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HBO's Chernobyl |OT| Do you taste something metallic?

MrKlaw

MrKlaw

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,059
Candeldandel said:
OK also I gotta say I really did love both Adam Nagaitis and Jesse Buckley. They are so perfectly human, it's heartrending.

And the goddamn detail in the control room, like ...holy crap. It looks so "vintage Soviet control room" because it is, but also, lovingly so, if that makes sense?.. What a feat.

Not to mention how everyone does a (from what I can tell) fairly decent job pronouncing a ton of Slavic names over and over, but in doing so, reinforcing the atmosphere and tone as opposed to taking you out of it.
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Did they get access to proper Russian sites? So much of it looks authentic, and the shot of the parked up trucks/helicopters etc in the lead up to the court scenes must have been at a legit Russian military scrapyard or similar?

Just caught up with the last episode last night. Best thing I've seen in years. Give everyone all the awards. Invent a supporting-supporting actor category so that they can still give Paul Ritter an award after giving Stellan Skarsgard best supporting actor
 
chaobreaker

chaobreaker

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,543
So who exactly did they point out mysteriously died and was buried in concrete under reactor 4? I could have sworn they said it was viktor bryukhanov but apparently he's still alive.
 
Monkey Gland Sauce

Monkey Gland Sauce

Member
Oct 30, 2017
880
chaobreaker said:
So who exactly did they point out mysteriously died and was buried in concrete under reactor 4? I could have sworn they said it was viktor bryukhanov but apparently he's still alive.
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Valery Khodemchuk. He was one of the guys in the pump room. You can see him in the '1:22am' part of the flashback.

edit: If you watch the first episode again, Degtarenko, the other operator in the pump room, is the guy with wounds to his face that Yuvchenko finds, and he tells Yuvchenko to look for Khodemchuk, but everything has collapsed when Yuvchenko goes there.
 
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Weegian

Weegian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,732
I thought the finale was a little too on the nose with its speeches about truth and lies, but overall, I loved the miniseries.
 
BrassDragon

BrassDragon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,154
The Netherlands
chaobreaker said:
So who exactly did they point out mysteriously died and was buried in concrete under reactor 4? I could have sworn they said it was viktor bryukhanov but apparently he's still alive.
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That was Valery Khodemchuk, one of two circulation operators who was in the main pump engine room at the time of the explosion (which partially collapsed inward). He never even knew they were running a test. We see him briefly in episode 5, reacting to the water pipes rattling just before the blast.

chernobyl-finale-1.jpg


He was presumably killed instantly and one of the 31 official deaths. There's a memorial to him on the inside of the Sarcophagus, on top of the collapsed room:

13346217_509118009279645_2954454642753911386_o.jpg
 
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BrassDragon

BrassDragon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,154
The Netherlands
beelzebozo said:
is there any behind the scenes info about how they filmed this? the reactor stuff was insanely real.
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You should really listen to the podcast, there's a lot of information in there. Basically, the Soviet Union re-used a lot of its designs and blueprints so the film crew found an RBMK reactor in Lithuania that is a very close replica of Chernobyl's Unit 4 and several city blocks that are similar to Pripyat pre-disaster. The most important interiors (such as the court room in episode 5 or the hospital ward in episode 3) are painstakingly designed sets.

The score's composer actually taped noises from the still functioning power plant and weaved her compositions around those samples.
 
BlackFyre

BlackFyre

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,430
That finale was just fantastic. It's the most riveting courtroom scene juxtaposed by Boris and the Caterpillar was absolutely sublime.
 
beelzebozo

beelzebozo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,073
BrassDragon said:
You should really listen to the podcast, there's a lot of information in there. Basically, the Soviet Union re-used a lot of its designs and blueprints so the film crew found an RBMK reactor in Lithuania that is a very close replica of Chernobyl's Unit 4 and several city blocks that are similar to Pripyat pre-disaster. The most important interiors (such as the court room in episode 5 or the hospital ward in episode 3) are painstakingly designed sets.

The score's composer actually taped noises from the still functioning power plant and weaved her compositions around those samples.
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thanks so much for this! i absolutely will.

everything legasov says in the last episode will someday be used as an epigraph about this era of american history.
 
More_Badass

More_Badass

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,623
A color-coded breakdown like that explaining why no, more CO2 isn't good for plants, and instead worsens the climate situation in a chain reaction, would be really useful to show people

This show did an exceptional job at presenting complex science in an accessible fashion
 

StevieP

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,270
MrKlaw said:
Did they get access to proper Russian sites? So much of it looks authentic, and the shot of the parked up trucks/helicopters etc in the lead up to the court scenes must have been at a legit Russian military scrapyard or similar?

Just caught up with the last episode last night. Best thing I've seen in years. Give everyone all the awards. Invent a supporting-supporting actor category so that they can still give Paul Ritter an award after giving Stellan Skarsgard best supporting actor
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I think they did do some filming in Pripyat, and I would assume that would include a pass-by filming of the real vehicle graveyard? Unless they've dug them up already.


chernobyl.jpg
 
kyle mechlachlan

kyle mechlachlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,298
I am very curious if this team will turn this into a kind of anthology thing when it comes to big historical events that aren't as well known to the general public. The thing is, this show took a very long time to complete so I dunno if this is something they can turn around quickly. I also kind of don't want to see just another one of these.

If we get another on in 5 years or so, kind of like how Spielberg/Hanks brought us The Pacific long after Band of Brothers I can see that being fine.
 
Carn

Carn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,921
The Netherlands
Fistfulofmetal said:
I am very curious if this team will turn this into a kind of anthology thing when it comes to big historical events that aren't as well known to the general public. The thing is, this show took a very long time to complete so I dunno if this is something they can turn around quickly. I also kind of don't want to see just another one of these.
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I think there are enough "disasters" to choose from, and they don't have to be nuclear incidents either. I was thinking about this the other day, and maybe because I'm Dutch, but I think that something like the MH17 disaster might be a good framing story.
 
DIE BART DIE

DIE BART DIE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,847
More_Badass said:
I'd like to see Katrina as well
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Tiananmen because it's horrific and there's a dearth of prestige content made about China; and Katrina because it is a modern, shocking and relevant story. I don't think there's much point, for example, in making a show about Fukushima as it would be treading similar ground, just without a really compelling political angle or scathing examination of corruption.

Thinking about it, Ava DuVernay would be a perfect fit for a Katrina miniseries.
 
DBT85

DBT85

Resident Thread Mechanic
Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,282
Wife and I watched it and loved it. Such a great show and it's hopefully also educated a few people on what really happened.

Fistfulofmetal said:
I am very curious if this team will turn this into a kind of anthology thing when it comes to big historical events that aren't as well known to the general public. The thing is, this show took a very long time to complete so I dunno if this is something they can turn around quickly. I also kind of don't want to see just another one of these.

If we get another on in 5 years or so, kind of like how Spielberg/Hanks brought us The Pacific long after Band of Brothers I can see that being fine.
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If they do then they need to avoid what happened to the "crime story" series (which was also supposed to be doing Katrina iirc). The first season about the OJ trial was fantastic. The second season about Versace was a dud, for me at least. It missed out on why the first was so revalatory for so many people. It had its moments just like Chernobyl where you're sitting at home in disbelief that shit like this could happen, knowing that it actually did.
 
Anton Sugar

Anton Sugar

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,946
If you listen to Scriptnotes, one of the episodes a few weeks ago (forgot to mention this) had Christopher McQuarrie on with John and Craig. He jokingly ribbed Mazin about Chernobyl, since he had really wanted to be the showrunner or at least director, but I think scheduling conflicts didn't let it happen.
 

Sixfortyfive

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
4,615
Atlanta
I get the desire to see other historical dramas done in this style, but Chernobyl fires on all cylinders in a way that's pretty unique. It's part cosmic horror, part war movie, and part political conspiracy thriller. And Mazin said that he didn't explicitly set out to write anything in any one of those specific styles; the history of the event just naturally led to that expression of it.

Like I don't think something on Katrina would be nearly as interesting because the stakes just aren't nearly as huge.
 
More_Badass

More_Badass

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,623
Could this not be more apt?
HBO's "Chernobyl" has reportedly become a sensation in the country, but Russian media is trying to cut the success short by saying the show is a "caricature and not the truth."

Russian television channel NTV is even promoting its own Chernobyl series inspired by a theory that American CIA agents were sent to the Chernobyl zone to carry out acts of sabotage.

The show's director, Alexei Muradov, says of the story: "One theory holds that Americans had infiltrated the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and many historians do not deny that, on the day of the explosion, an agent of the enemy's intelligence services was present at the station."
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Like of course the Russian version would be a story not about the people or faults in the state, but about the state hunting down foreign agents sabotaging the plant tied to the disaster
 

Deleted member 31817

Nov 7, 2017
30,876
Veelk

Veelk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,707
If Russia really wanted to get back at us, they'd make a series about how the American Revolution failed to live up to it's own hypocritical promises of freedom and equality for all.
 

Deleted member 1726

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,661
That final episode was phenomenal.

The explanation intertwined with the events building upto the explosion....wow.

This deserves all the awards
 
Ultimadrago

Ultimadrago

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,142
I liked Chernobyl, but I liked it being based off of historical events better if that makes sense? As a vehicle for informing me of some of the details of this horrific occurrence I quite liked it. In terms of a television show, it was competent, but less impressive I found. Still, a good surprise miniseries for me after just getting off from Game of Thrones as far as HBO's recent catalog goes.
 

Deleted member 2533

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,325
American style state espionage is seen with the Stuxnet virus, designed to cause failure at the level that prevents nuclear enrichment. The US wasn't going to risk irradiating Western Europe, c'mon.
 
SoH

SoH

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,739
The show's director, Alexei Muradov, says of the story: "One theory holds that Americans had infiltrated the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and many historians do not deny that, on the day of the explosion, an agent of the enemy's intelligence services was present at the station."
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Twas the Americans who introduced a fatal design flaw that could be taken advantage of many years later.

This is literally just the plot to Star Wars.
 
Maxim726x

Maxim726x

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
13,071
Tortahegesztő

Tortahegesztő

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,916
beelzebozo said:
is there any behind the scenes info about how they filmed this? the reactor stuff was insanely real.
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According to the podcast a lot was filmed in Lithuania like the shots of Pripjaty panel houses (the blocky flats) made around the same time period, the kgb prison (it was a real kgb prison, now a museum) and they had an rbmk powerplant as well.
As much as the trial was done well, The Witness kinda ruined showtrials for me:
20181130a-22-legjobb-duma-egy1.gif

-Excuse me, Comrade Virág that's the sentence.
- Darn it!
 
Veelk

Veelk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,707
Maxim726x said:
People will actually fucking believe this, too.

This is the world we live in now. Nothing is real, everything is subjective.
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Unfortunately, as the show itself demonstrates, this is isn't true. It's not the world we live in now, it's the world we've always lived in. Russia has insisted that the total deathcount of the Chernobyl incident was 31 since 1989.

Misinformation has always been the way of the world, but I think with the internet, we see it more readily now than ever before.
 
Maxim726x

Maxim726x

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
13,071
Veelk said:
Unfortunately, as the show itself demonstrates, this is isn't true. It's not the world we live in now, it's the world we've always lived in. Russia has insisted that the total deathcount of the Chernobyl incident was 31 since 1989.

Misinformation has always been the way of the world, but I think with the internet, we see it more readily now than ever before.
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Sure, maybe Russians believed the propaganda. But the rest of the world did not.

Now? I wouldn't he surprised if people in the US believe whatever tale they spin. And yes, you're correct, the internet is mainly to blame.

Infinite information at our fingertips. And we choose to believe garbage like this.
 
Einchy

Einchy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
42,659
I really love how the trial scene was lit. Usually a scene like that would still be lit like a normal scene would since that harsh lighting is, well, not what you want but they stuck to it for authenticity's sake. As soon as they walked into the room, I noticed that they must have those big spotlight type things which you tend to see in situations like that. Usually they're not actually used to light the scene, though.
 
Veelk

Veelk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,707
Maxim726x said:
Sure, maybe Russians believed the propaganda. But the rest of the world did not.

Now? I wouldn't he surprised if people in the US believe whatever tale they spin. And yes, you're correct, the internet is mainly to blame.

Infinite information at our fingertips. And we choose to believe garbage like this.
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I mean...I doubt it. The point of misinformation is that it serves some kind of purpose. For example, trumpers believe Russia's and Trump's claims that they didn't hack the election because they want to support Trump, so it's beneficial for them to believe that.

What is the advantage of believing Russia didn't fuck the pooch regarding an event that took place 30 years ago? Who does it benefit? If you can answer that, then sure, but as it stands, only the people inclined to believe any conspiracy theory will buy into it. It's only once believing Russia lies gives some benefit that the misinformation will become pertinent.
 
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