Chernobyl

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rhinohelix

rhinohelix

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Watched this. Utterly amazing TV. I remember when this happened; I was 15. It's been covered in a number of books, I think the term I first encountered the term "failure cascade" in 2001 in a book called "Inviting Disaster". Watching it happen like this, knowing what they were dealing with as they under-reacted at first and then rallied to save millions in the moment. It's easy to blame the Soviet Union and Communism/Socialism (well, because they deserved it) but that just makes the ground more fertile for the same banal evils that lurk in all men's hearts and in every organization to grow. They just created a system of those banalities, combined with a culture long accepting of them. I did love the part when trying to motivate the men to go into the water, Stellan's character says
Shcherbina said:
This is what has always set our people
apart. A thousand years of sacrifice
in our veins. And every generation
must know its own suffering. I spit on
the men who did this. And I curse the
price I have to pay. But I am making
my peace with it. You make yours. And
go into the water.
(beat)
Because it must be done.
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I don't know if he really said that but Sweet mother what fantastic writing, I don't care whose political dick he sucks. Such a great series, at least in the British use of the term. I was transfixed until we got to the dog-killing, which I couldn't bear more than snippets of because may be it was accurate but fuck you. I can accept that this happened to people but animals and kids are off-limits because while it may be art, its still entertainment.
 
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Slaanesh69

Slaanesh69

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Finished this over the weekend. Fantastic series and leaves me wanting more in a similar vein of mood and pacing and current line-ups come up woefully short.

I agree the pet killing was harsh, I had friends that fast forwarded through all those parts, but I watched......while snuggling my dogs. Yeah, they could have left it out, but it had a purpose - to show how something seemingly so blasé as having to destroy all the animals to prevent the spread of radiation and disease could completely fuck up an entire contingent of men - completely separate from the accident itself but still traumatic and damaging. In my opinion, anyway.

I was impressed by the head KGB's speech to the scientist at the end, leaving him unpersoned. Kind of like the current day West's way of punishing wrong-think, yes?
 
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Denamian

Denamian

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Slaanesh69 said:
Finished this over the weekend. Fantastic series and leaves me wanting more in a similar vein of mood and pacing and current line-ups come up woefully short.

I agree the pet killing was harsh, I had friends that fast forwarded through all those parts, but I watched......while snuggling my dogs. Yeah, they could have left it out, but it had a purpose - to show how something seemingly so blasé as having to destroy all the animals to prevent the spread of radiation and disease could completely fuck up an entire contingent of men - completely separate from the accident itself but still traumatic and damaging. In my opinion, anyway.

I was impressed by the head KGB's speech to the scientist at the end, leaving him unpersoned. Kind of like the current day West's way of punishing wrong-think, yes?
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I would definitely check out the podcast if you haven't already. It explains the differences in how things went and how they were portrayed and some of the things they decided not to show. The bit with the liquidators is pulled from accounts of the guys we saw, with the newbie being a made up guy for us to see things through. They left out a bit where they noticed an animal that was still alive when they were pouring the concrete and they were out of bullets. They had filmed it but decided it was too much.

What happened to Legasov was pretty much how it actually happened. Neither he or Scherbina were actually at the trial, but Legasov's career was essentially ended because he pushed back too much. Not what they were expecting from a guy who was picked for the job because he was seen as a good party man that would do what he was told when it all started.
 
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Vandyn

Vandyn

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For all the great scenes in the series (there are many), the best is in the last episode with the trial. How they methodically explain (and then show) every event that leads up to the explosion. That's how you're supposed to wrap up a story and it was filmed near perfection for this miniseries. In many ways the series was basically a filmed documentary with actors.
 
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Bondurant

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Lithose

Lithose

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Jozu said:
Chernobyl does a great job of finding the human frequency that causes internal dread.

Acute radiation sickness is one of the most awful things a human could ever encounter.
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It's because they never show the monster, because they can't. Most modern horror can't help themselves. But true "dread" is about not understanding on a fundamental level, it locks you into a state of anxiety we've evolved to feel in novel situations where we haven't sorted out whether the novel experience is dangerous or not. If its dangerous, we'll start feeling fear or fright--but that's different than the kind of anxiety most people describe as horror or dread. That kind of anxiety keeps us primed like fear would, but it also keeps us focused on the object (While fear makes us want to react, fight or flee or jump). Because the most important thing a human can do in a novel situation is learn. If you've learned enough to pin point how something is dangerous, your brain is going to default into fight or flight and quickly prepare to deal with it one way or another. But if you don't know? You NEED to learn (Our ape ancestors needed to see if that rustling in the tree was a snake or cheetah ect), and it puts you in that really strange zone most people describe as horror/dread.

Its really difficult to keep people in that novel space, though. Little too far one way, and its just fear, little too far the other and they get comfortable with it. Radiation I think plays really well into keeping us between the two because we can consciously understand it, but on that more instinctive level, its not really something we evolved a category for; like the one line says "we're dealing with something that has never existed on this planet before". We know its there, the show is brilliant about how it reminds us over and over, but we can't ever see it or sense it in a way that satisfies our baser instincts and so that part of our brain that controls those unconscious feelings never sits well with it, keeps us in that novel space. Where as with more classic monsters, sure they can be scary--but we've evolved with the idea of predators that hunt and kill us and we have to flee or fight from, so dread is fleeting once we know its a monster.
 
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rhinohelix

rhinohelix

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Lithose said:
It's because they never show the monster, because they can't...
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This captures part of the brilliance of Chernobyl in a way I haven't thought about it, in that it spans genres; forgive me if I am aping someone else in this thread. It is a monster movie, and its a disaster movie, its a murder mystery, and its a 70's political action thriller (because the Soviet Union constantly existed in a state similar to that which only Hollywood could imagine Washington aspired), and its a Lovecraftian tale of forces almost beyond our understanding killing and maiming and the human toll our struggle to contain this beast takes. It wouldn't take much to reimagine Chernobyl as an attempt to put Cthulhu back into a slumber, because in many ways, that is the scope of what the Russians had unleashed: A elemental monster almost beyond the understanding of most men that melted those who got too close, killed those who came into contact by varying degrees, and threatened to wipe out a large chunk of the Earth. It's so horrible and primal its impossible to look away. Shades of "A Colder War".
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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If you did not watch the first episode (or all...but mostly the 1st and 2nd) with a good subwoofer -do so. The sub/lowband "music"/"sound" is literally tuned to make you feel nauseous at how long and constant it drones and the way it goes up and down with no rhythm or reason. If you just watched this on a system that cannot produce the sound properly - it takes away from the effect.

So... read a "new"-er article where they are saying that this /was/ a nuclear explosion.

Does anyone have a real good breakdown and step by step of the "indecent" with a reasonable level of detail - sorry if I missed this.. the Wiki and general news articles do not capture what I want.
 
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