it's brilliant and imho the best series in years. The last TV episode that left me as speechless and uneasy as the first episode of Chernobyl (the shift worker looking down into the open reactor from the roof!) was the now legendary Ozymandias episode of Breaking Bad.
theNJR 7y ago
It is not a coincidence that you are seeing lots of old content about Chernobyl resurfacing now. Still, the show is amazing.
yakshaving_jgt 7y ago
Can anyone explain why the Pripyat hospital in the first episode was so dirty and old? It had only been running for about 15 years at the time of the disaster.
- laacz 7y ago
  I've lived my early childhood though USSR (Latvia; born in 1979), and have been to relatively recently remodeled hospitals on multiple occasions for an extended stay. Plaster and paint easily fell off, tiling was irregular and often cracked, walls were never straight or evenly plasered, bed frames already had rust, springs always squeaked. All that said, it was clean, yet because of build quality, standardized pale paint colors, and poor lighting it seemed very used and in need of repairs. It could give impression of being dirty, when watched over TV. 15 years for that type of build quality is a long time.
  - gideon_b 7y ago
    I recently stayed at a hotel built with this quality. Everything was rusty, from the door hinges to the windows, to the front gate. There were cracks in the foundation that shot up the walls. I asked the manager when they opened and he told me they had been open for less than a year. The building was less than 3 years old.
KONAir 7y ago
I find this one more... down to Earth(?) and despite being more of a love story, it touches almost every subject there is to touch. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2934916/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2934916/ https://youtu.be/Xe8ptlQ1_FQ https://youtu.be/Xe8ptlQ1_FQ

by gukov 7y ago

Highly recommend the HBO's new miniseries Chernobyl. One episode left. It's already at the top of IMDB TV show rankings. [1] https://www.imdb.com/chart/toptv/ https://www.imdb.com/chart/toptv/

bitL 7y ago

HBO offsets the GoT S8 disappointment, Chernobyl is so far the best show I've watched in the past 5-10 years.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

asah 7y ago

+1 - we saw last night's episode... the dogs and the baby... this must be seen but it's also something you can't un-see.

legitster 7y ago

A bit over-dramatized, but very, very good. Although I do not really like the decision to reduce the entire engineering team to a single character. I get that it simplifies the writing and casting, but it just perpetrates the lone scientist myth. It could have been really compelling to take the time to show the group effort.

wefarrell 7y ago
The lone scientist hero myth is hardly unique to science, it's an abstraction that you see in all narratives that use a leader to represent a group. There are few scientific characters because the show chooses to focus on the political/systemic failure rather than the technical one. It shows us the leaders who bury their heads in the sand, the clueless residents who suffer as a result, and the liquidators who are aware of the dangers and make the sacrifice regardless. It's more a show about communism than it is about nuclear power, and I really like their take on the disaster.
- effie 7y ago
  It is a show about what happens when the state officials and secret state organizations have all the power to keep that power. It corrupts the people, because there is not much left to keep them honest.
equasar 7y ago
It amazes me how there can be a small digit number of people that always will be complaining for something that is truly remarcable well done.
- switch007 7y ago
  What is remarkable? Everyone who recommended it to me didn’t articulate an actual reason. I find this quite often. It was over hyped to me There’s nothing amazing about people disagreeing, surely?
- rawTruthHurts 7y ago
  I feel you... that pesky people with different and well argumented opinions... tsk tsk...
gideon_b 7y ago
It's worth listening to the podcast that the screenwriter put out alongside the show. He discusses the decision to collapse the scientists into one character, and explains why he chose to do it this way. Whether or not you agree it's interesting to see the though process that goes into a decision like this.

SomeOldThrow 7y ago

I don't get the feeling it's very accurate, but it is very entertaining. EDIT: the accuracy I am referring to is about the actual sequence of events of the plot, which I understand to be simplified as people replying have pointed out :)

orblivion 7y ago
This Twitter thread speaks to this, (supposedly) from a Russian guy. He said that as far as Soviet life goes it's extremely accurate. https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1132029943297265664 https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1132029943297265664
- papito 7y ago
  Yes. I lived in Soviet Ukraine at the time. While the British actors do take away some authenticity from it, the look and feel of 1980's Soviet Union is incredibly accurate. I showed a clip to my parents and they were like "wait, what, this is not a documentary?"
keldaris 7y ago
It varies. The physics part is oversimplified and, at times, overdramatized (the threat of a megaton-range explosion being a particularly egregious example). The range of characters is highly limited by the format of the series (hence the fictional Belarusian physicist meant to be a composite of many characters, but really just serving as a narrative shortcut to compress the whole thing into the length constraints they have). At the same time, the visual setting is very accurate (part of the filming is done at Ignalina, the site of another RBMK reactor plant with a similar workers' town, etc.) and the general atmosphere is vastly more true to life than any other dramatization of the accident I've ever seen.
- ghshephard 7y ago
  The question about the series, when something particularly unrealistic occurs, like the movie trope of three heroes volunteering to open the sluice gates, and having to swim through water, and having their lamps all go out at the same time - that happened - is whether the mini series is showing something unbelievable, but true, or something that just didn't happen. By and large, the creators always tried to be biased away from the fantastical elements. That is, they left parts out of the movie, that while 100% true, just sounded too unrealistic.

lqet 7y ago

Agreed, it's brilliant and imho the best series in years. The last TV episode that left me as speechless and uneasy as the first episode of Chernobyl (the shift worker looking down into the open reactor from the roof!) was the now legendary Ozymandias episode of Breaking Bad.

theNJR 7y ago

It is not a coincidence that you are seeing lots of old content about Chernobyl resurfacing now. Still, the show is amazing.

yakshaving_jgt 7y ago

Can anyone explain why the Pripyat hospital in the first episode was so dirty and old? It had only been running for about 15 years at the time of the disaster.

laacz 7y ago
I've lived my early childhood though USSR (Latvia; born in 1979), and have been to relatively recently remodeled hospitals on multiple occasions for an extended stay. Plaster and paint easily fell off, tiling was irregular and often cracked, walls were never straight or evenly plasered, bed frames already had rust, springs always squeaked. All that said, it was clean, yet because of build quality, standardized pale paint colors, and poor lighting it seemed very used and in need of repairs. It could give impression of being dirty, when watched over TV. 15 years for that type of build quality is a long time.
- gideon_b 7y ago
  I recently stayed at a hotel built with this quality. Everything was rusty, from the door hinges to the windows, to the front gate. There were cracks in the foundation that shot up the walls. I asked the manager when they opened and he told me they had been open for less than a year. The building was less than 3 years old.

KONAir 7y ago

I find this one more... down to Earth(?) and despite being more of a love story, it touches almost every subject there is to touch. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2934916/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2934916/ https://youtu.be/Xe8ptlQ1_FQ https://youtu.be/Xe8ptlQ1_FQ