beckiwoo

scot47

Just watched all 5 episodes Disturbing - not because of the theme that the Soviet system was flawed. I fear that ours are no better ! Hunterston - less than 10 miles from us - has cracks in the core.

Steerpike

There are a few posts on the previous pages of this thread about it. Also, just read two articles, one suggesting it is one of the top-rated shows EVER on HBO (who are carrying it in the US).
https://qz.com/quartzy/1635830/is-ch...niseries-ever/

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/4...h-how-accurate
Very interesting interview with the producer, (with spoilers so tread carefully). For example, they explain how they took 'artistic license' with the final courtroom scene ...

And another interesting bit of info

I did a lot of reading about Chernobyl after watching this. One interesting thing I discovered is that a number of people have moved back into the area. One family explained that the Ukraine has suffered a good deal of civil unrest (eg, Donbass, 2014); living near Chernobyl is nowhere near as dangerous as living in a war zone with bombs and bullets flying every day.

beckiwoo

Atlantic Xpat

It is utterly absorbing and utterly terrifying tv. A horror story with no monsters or zombies, but the click of a geiger counter. Best thing I've watched or will watch all year I suspect.

shelley748

I have been watching Gentleman Jack on BBC I player catch up- thoroughly recommend as per my 87 year old Dad !

Steerpike

Wow - thanks for the tip on the scripts! I must say, I found the opening scenes a bit confusing because Legasov is talking about others (eg, Dyatlov) that hadn't been introduced in the story yet, so reading the script for that was very helpful. I do plan to re-watch the entire series once I get to the end.

I had assumed it was primarily a 'Sky' production, with HBO just picking it up for the US market, but the scripts suggest they really did produce it (copyright, etc). HBO are doing a fantastic job with their productions. Their documentaries are some of the best also - they did one on the 2008 financial crisis that was really great.

beckiwoo

Oink

Talking of bleak, I'm still reeling from episodes of Shaun the Sheep.

sharkus

I concur. Really like it.

It looks like there is a series two of White Gold, the first was very amusing, I hope the same is true for the second.

latest Black Mirror on Netflix as well. I didn't watch Bandersnatch yet, and not all of the last series, so I need to catch up.

June 21st see's the second season Dark. July 4th is season three of Stranger Things. I'm going to binge both of those as soon as possible.

Steerpike

Did you see (listen to) the 'companion podcasts'? They are mentioned (and I think linked) on the scripts page. The podcasts explain (according to what I read) all the gory details and explain when and where they chose to diverge from the truth for artistic / storytelling reasons. Once I'm done watching, I'll take a crack at those. I don't particularly like listening to stuff ... i'm hoping perhaps there's a transcript somewhere.

I found it interesting that the scripts are in good-old-fashioned 'courier' (or some similar monospaced 'typewriter' font) rather than looking like the product of a typical modern word processor. I'm guessing that's purely for aesthetic reasons?

BristolUK

Good heavens, you're right. BBC2 already showed it and it's now available on Netflix.

Millie will be pleased.

dave_j

I agree, it's disturbing. I'm old enough to remember it and I also read enough to be aware of what happened.
I've often wondered how a western government would have dealt with the crisis. Having a centralised system does enable the authorities to act with the force and with the scale necessary. One item of evidence of the size of the response is that following the event some 600,000 medals were awarded to the liquidators.
I've often wondered about the hot spot discovered following the Chernobyl event near Windscale and blamed on the Chernobyl cloud that apparently passed over northern UK and whether the UK used the event to disguise the leftover radiation from the Windscale accident in 1957, guess I'll never know.

Steerpike

I've been doing more reading about the details of the event, and one thing really surprised me - Chernobyl consisted of 4 reactors; it was reactor #4 that blew. They kept reactors 1, 2 and 3 running for (10, 5, 14 years) after the accident ... even though the entire area was evacuated. https://www.businessinsider.com/cher...isaster-2016-4 So I presume they must have bussed in operators to run the plant for that time, despite the area being considered uninhabitable. Perhaps they were only allowed to work there for a few days at a time? They must have slept near the disaster, though, unless they were bussed in and out every day. Can't find details of this aspect, yet.

I do have a question I can't find an answer to ... the 'trial' at the end was staged in Chernobyl itself; if the entire area is evacuated due to contamination (the exclusion zone), how can they stage a trial there - you need a functional building, and of course you are risking the health of every participant. I found this NY Times article from 1987 reporting on the trial: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/30/w...abor-camp.html

beckiwoo

Very good question. I honestly don't think the Soviet State cared about their people.

The 'official' death toll within Russia/Soviet States is around 30 (mostly the workers/engineers etc at Chernobyl at the time of the blast and the fire fighters). they even stated that the volunteer divers died but apparently they survived (two are still alive today according to the info at the end of episode 5). The real death toll is much higher especially in fact. It wouldn't surprise me that they put people to work there in order to keep productivity up.