Calamity Jane

I wish there was a category for background people. One thing I notice more as I have re-watched is the spot-on acting by people like the other committee members when Legasov and Khomyuk deliver their everything-is-going-to-blow-up news, or the various official looking people during the trial trying to shield themselves from the fallout of Legasov's revelations. They convey so much with so little, just a slight turn of the head or a hand raised to cover the eyes, arms moving just a bit - really, really good stuff. The overall attention to detail in this series was beyond outstanding, and this is just more of it. I'm very happy to see it get the recognition it deserves.

Just now watched, and holy cow, is there more to this story than I ever realized. When it happened, I was caring for a dying husband and raising two kids, so I didn’t pay attention to details, and missed a LOT of the story. Bobbitt certainly did himself no favors by appearing in this, yet he seemed to think he was going over really well. I try not to take glee in other people’s suffering, but I couldn’t help snickering at the botched penile enhancement. Talk about karma I’m pretty sure Bobbitt is and has been for decades a black-out alcoholic, and that much if not all his mayhem is committed when he’s drinking. He probably wasn’t too bright to start with, but wow, how many billions of brain cells must he have killed over the years with the drinking. I noticed he brought up that other people maybe do bad things when they drink excessively. In my daughter’s profession they call that projection. What a horrible human being. I’m glad Lorena has been able to straighten out her life and find better times, and I was glad to learn more about her. Very worthwhile show, wish it had gotten better publicity.

That he just came out and swanned around in front of ML and the kids was part of what made me wonder if he was somehow a ML set up. It seemed very odd behavior.

Well, sort of. Maddie asked her if she took Ambien again, and she just nodded. I’m starting to lean towards Mary Louise doctoring the Ambien. It all just seemed a little too neat, which got my spidey-sense going.

Did the bartender drug Celeste? Was that another Mary Louise set-up? Sure looked fishy to me. I think they’re making Mary Louise the baddest baddie ever, and it didn’t need to go that far to make an interesting story. They have my attention, have to say!

I call her Martyr Mom, and I wonder if she’s the reason her daughter seems to have zero friends. Just loathe that ad.

True enough, but many were Russian too (at least some of the miners, conscriptees, scientists, etc.). It seems odd their hatred of Ukraine and Byelorussia would override the pride they should take in those sacrifices. Humans are hard to figure sometimes.

What I have read says that the graphite displaces cooling water without dampening the flux as much as the boron does. The reactor is already in runaway mode when this would happen. This makes more sense to me because graphite is supposed to be a moderator, not an increaser. The effect would be amplified when almost all the rods go in at the same moment, not just some of them as would be normal.

I'm sad and rather baffled that the Russian government is taking this series to be a negative commentary. Yes, there were some idiots in positions of authority, but name me a country where that is not the case. Yes, the government was far too secretive and paranoid, but that was a different time, a different country, a different government - so why be so offended? Mostly, to me, this series is a love song of praise to and awe at the almost unimaginable sacrifices all levels and sorts of people made to repair the damage of the exploded reactor. As Craig Mazin says repeatedly in his commentary, "They did it anyway," even when they knew it was possibly a lethal risk - Shcherbina, Legasov, other scientists, the generals & other army people, the miners, the plant workers, the conscripted men and women who "liquidated" the problems. It's breathtaking, heartbreaking, fills-me-with-faith-in-humankind stuff! (And I don't often feel that way.) I wish the current government would focus on that part, which in the end is the biggest message, not just the idiocy and denial that a much smaller group gave in to. To put the blame on the CIA is mind-boggling - how on earth could they have made Bryukhanov, Fomin, and Diatlov make such a boneheaded series of decisions? Made the grid in Kiev unable to allow the test to go forward as scheduled, and count on events playing out as they did? It just does not pass the laugh test. I suppose they'll try to lay it off on a bomb, which presents many others issues - also not credible. Anyway, I don't know when a TV show has made me think this hard, read so much, want to understand what happened as deeply as my not very scientifically trained mind can. Much, much praise is due, and I hope it will get the awards it deserves.

My daughter-in-law strongly encouraged me to watch this. It had me at the first scene - brought back the memories of being inundated with meals from well-meaning friends after my husband passed away 25 years ago, people who just wanted to do something to show they cared but brought food my kids wouldn't eat, in pans they wanted back, stayed a little too long. You can't be mad, but it can be maddening all the same. Keeping track of the pans was overwhelming in the chaos you go through right after a death - so many things to take care of: funeral arrangements, flowers for it, accounts to close or change the name on, life insurance to think about, social security to deal with, etc., etc., etc., and remembering whose pan was whose was a nightmare. Anyway, watched it all in one day. Well-written, two of my favorite actors, twisty plot - what more could one ask for? I really think those two could easily have switched roles and been convincing, too. Linda Cardellini can play a character with sharp edges, and Christina Applegate could easily be the softer (still with hidden depths) of the two. I'll be interested to see what they do with a second season.

My son talks about this incident, which I was not familiar with. I would love to see it given a Chernobyl-style treatment.

The podcast is available, they say, pretty much anywhere.

Especially amazing since he spent a good deal of time hospitalized for psychiatric issues. The trial was delayed because he was not well enough for a good while.

And apparently the environmental-turned-nationalist movement, which came to power when Ukraine became independent, largely on anti-Chernobyl sentiments, eventually had to go back reluctantly to nuclear just because they couldn’t meet energy needs with coal or oil. Hugely ironic.

Happened to watch Spike Lee’s documentary on when the levees broke after Katrina, and many of the same shenanigans went on with which deaths were attributable to the hurricane and which weren’t. Governments are governments, I guess. Another horror story.