Calamity Jane

I’m enjoying this season a lot so far..lots of fun moments and big surprises. NHL guy Tom, though, distracts me whenever he’s on screen because he looks like Putin’s older, kindlier, actually normal brother. The resemblance is uncanny.

That makes sense. I don’t think there was enough known about that disorder, either. Poor kid.

I didn't enjoy this season as much as last, again feeling that I couldn't care less about the main characters' "homelife," which we saw much more of this time around. Tench's kid being part of a terrible killing? Ugh, just not good. Nancy was always a most unappealing character as far as I was concerned, and her one-note behavior (performance?) sure didn't help. Brian is supposed to be on the autism spectrum, right? I know that was not a diagnosis that people were aware of at that time, and certainly there were no special programs or schools for those kids; they just got labeled as odd and shuffled on through the system. Poor little Brian, I wonder what his future would be. The Atlanta child murders have always been puzzling and infuriating, and I wished hadn't been drawn out so long in the show, but they did get the profilers attention and acceptance by law enforcement, so I guess we have to say okay. At the time, it was hard to watch those moms venting and not feel they were over the top, but in retrospect they were right about most of what they said, other than the KKK being behind the killings. As others have pointed out, I think BTK is shown to demonstrate to us that although profiling had some successes, it also had some blind spots, and we can sort of chuckle at "This guy doesn't go to church" and so on. Nonetheless, this show was better than almost everything else on TV, so I watched it and enjoyed it, and I look forward to a third season. I hope it comes more quickly than it took for season 2.

My husband used to say of shows like this, “It must be an adult,” meaning hard to comprehend or ending in an odd or unsatisfactory way. I’m a bit hard of hearing and the closed captions weren’t working, so I really struggled to follow much of what was said. Nonetheless, it was clear that the investigation was a complete shambles that made finding the truth and punishing the guilty next to impossible. One thing that puzzled me: didn’t some investigator explain in depth how they knew from computer usage that the father had to have entered the daughter’s bedroom after her time of death? And also that the mattress was damp, and the girl had been dressed after death? Did those points get refuted? They’re pretty convincing that the parents were somehow involved, but I didn’t catch if anyone on the defense ever addressed them at all. Sloppy forensics notwithstanding, I’d have a tough time acquitting without all that being explained. In general, I am not fond of stories where the truth is still undetermined. Like my husband, I really prefer an ending with questions resolved, or mostly so. Did not really care for this show; greatly preferred the suicide/texting one. It was an interesting look at class differences in India, though.

Each week this season, I’ve had to pause a while and ponder just how the episode is landing for me. Something about every show has been puzzling and, inconsistent? Maybe? Just didn’t feel the way last season’s did. And here I am in the same situation tonight, just not sure where the wheel of judgment will stop. Overall, it was worth watching, if for no other reason than that there just isn’t much else on that does seem worthy of time and attention. I like that important issues of abuse and violence were given consideration, including the excuses abusers (and their doting moms apparently) will offer to assuage their own guilt. And although Bonnie’s storyline just seemed out of place, it did raise the excruciating choices families face when debilitating strokes abruptly change the entire landscape of your life, and I appreciated that. Finally, we got some of the best scenes ever filmed from Laura Dern. Her Renata is going to go down in history, and were the highlight of every episode. I knew how things were going to play out for everyone when Renata verbally flattened Mary Louise at the coffee place. I am glad this is it for the show, but I did enjoy watching these phenomenal women’s performances.

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.

Yes, I think this one is only going to grow in reputation and popularity. I was a bit hesitant at first as the writer had done some movies that just aren’t my (old lady’s) taste, but it was absolutely terrific. I really hope he will do more in this vein - I’ll certainly be watching for what he does next.

Or “eternal memory.”

Terrific end to the series. The opening scene of people in Pripyat, some of whom we recognize, was so poignant. Legasov attempted suicide before, in the summer of 1987, I believe it was. His wife saved him that time. I wonder if he did speak out at that trial. In reality, he was not thanked for his performance in Vienna, even though many westerners felt he had saved the USSR’s standing in the world for telling as much as he did there. At home, that was when his slide at Kurchatov began, as his colleagues turned against him The trial was closed to press and most people except for the opening day statements and the judges’ verdict on the last day. So many things could have happened, and I think I will hope that Legasov did in fact tell all the truth. PS. Well, dang, podcast says Legasov wasn’t even there, which was my previous impression before this episode. I guess the tapes he recorded were the vehicle to get the message around.

Somewhere I read or heard that Gorbachev felt Chernobyl was 50% responsible for the demise of the Soviet Union. I just read Chernobyl, by Serhii Plokhy, an excellent account of the political fallout, which turned out to be nearly as toxic as the literal fallout. It sparked ecological concern movements in various regions which morphed into independence surges. Really a fascinating read, and it also explains the accident itself in pretty clear terms. Just as an aside, Lyudmila was six months along when the accident happened, not just a few weeks. I think if she had been in the earliest stages she would surely have miscarried. It doesn’t change anything about the depth of her loss at all, though, and having her be just newly pregnant made her ability to conceal the pregnancy easier for story telling.

About wandering into a war - people from DC brought picnics to eat while watching the first Battle of Bull Run. It seems to have been a thing in the 19th century, as bizarre as it seems.