Chernobyl - General Discussion

[formerlyfreedom]

Chernobyl is an upcoming American-British historical drama television miniseries. The show is a co-production between HBO and Sky and is set to premiere in both the United States and the United Kingdom in 2019.

Chernobyl dramatizes "the true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history and tells of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster. The miniseries focuses on the heartbreaking scope of the nuclear plant disaster that occurred in Ukraine in April 1986, revealing how and why it happened and telling the shocking, remarkable stories of the heroes who fought and fell."

 

[formerlyfreedom]

[formerlyfreedom]

The official trailer is out -

Quote

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, Soviet Union suffered a massive explosion that released radioactive material across Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and as far as Scandinavia and western Europe. Chernobyl dramatizes the story of the 1986 accident, one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history, and the sacrifices made to save Europe from the unimaginable disaster. Chernobyl premieres May 6 on HBO.

[patty1h]

Looking forward to this for the historical factor, and because I was a big fan of the show "Seconds from Disaster", where they broke down different catastrophic events in detail.  I was a kid when this happened, so I know surface details from what was on the news back then.  Now I'm interested in finding out how this happened and the people behind the whole event.

Another reason I'm interested in this is because two of the actors were in the miniseries "The Terror" that aired on AMC last year.  Jared Harris and Adam Nagaitis were so great in that program that I'm looking forward to seeing them in this production.

[MSterling]

1 hour ago, patty1h said:

Looking forward to this for the historical factor, and because I was a big fan of the show "Seconds from Disaster", where they broke down different catastrophic events in detail.

I loved that show, too! I just rewatched the episode about Chernobyl to get ready, and while I made sure Mom had a copy so she can be reacquainted with what happened. I'm also reading Voices from Chernobyl from my library's e-book collection.

Also looking forward to Jared Harris, too.

[jcin617]

The ability of management to disbelieve what they are being told was mind-boggling.   I know the alternative would be horrifying, but folks are telling you what they saw and it’s all “You’re delusional!”

That said, I really liked part 1; kind of wish it was binge-able!

Edited May 7, 2019 by jcin617

[ilovethedark]

I already like the blonde firefighter’s wife, her instincts are so on point with knowing something is up when no information is being let out yet. The kids and that baby being out in the radioactive ash while the adults watched the plant burn was chilling. It’s like people gathering around to watch a house fire making small chitchat while breathing in massive amounts of radiation. I hope for the best for her since her poor husband had to go into the reactor to fight the fire and no good will come of that.

The plant manager and director are truly terrible, I know there is some cultural aspects of being in the USSR and whatever party line they had to believe/vomit back in order to get where they were, but damn people’s skins are falling off and are dying and the managers still had the gall to say nope we don’t believe those test readings even though the chief scientist did them a couple times and the figures were too high. I felt so bad for everyone else at the plant since they knew something horrible happened and the guy in charge will do nothing. 

[proserpina65]

That was pretty intense.  I remember when this happened, and since I lived down river of two nuclear plants at the time (one of which, Three Mile Island, had an incident of its own), it scared me pretty badly.  This was like reliving that.

I will confess to thinking, after that first scene, "who's going to take of the cat?".

[jcin617]

16 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I will confess to thinking, after that first scene, "who's going to take of the cat?".

I worried about the same thing, but then my roommate pointed out that he had given the cat extra food and water, so presumably he was expecting someone would find him relatively soon.   Most likely the KGB when they didn't see him after a while.

[Calamity Jane]

Every person who went to see what was happening seemed to me to have a “Danger!  You’re going to die!” sign above him. And all the people who rushed out to watch the fire, too. The firefighter’s wife is pregnant, right?  She was vomiting in the toilet at the start?  Bad, bad feeling about that baby’s future. I had to re-watch because so much information came so quickly, I couldn’t make much sense of it the first time.  Also, all the plant workers seemed to look alike the first time, which didn’t help  

I think part of the message is that bureaucracy and hierarchy in general are the enemies of truth, not just communist rigidity. I do wish I could binge watch the whole thing. I found it gripping.  Anyone my age (born in 1950) most likely had nuclear fears - I had nightmares from the Cuban crisis forward until the wall came down - and Chernobyl was just another one. And bad as my memories of it are, it seems the truth was worse. 

[spottedreptile]

Very powerfully done episode. Hope the rest is as compelling. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stick it, as I can remember a lot of the horrible details from real life, but it sure draws you in. 

The weird detachment from reality is often a symptom of disaster shock. People just cannot accept what is happening, so they deny it over and over, to themselves and to others. The worrying part of this is that these guys were top nuclear scientists and should have been able to react professionally during an emergency. That they didn't is a pretty good indication of why the accident happened and why it was managed so badly afterwards. 

I felt very bad for the pregnant wife, and all the others out there playing in the ash, and exclaiming how 'pretty' all the lights were. The death toll supposedly wasn't that huge - initially. Thousands have probably died over the decades though I imagine. 

13 hours ago, Calamity Jane said:

I think part of the message is that bureaucracy and hierarchy in general are the enemies of truth, not just communist rigidity. 

You got that right. CYA and personal gain are not unique to any kind of politics. Look at the Challenger Disaster just a few months earlier!

[ilovethedark]

Does anyone know if that emergency call/dispatch recording was from the actual accident or a recreation? That was such a nice touch either way. 

The scene within the bunker where one of the local party members (guy in green poncho/jacket) is like this is bad and we need to tell the public and the old senior party member started talking about Lenin. I hope that guy in the green jacket turns out okay since it was nice seeing some dissent amongst the leaders. I agree looking back it is very much a CYA on the denials.

I know just a little about the accident since I was a baby when it happened so I’m interested in seeing how all this plays out. I might wait until I can watch during the day since the first episode gave me creepy dreams.

[Neurochick]

I remember when this happened, some people were scared that it would spread to the US.

Shit, I thought I worked in a bureaucracy but damn, those folks were all kinds of effed up.  When people are throwing up and their faces are burned, that's more than just bad.

[MSterling]

1 hour ago, ilovethedark said:

Does anyone know if that emergency call/dispatch recording was from the actual accident or a recreation?

According to the official podcast, yes, it was a actual recording from that night. You can listen to the podcast either on the HBO Go/Now app or listen wherever you normally get podcasts. It features Peter Sagal from NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and Craig Mazin. I like Peter Sagal so I was excited to hear him. The podcast is really interesting so far.

[HunterHunted]

I was a kid when this happened, but I've always been interested in this because I come from a nuclear family. By nuclear family, I mean I've had more than one family member work for a nuclear energy company. My dad is a nuclear engineer who specializes in cooling technology. I cannot tell you how many times our house was called throughout my childhood for events that never made it to the news for shit that seems kind of minor, but was actually major and was averted because knowledgeable professionals worked together.

This was a catastrophe of ego, cya actions, bureaucracy, and screwed up party loyalty.

Edited May 10, 2019 by HunterHunted

[BellyLaughter]

I wasn't sure whether I would like this even though I am very fascinated by the Soviet era but wow -- it was good!! And the podcast makes it even better.  Can't wait for more!  I have a feeling the cultural consultation that was done in creating this is gonna pay off big time.

My only nitpick is the accents...the podcast did give an explanation which makes sense but for me personally it takes away from the authentication of the show??  YMMV

[Portia]

9 hours ago, BellyLaughter said:

My only nitpick is the accents...the podcast did give an explanation which makes sense but for me personally it takes away from the authentication of the show??  YMMV

I mean, exclusively casting native Russian speakers and having everyone speak Russian with English subtitles would be authentic, but I'm not sure how practical or marketable that would be. Personally I find the "use your normal accent" approach less distracting than the old-fashioned "everyone speak English with a Russian accent" approach.

11 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

I was a kid when this happened, but I've always been interested in this because I come from a nuclear family. By nuclear family, I mean I've had more than ine family member work for a nuclear energy company. My dad is a nuclear engineer who specializes in cooling technology. I cannot tell you how many times our house was called throughout my childhood for events that never made it to the news for shit that seems kind of minor, but was actually major and was averted because knowledgeable professionals worked together.

This was a catastrophe of ego, cya actions, bureaucracy, and screwed up party loyalty.

I was wondering if there would be anyone else on this forum with loved ones who work(ed) in nuclear energy. My son-in-law is an engineer who's a rising star in management at a nuclear plant in the American South. I was afraid this show would give me excessive anxiety about his safety (and the safety of my daughter and grandson, who live near the plant). On the contrary, after watching episode 1, I feel better than ever about the quality of my SIL's training and the level of safety protocols in place at his plant.

[BusyOctober]

I am a fan of Jared Harris and the roles he’s done.  I was a little concerned that his character in Chernobyl hanged himself just like his character did in Mad Men.  I wonder if he was like, “oh here we go again...” when he read the script?

So far this miniseries is good.  Both my husband and I watched together, and couldn’t believe the ignorance of the plant manager...he literally ignored the men who told him the core had blown up!  I was in college when this all happened, but other than hearing bits and pieces, I don’t know much about the event.  I did remember the shut down the city and quarantined it.  I know it’s been abandoned since the catastrophe.

I am going to assume every single person in the plant and all the firemen and all the looky loos watching it burn died almost immediately after the event.  Can people who are contaminated with radioactive material pass on the contagion?  Would that mean all the medical staff gets infected?  I highly doubt any hazmat protocols or equipment was available to even a small percentage of the plant workers, never mind the city residents.  Soviet Russia was not known to be free wheeling with its resources.

My biggest question was about the “meters” the plant guys kept referring to...they said several times the readings were “3.6” which was interpreted as not great, but nothing to panic over.  Then they said a few times the meters only went UP TO 3.6!  Um, wouldn’t you want the gauge to show numbers a few ticks above what’s considered “acceptable”?? How would anyone know when there was a potential threat?  And I think one of the guys towards the end of the episode mentioned a reading of “200-something”  Holy shit! Where did those things come from? Did the Communist Wyle E. Coyote order them from Acme’s USSR division?

[HunterHunted]

6 hours ago, Portia said:

I was wondering if there would be anyone else on this forum with loved ones who work(ed) in nuclear energy. My son-in-law is an engineer who's a rising star in management at a nuclear plant in the American South. I was afraid this show would give me excessive anxiety about his safety (and the safety of my daughter and grandson, who live near the plant). On the contrary, after watching episode 1, I feel better than ever about the quality of my SIL's training and the level of safety protocols in place at his plant.

When I was in high school, my dad used to have me check the reactor and cooling math as real world calculus application. I think I might have caught a mistake once or twice and my dad works in plants all over the globe, but overall everyone was at the top of their game. Coming from a person who just overheard one side if it, Fukushima Daiichi was a legit shit show. It took a not insignificant amount of time before my dad was called. He actually had to leave my grandmother's funeral when they finally brought him in a couple of days after the tsunami. Similar-ish things happened in Fukushima and Chernobyl with plant and government officials trying to handle a situation that had completely surpassed their levels of expertise. However, no one in their right mind believes the official government death toll for Chernobyl, which was like 50 people and straight up bullshit.

25 minutes ago, BusyOctober said:

Can people who are contaminated with radioactive material pass on the contagion?  Would that mean all the medical staff gets infected?

Only if those individuals who were exposed to the radiation are walking around with radioactive material on or with them.

[proserpina65]

7 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

My biggest question was about the “meters” the plant guys kept referring to...they said several times the readings were “3.6” which was interpreted as not great, but nothing to panic over.  Then they said a few times the meters only went UP TO 3.6!  Um, wouldn’t you want the gauge to show numbers a few ticks above what’s considered “acceptable”?? How would anyone know when there was a potential threat?  And I think one of the guys towards the end of the episode mentioned a reading of “200-something”

The dosimeters available had different levels.  The least sensitive only went up to 3.6-ish roentgens per hour.  The most sensitive one (the one locked in a safe for some reason) went up to 1,000 but it failed immediately upon being turned on.  The one which was mentioned near the end went up to 200, and the readings on it hit that max level.   Which of course was very, very bad.  3.6 wasn't great, but wasn't awful.  200 was horrible, and the actual levels closest to the reactor core were estimated to be around 30,000 roentgens per hour - more than a lethal level.

(No, I'm not a nuclear physicist, nor do I play one on tv.  I googled Chernobyl Monday at work.  I was both bored by my work and fascinated by the episode.)

 

7 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

However, no one in their right mind believes the official government death toll for Chernobyl, which was like 50 people and straight up bullshit.

Yeah, that death toll covers the plant workers, firefighters, and a few soldiers who stood guard at the plant.  The Russians to this day refuse to include anyone who died later of radiation-caused illnesses.  Assholes.

Scary stuff about Fukushima.

Edited May 10, 2019 by proserpina65

[BookWoman56]

7 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Yeah, that death toll covers the plant workers, firefighters, and a few soldiers who stood guard at the plant.  The Russians to this day refuse to include anyone who died later of radiation-caused illnesses.  Assholes.

I haven't watched this yet, but intend to both because I find it fascinating and also because I used to have a passing acquaintance with the widow of one of the engineers who was sent into Chernobyl afterwards to assist with the cleanup. He lived for about 10 years or so following that assignment, long enough for them to move to the U.S. and get settled in. She taught at the local Jewish private academy and was extremely nice. I don't remember precisely what her husband died of, other than it was related to either heart or lung problems, but she stated those health problems arose from his work at Chernobyl and she was bitter that his death would not be counted in the official death toll, but not in the slightest bit surprised by that decision by the Russian government. 

[Paws]

Good gravy! Just watched this last night.  Chernobyl happened when I was I guess 14, but I don’t remember learning much about it or understanding it. I spent half of last night trying to wade through the Wikipedia article on it. I was an English Major so I don’t even know what a roentgen is; it’s gonna take while for me to fully (if ever) understand the science and mechanics of what happened. It’s not hard to see the human failures though. Radiation is so scary. That firefighter picked up one piece of graphite and his hands were falling off! 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Paws

[Anela]

I watched this the other day, and had my first nightmare last night. Ugh. I can't seem to handle this kind of thing. I dreamed that it was a nuclear bomb hitting, though.

I was eleven when it happened, and don't remember much. I also remember the close call that happened over here, three mile island, although I was in England. I've seen that movie, too. 

[Sharpie66]

Just watched this today. Seriously powerful stuff.

My dad was a trainer at the local nuclear power plant, so I will see if he is interested in watching this next time he visits.

I had done some reading on the explosion back in the ‘90s, when more details came out after the Wall came down, but this is giving much better context. I did resort to turning the closed captioning on, since it identifies the speakers, and I can absorb technical details better if I read them.

[proserpina65]

On ‎05‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 1:07 PM, Paws said:

I was an English Major so I don’t even know what a roentgen is; it’s gonna take while for me to fully (if ever) understand the science and mechanics of what happened. It’s not hard to see the human failures though. Radiation is so scary.

I was a Medieval History major, so it's all Greek to me.  What I got from reading about it is that the test wasn't done right, the corrections which needed to be done to prevent the disaster weren't done/were overruled by management, and that the higher the roentgen number, the worse the radiation exposure.  Yeah, it was pretty scary.

[Sharpie66]

Just watched episode 2. That was nerve wracking!! I was biting my lip and on edge the entire hour. They did a good job of explaining things to the bureaucrats, thus to us watching as well. First, by showing how a nuclear power plant works, then by breaking down the exact impact of a total disaster at Chernobyl in terms of casualties.

I appreciated how Gorbachev was shown as being the right guy in charge at the right time. He had his weaknesses as a leader, but he was a decent man who didn’t have his head buried in the sand.

Edited to add—just finished listening to the podcast ep. it starts off with a translation of the poem at the beginning of the ep (written in July 1941, just after the Nazis invaded), and includes tons of info. Turns out the writer wanted to counteract the usual Western view of Gorbachev that I stated above, but I still see the portrayal as him not being stubborn about ignoring reality once it was explained to him.

Edited May 14, 2019 by Sharpie66

[Robert Lynch]

1 hour ago, Sharpie66 said:

Just watched episode 2. That was nerve wracking!! I was biting my lip and on edge the entire hour. They did a good job of explaining things to the bureaucrats, thus to us watching as well. First, by showing how a nuclear power plant works, then by breaking down the exact impact of a total disaster at Chernobyl in terms of casualties.

I appreciated how Gorbachev was shown as being the right guy in charge at the right time. He had his weaknesses as a leader, but he was a decent man who didn’t have his head buried in the sand.

Edited to add—just finished listening to the podcast ep. it starts off with a translation of the poem at the beginning of the ep (written in July 1941, just after the Nazis invaded), and includes tons of info. Turns out the writer wanted to counteract the usual Western view of Gorbachev that I stated above, but I still see the portrayal as him not being stubborn about ignoring reality once it was explained to him.

Gorbachev is 88 years old today! I think Werner Herzog recently did a biopic on him, correct?

[khyber]

Jez, that was intense. Did the radioactivity fry something in the flashlights? Would you wonder around in the dark until you died or just strip off the protective headgear & go fast but still horribly? 

[IvySpice]

After last night, I had to know if the "three heroes" narrative was true or a Hollywood creation. Here's what I got:

1. Truth: The issue with the full tanks of water was real, and every source I found agreed that there really was a risk of a multi-megaton explosion dropping nuclear material all over Eastern Europe and basically ending Ukraine and Belarus, and the three guys really did go in to stop it. Steam is no joke. I had never heard this part of the story before.

2. Drama: There wasn't any "I am Spartacus" lecture with the suicide volunteers standing up. And there are tons of otherwise-reliable English-language sources saying that the three guys died within weeks from radiation syndrome, as they were expected to...but a more recent source says that they actually all survived for decades, two are still alive, and the third died of heart disease in 2005. So I'm interested to see which of those narratives they go with in the next episode of the show. Obviously agonizing martyr deaths are more cinematic than quietly going back to your career as an engineer after saving 50 million lives.

Anyway, great show. After all that reading, I didn't sleep too well. Should have known better.

[jcin617]

3 hours ago, khyber said:

Jez, that was intense. Did the radioactivity fry something in the flashlights? Would you wonder around in the dark until you died or just strip off the protective headgear & go fast but still horribly? 

Yes, electronics would be impacted by the high levels of radiation.  See also the helicopter crashing after going over the core.  (Of course, that could also have been the pilots cooking to death).

One reason they have had a hard time investigating what is going on with the cores at Fukushima is that no robot sent in can survive the radiation levels for very long.

[Calamity Jane]

Just as gripping as last week. Being a dog person, I was pretty torn up that pets were left behind, and the dog running after its owner on the bus gutted me.

Russians do have a centuries-long heritage of sacrifice, it’s baked into them. In war, the strategy (tactic?) most favored was simply to throw soldiers at the enemy’s guns, thousands, millions of them. So men volunteering to go in would not be surprising. I’m pretty sure the writer said he used the names of the three who actually went in. He says there is a lot of conflicting evidence, so at times he just had to pick what seemed best substantiated. 

In 1979, I had my own experience with radiation burns during radiation therapy for Hodgkin lymphoma. It is terrifying to lie there knowing that if something goes wrong, they could cook you to death, and you’d never know because you don’t feel a thing, just like regular x-rays. The part that really burned was under my arms, apparently because of the curvature. It was unbelievably painful, and what I received was minuscule compared to what was beaming into those people. I can’t imagine the horror of it.

It is truly terrifying to learn how close the world came to enormous catastrophe in this incident. We all owe thanks to the brave souls who willingly put themselves in harm’s way to prevent a greater disaster. Truly the best of human nature compensating for the worst, which caused the original problem. 

[mrspidey]

Jesus fucking Christ, those Geiger counters going crazy at the end... More terrifying than any horror movie.

BTW, the firemen's suits are still lying in that room to this day. They are also still extremely radioactive. 

Edited May 14, 2019 by mrspidey

[patty1h]

I was horrified at the scene of the nurses carrying the firefighters discarded uniforms to a separate area, probably not knowing that they were covered with radioactive material that was wreaking havoc in their systems.  One nurse was already feeling it on her hand, poor thing...

[ilovethedark]

Another really enjoyable episode. Lyudmilla, the wife of the firefighter was such a badass going past the soldiers at the hospital. She is my favorite of the regular folk on the ground. The podcast said she’s a real person and that she wrote a chapter in the book Voices of Chernobyl. The part where she is in the hospital and sees her friends who took their baby to watch the fire and they all had radiation burns/sickness and the man begging that she take the baby was heart wrenching. 

4 hours ago, Calamity Jane said:

Just as gripping as last week. Being a dog person, I was pretty torn up that pets were left behind, and the dog running after its owner on the bus gutted me.

Same. My 14 year old lab was snoring on the couch as I watched this and I found this incredibly sad. I think someone tried to bring their cat on the bus, but a soldier took it. I saw the dead dear earlier in the episode and the bird from the first, so many animals suffered as well. 

[spottedreptile]

Holy cow it's an intense and compelling show so far. You know what happens, but it's all the details that you don't know that makes it so gripping. I love the Stellan Skarsgaard guy - he was a faceless bureaucrat in the first episode, now he's had his oh god I'm gonna die realisation, and he's doing what has to be done. I loved his talk to the pipe workers - true or not, he showed us the heroism required to go in there to a certain death, for others.

That poor Alsatian running alongside the bus just cut me to bits. 

I didn't know about the risk of a huge further nuclear explosion. What a bullet dodged for the rest of the world. Those poor men when the torches sputtered and went out. 

 The Central Committee stuff is intriguing. How can so many idiots get so high up in government. All covering their behinds, until Gorby pulls the rug from under them and they're done. Heh. 

[Armchair Critic]

Still watching episode 2. This is so well done, excellent acting, my stomach is in knots. I just want to cry for the people affected by Chernobyl and am so angry at the bigwigs trying to hide the extent of the damage.

[buttercupia]

Stellan Skarsgaard is amazing. His acting this episode was emmy worthy. The dawning realization of how bad it was, personaly and globally, the use of his authority to get the scientists' words across when it mattered. I loved him in River, too.  He tore my heart out, stomped on it, and brought it back to life in the last episode of that.  Saw him recently in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and he was fantastic there too. The man is a chameleon. 

The horror of that hospital and the evacuation. I'm old enough to remember this vividly along with three mile island, which wasn't anywhere this bad.

[Anela]

6 hours ago, buttercupia said:

Stellan Skarsgaard is amazing. His acting this episode was emmy worthy. The dawning realization of how bad it was, personaly and globally, the use of his authority to get the scientists' words across when it mattered. I loved him in River, too.  He tore my heart out, stomped on it, and brought it back to life in the last episode of that.  Saw him recently in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and he was fantastic there too. The man is a chameleon. 

The horror of that hospital and the evacuation. I'm old enough to remember this vividly along with three mile island, which wasn't anywhere this bad.

My mum was probably keeping me away from the news, because I hardly remember anything about it. She once found me watching a special news broadcast, one afternoon, about a hijacked plane, and I'd seen a dead man be dumped on the runway. 😞 The next thing we knew, she had us out to the movies, which we couldn't really afford. 

[Lemons]

On 5/10/2019 at 1:09 AM, BellyLaughter said:

I wasn't sure whether I would like this even though I am very fascinated by the Soviet era but wow -- it was good!! And the podcast makes it even better.  Can't wait for more!  I have a feeling the cultural consultation that was done in creating this is gonna pay off big time.

My only nitpick is the accents...the podcast did give an explanation which makes sense but for me personally it takes away from the authentication of the show??  YMMV

How did they explain the accents?  Some of them have stronger British accents than others making it disconcerting.  

[ilovethedark]

26 minutes ago, Lemons said:

How did they explain the accents?  Some of them have stronger British accents than others making it disconcerting.  

Basically the creators wanted the actors to focus on acting and not worrying about doing an accent. Also when they were doing auditions people doing accents were a bit too much like Boris and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle. 

[ChicksDigScars]

Episode 2 freaked me out so badly that I immediately Googled the mileage between my house and the closest nuclear plant (21.4 miles). 

I've known a lot of the events surrounding the disaster, but I had no idea how close they were to the doomsday scenario that the Emily Watson character described. Holy shit. 

They showed men dragging off the two loathsome idiots that ran the power plant. My guess is prison, or just straight up death squad. 

[Lemons]

2 hours ago, ilovethedark said:

Basically the creators wanted the actors to focus on acting and not worrying about doing an accent. Also when they were doing auditions people doing accents were a bit too much like Boris and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle. 

That's because Boris and Natasha had Russian accents! I bet they sounded more like John Malkelvich on the show Billions.  I wish they had gone with unknown actors.  The story speaks for itself, no need for name actors.  

[Armchair Critic]

5 hours ago, ChicksDigScars said:

Episode 2 freaked me out so badly that I immediately Googled the mileage between my house and the closest nuclear plant (21.4 miles)

I did too. Also I have some relatives in Kemerovo, Russia so I checked for them too... thankfully they are in the middle of Siberia about 2,800 miles away from Chernobyl.

[Superpole2000]

I am watching the first episode now, and one of my TV/movie pet peeves has already happened. They started the show with the suicide and then jumped back in time. Damn, I hate when shows spoil themselves! I know it's a historical event, but the specific character outcomes are mostly unknown. Let us get there in time!

[StatMom]

16 hours ago, ChicksDigScars said:

They showed men dragging off the two loathsome idiots that ran the power plant. My guess is prison, or just straight up death squad. 

In the opening scene of episode 1, Legasov mentions in his recording that Dyatlev will spend 10 years in a prison labor camp, suggesting that while he was scapegoated for others' mistakes it was still less than he deserved as punishment.

[proserpina65]

20 hours ago, ChicksDigScars said:

Episode 2 freaked me out so badly that I immediately Googled the mileage between my house and the closest nuclear plant (21.4 miles). 

For me, it's a little less than 24 miles - Peach Bottom is the closest plant.  And for most of my life, I lived downriver of both Peach Bottom and Three Mile Island.

I fell asleep Monday night, and missed about half the episode (I was tired - it was not boring).  Finally got to see it last night.  Yes, those poor dogs really got to me, as well as the thought of other animals left behind.  And the noise from the dosimeters at the end was extremely creepy.

But the scene which affected me the most was the one in the hotel room when Stellan Skarsgaard's character finally realized the personal risk, and was actually able to translate that to the population of Pripyat.  I've always thought he was a very good actor, but his slowburn reaction (pun unintended) was chilling.

[mrspidey]

On 5/15/2019 at 4:09 PM, ChicksDigScars said:

They showed men dragging off the two loathsome idiots that ran the power plant. My guess is prison, or just straight up death squad. 

Spoiler

They were sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. One of them tried to kill himself, got moved into a mental hospital and was released after sucessful therapy. I believe he went back to running a nuclear power plant until his retirement.

Edited May 17, 2019 by saoirse
Spoiler tags added

[IvySpice]

It's funny what sticks in your mind. I was in elementary school at the time, and my teacher was from Sweden. She taught the class about how the fallout was settling on lichens in the Arctic, and the reindeer were eating the lichen and becoming radioactive, so the Sami indigenous people who depended on eating the reindeer were pretty screwed. These people lived in the most remote and pristine inhabited area of the Earth, but they were among the most affected people post-Chernobyl. They STILL have to check the radioactivity of the reindeer in parts of Scandinavia before they can sell or eat them.

[Neurochick]

7 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

And the noise from the dosimeters at the end was extremely creepy.

I used to work in the radiation safety department of a university and you NEVER want to hear those geiger counters go off like that.  

[formerlyfreedom]

Please spoil tag anything that you are aware of that happens after the events of the episodes so far. If it has been mentioned in an episode (e.g., the first episode starts in the future, so some things were evident), that's fine. Thank you.