An astonishing episode of television that completely captivated and infuriated Sam and me! Can't wait to watch this miniseries! Thank you for all the support!
If you guys are interested in the history behind the show, I would highly recommend listening to the podcasts! There is a companion podcast for each episode where they interview the writer of the show. Important to note that each podcast cover only the corresponding episode and do not have spoilers for future episodes
I'd watch something light and humorous after this, to cleanse the palate after The Pacific and Chernobyl. Thanks for tackling this though, and hope you enjoy the series 🙂
I hope you two watch one episode after another and not wait several days in between. It is only 5 hours in total and should be watched with nothing else in between. Hope you guys will upload multiple episodes, in chernobyl things just get started. :) One of the best mini series of all time after Band of Brothers. Enjoy.
This is a really good show, it's one of the better dramas to come out in the last few years. Just be aware that while excellent, it's not a documentary and not agenda-free; while events are generally quite accurate, the story was written with a bias toward survivors' recollections rather than pure objective reality. Radiation is scary stuff, but it's not quite as bad as it's portrayed here - it's a well-understood danger and not "magical space cooties". A few of the medical cases shown later are flat-out inaccurate for the sake of drama as well. Know that going in and you'll get a lot out of the show (the general Soviet paranoia and blame-laying is pretty accurately portrayed, so there's that). Source: my father worked in nuclear power for 35 years (including the time during this event), and was intimately familiar with the disaster and the reactor type involved. He also created nuclear cleanup procedures at a contaminated Superfund site that used to manufacture atomic bomb triggers.
That’s an unfortunate takeaway people have from this series. Nuclear energy is actually an incredibly safe zero-emission energy source. Both Fukushima and Chernobyl were predicted years in advance and could have been prevented. The real tragedy was the Soviets response to the disaster as well as the poor state of their nuclear program in general. Also, many people may be surprised to hear they can receive more radiation on a commercial airlines flight than some place inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/is-radiation-safe.aspx
Definitely. I’d put it up there with the 1st season of True Detective & the first 4 seasons of Game of Thrones as the best television produced in the last 10 years.
It's a masterpiece of drama and the cinematography that goes with it. Unfortunately, it's based on a historical event that it distorts beyond belief. Now thanks to the impact this very well-made series made, lots of people think that these characters actually were like this IRL back in 1986, like the crazed villain Dyatlov etc. It's nothing short of character assassination, and quite distasteful. The rest of the let's say "liberties" HBO took certainly don't help either... IMO, they should've just made up fictitious names for their characters in the series, since the script already portrayed them as doing and saying things they didn't actually do. That would have been more courteous... Most of all, I feel for Lyudmila, who is exploited in the HBO series. She didn't agree to any of it, but they used her name and likeness, and stole her stories in verbatim from her testimonials to Alexievich, and then they added things around it to distort it all to make it more dramatic and better suited for a drama series, yet they kept her name without her (or the author Alexievich's) consent. Neither Lyudmila or Svetlana received a dime, or were even credited, HBO just stole their stories and as if that wasn't anough, it messed around with them, falsifying stuff. Incredibly shitty behavior. But hey, it's the entertainment industry. And some poor retirees in the former USSR can't win a legal battle against Hollywood giants. So they're being exploited and being lied about, and nobody can do anything about it.
@@archstanton664 I mean, there's only so much realism they can show when your internal organs are literally turned to mush (and you are still alive somehow) etc. It's just, horrible stuff.
@@archstanton664 The depiction in the show isn't very ralistic though... I saw a documentary where one of the nurse who treated people from Chernobyl and she was reacting to some scenes of the show and said it didn't look like that at all.
Regarding the management's reactions: You have to put this in the context of the old Soviet Union. Although the USSR of the 1980s was very different from the old Stalinist days, state workers in jobs like these could still face severe consequences for screw-ups at their job. It was still a police state, and anyone could easily be stripped of their job, position and sent to Siberian labor camps or (worse) KGB prisons.
It was a time and place where if the boss (the party official or the chief engineer) said white was black, everybody, except an incredibly brave few, would say, "Man, that's black!" even if it was as white as driven snow. It was also a time where hardly anyone had the courage to take responsibility for their actions, because the system was almost designed to make somebody the fall-guy for failures...because failures didn't happen in the worker's paradise. And the series does a good job capturing that mental and emotional landscape, even as it had to compress some things for the sake of the script. A great series.
@@douglasdaniel4504 Exactly- gotta keep in mind soviet system mentality- ussr boasted/claimed to be the best country, the best system and nuclear power industry was one of it's proud achievements. And in a time of a cold war such event is a huge blast to ussr's self proclaimed superpower state status, it's prestige. No wonder ussr admitted(were forced to) the catastrophe just couple of days later- after radiation was detected somewhere in west countries(coming from chernobyl). Note what the old official in bunker said- he felt, kinda foresaw the theatening impact this event potentially may have(on system, of course, not the people- people were just means, the goal was communist state)- so, basically, whatever happens, whatever the cost - we must save ussr's prestige, must keep the system running etc for the sake of soviet people themselves (shielding system with pseudomoralistic propagandistic cliches). Very much like keeping cattle in a farm stall. And it's an appropriate decision- from a self preserving system's standpoint, of course. Ironically enough, I think this is one of the reasons that "paradise" fell apart- and I thank God for that.
Distance and time are the killers with radiation. Imagine a radiative source, like the graphite piece the firefighter picked up. The radiation is streaming out in all directions creating a spherical shape with the graphite at the center. The closer you get, the more radiation you receive per second. The only thing to do is to move away. It's like moving away from a light bulb, the light gets less intense as you get distance. However, length of exposure matters too. It's a constant stream of radiation. Distance will help, but if you keep getting exposed, the damage is cumulative. It just keeps getting worse and worse. You just have to get as far away as possible as quickly as you can.
Its called the inverse square law. Imagine a pyramid with its top point touching your imagined sphere. As you go towards the base of the pyramid and away from the ball the same amount of radiative energy is spread four times as much per unit of distance. One inch of movement away from radiation cuts the dose of exposure by a factor of four, and that scales. 4 inches aways means 1/16 the exposure concentration. The total rads radiated are constant but they have to keep "spreading" to abide by the laws of physics.
@@IH8YH Radiation burn is a bit of an ambiguous point in the context of nuclear reactors though relative to sunburn. With the sun's light at ground level on Earth you are talking UV electromagnetic (EM) radiation only, albeit enough to cause long term damage (possibly cancers) to your skin under constant exposure over weeks to months. This is because that light has traveled millions of miles through space losing energy along the way as it spreads out and then lost further as much of the energy is absorbed by the miles of Earth's thick atmosphere. Contrasted to an open nuclear reactor which is belching out alpha (isotopic nuclei) and beta (sub atomic - ie neutrons, protons and electrons) radiation particles, as well as gamme (high intensity EM) photons. Each of the successive types of radiation become more dangerous as alpha is large enough to be stopped by a sheet of paper, beta can penetrate further and gamma needs relatively thick lead shielding to offer any protection at all. The radiation has much less difference to travel too vs the sun.
Aside from getting farther away you can always put stuff between you and the radiation source. Lead, water or concrete are good shielding materials. So the people inside a building with thick concrete walls should not receive significant amounts of radiation... unless of course radioactive dust is carried inside by air or stuck on people that went outside.
The guy who propped open the radiation room door and had a smoke while water dripped down actually survived the radiation. He had a lot of surgery and had to wear bandages for several years, but he lived and even did a few documentaries about the event.
Yeah, that's the thing I actually didn't like about the show. They overplay a few things, like the guy who just randomly starts bleeding. Relatively few people (given everything that happened) died of acute radiation exposure as a result of Chernobyl. Most of the evacuated people didn't, and even a lot of the emergency people we see in the show didn't. The really scary thing is that, had it not been contained, it would have killed a lot of people, especially in the longterm via cancer. There was a small uptick in cancer in some parts of Europe, but it could have been so much worse.
@@rostikskobkariov5136 It was touch and go for a bit for him. He said what saved him was getting transferred to Berlin where they were able to do some micro surgery on him to transfer blood veins to the parts of his body affected by radiation. I wish they had shown that some of the guys did make it, and were able to live on afterwards. I think for me, Akimov was the most tragic story. Unlike Dyatlov, he stayed with his men and tried to stop things from getting worse. And he wanted to live so badly. If you have the stomach for it, you can read the recounting from his wife who talked about how upset he got when it became clear he wasn't going to make it. I wish the show had given a little more light to Akimov's actions during the show and the fact that he was honored by his people for his actions at Chernobyl.
The disaster portrayal in the first episode almost felt like an alien invasion; they did such a great job of making the danger feel mysterious and terrifying in the moment.
The actor who played the guy doing the test and was completely lying to everyone sadly passed away to cancer last year. He was in a British sitcom playing the father and in the series finale which was more of a behind the scenes segment his cast members said goodbye to him. It was lovely. (The show is called Friday night dinners) RIP.
I was a kid in Germany when it happened, i don't remember but my parents told me, because of the radiation, we (the children) were all in quarantaine, we couldn't go out to the park to play, could go outside or eat many things.
I was a kid in Sweden when it happened and there where a lot of public warnings about the fallout cloud that was reaching the country. I remember we couldnt pick berries because of the radiation risk.
As a matter of fact: In Bavaria it is still mandatory that any wild boar is tested before it is allowed to be sold. The events of the past still affect us today.
There are so many apologists for nuclear power around these days because they believe it to be a solution for climate change. And I'd like to have each of them kiss the Elephant's Foot like it's the Blarney Stone before they open their damn mouths.
@@stefanstiefsohn5398 number of People that have ever died in a private comersial ractor meltdown: 0 People that died in rewenewable; ~35/year... in uk alone What is your argument?
This is a harrowing show. You guys are in for a ride... One of the best shows in years. There's also a Chernobyl podcast for all the episodes with the writer and showrunner of the series on TH-cam. One of the things he discusses is what actually happened, what didn't, and the process for choosing what went in to the show. They do discuss spoilers for episodes, so best to watch, then listen. Incredibly informative.
Yeah.. I'm ready for this show again. As someone in another comment section once said... "Everyone is Gangsta until the nuclear fuel rods start dancing."
My dad and I watched this series and he (an engineer) told me that his company adopted a lot of new safety standards due to Chernobyl. He said it was insane to watch it unfold in real time on tv, and it was really crazy later when he learned that everything he saw/heard had been so heavily filtered and redacted.
And today? Just look back a year or so: 'It's going to disappear, one day, it's like a miracle, it disappears ...' th-cam.com/video/r8yOv4PwttM/w-d-xo.html
I was 7 years old when this happened. It's the first major global news event I actually remember following. It might not be an easy watch, but it is utterly compelling and an important piece of Television that should be viewed by everyone, at least once.
7:44 Medusa Eyes: they're looking exactly into the opened core, which means, basically, watching death into the eyes. I'm really happy you chosed to watch this series guys (it's a real 5/5 stars!), but be prepared to the next episodes, because you will see some serious brutal scenes.
Radiation basically shreds your DNA at the molecular level and your body responds by liquefying from the inside. If you’re exposed a little further away, that DNA damage isn’t as quickly destructive, but it results in cancer throughout your body. This series gave me nightmares.
Horrifying. How I understood it is that your DNA gets damaged and your body basicaly stops the renewing and replacing processes, immune system goes down. Not replacing the cells with new ones, you are stuck with what you have in your dying damaged body. When that starts eventualy failing...well, you're done 🤔
The DNA shredding does not cause the rest of your body to liquefy. DNA shredding is what causes the cancers for those who were not exposed badly enough to die within days/weeks of exposure. The liquification occurs because of that same radiation causing excessive damage to the membranes that surround all the important metabolic machinery (DNA/RNA/ribosomes/mitochondria etc) within our cells and keep it from escaping or getting contaminated. The membranes also bind each individual cell to its neighbour, allowing cellular tissue to form and stay together over time - those tissues together form our organs. So when you drastically weaken the stability of individual cell membranes it's a domino effect that destroys the entire body. Once that breakdown happens the normal bodily processes/movements will tear the weakened cell membranes apart gradually over time. The pressure of the blood pumping around the body is more than enough to strain an already weakened structure, just imagine how far blood can jet out the body when you are cut deeply to realise how much pressure the blood vessels are normally containing. Not to mention the continuous movements we make without even meaning too, each little twitch will only hasten the breakdown. In all honestly the best you could do for someone at that level of exposure is to inject them with a fast working poison directly into the brain so that it does not have enough time to dilute into the body with all the degraded blood vessels leaking into various organs.
No, you totaöy confused two things. Also, its mostly not true. 1: radiation sickness. Its when ypu get som much radiativity that loads of cells die, to fast to replace. This is the same kind of damage as a sun burn, but in all of the body. It have nothing to do with dna. The other part is cancer, that is when dna us damage. The thing is that dna is automatically repared. So there have to be a lot of damage. To this Day science is unsure how god od a conection there is betweem radioactivity and cancer. On of the problem is chernbyl. A lot of data is from cherbobyl, when ussr broke down cancer spiked, this coloered the data. There is a simular effect in Japan where they lossed to war right after the nukes, also colloring the data. Removed collored data the levels need to be rather high before cancer is likely. It would seam as the conection between medical x-ray and cancer dont exist... at least as far as proven.
@@matsv201 you’re misunderstanding . I’m talking about the men that worked inside the facility. They were exposed directly to the highest level of radiation. It accurately showed the men bleeding out of their skin. They died within minutes.
Radiation poisoning is so scary, and frankly terrifying to even comprehend. Much, much scarier than any horror film monster anybody could ever come up with, and a realistic danger that still exists today. Keep tissues nearby, you'll need them! Great reactions.
The problem with radiation posining is that its nothing like in the tv series, including this one. Also, its very rare. Non of the first respondets died of it (check it up)
@@matsv201 Correct, actual ARS looks different. But even the *Soviet* official count lists about 30 deaths among the first responders. And in the end, if the coroner writes "heart failure", he's not lying either, and hey presto, that person hasn't died from ARS *officially*...
@@DevSolar yes of cause, there was quite a few death, but a lot of People, mostly with a agenda, want to belive there is a conspiracy of coverup and while this is not totaly uncalled for in the ussr that did do a lot of coverups, there is very little evidance of one in the Tjernobyl case, probobly due to being so very close to the end of the cold war. This compared to the dam that broke in China thag took decades to know the full death told from.
@@matsv201 What do you mean by first responders?Because, if you mean firefighters, they actually died from it, not all of them,but still..Also, check on youtube Chernobyl: Radiation effects of RBMK explosion, real ! The effects of radiaition poisoning maybe not exactly like how it is depicted on the show,particularly regarding Ignatenko's case, but you have to consider that the effects may change from day to day or week to week and some of the pictures in real life maybe not in the final state of the patients.Igantenko's wife also wrote in the book Midnight In Chernobyl that her husband's had different color skin from day to day and parts of hs liver was coming out of his mouth, a really horrific and gruesome thing
It’s interesting how in every reaction video I watch of the first video, almost everyone assumed that one guy with the bloody face was like that because of radiation. He only managed to live that long because he was standing on the top level of the turbine hall. Sadly his coworker who was on the main floor got crushed by the rubble when the pumps fractured and impacted because of the explosion.
Radiation poisoning is fairly non-intuitive. The line between what is imminently fatal and what could still allow for a fairly long life can be pretty hard to distinguish. Some things you would assume would kill you may not while other kinds of exposure will kill you within days or weeks.
If you're in the same building as a core erupting, you can guarantee your days are numbered. The only 'if' comes from those who were at the distance of Pripyat.
At a minimum, radiation exposure follows the inverse square law. The amount of radiation you receive decreases with the distance (from the source) squared. So at 2 meters you get 1/4 exposure, 100 meters you get 1/10,000 the exposure, etc.
@@juvandy yes, the key factors are how intensely radioactive the source is, your proximity to it and the time spent in proximity to it. If particles in the air are contaminated and they get into your lungs or stick to your skin they can do more damage. Technically there is a difference between alpha, beta and gamma radiation too but I cant remember all the differences.
@@nachgeben Well not exactly, most of the people in chernobyl power plant survived and people worked there until 2000, actively generating power on the remaining reactors. And they are still working there today under the new dome, dismantling everything and disposing of it. Eventually the whole building will have been processed and removed.
@@TBRSchmitt Yeah. U watched the entire Series multiple times and even watched the Show Directors Interview. They researched everything, spoke to Families and Eyewittness accounts. It tolk them over 1 year of Research and travelling before the Series was even created.
I love that a couple of these actors had the previous year been in the show The Terror which was my favorite show of 2018, and then this was my favorite show of 2019
This is quite possibly one of the top ten pieces of media ever created. It's horrifying, it's incredibly well shot and told, and it's about something that actually happened. You've got some difficult episodes ahead, but stick with them, be assured that all the questions you have as you watch this will be answered by the end.
Fun fact/Spoiler?? I dunno, it's history: The two workers who shared a smoke together near the end of the episode- the guy who held the door open and the one with glasses, both survived. I believe they have both passed away now, but knowing you've survived this is incredible.
“Survived” is relative lol. The guy who held the door lived in agony for 20 years, and had to get multiple skin grafts on his side where he held the door.
I remember talking about it in school the day after it happened, teachers told us all about how radiation works and how the detectors in my country were set off. It's an incredibly scary thing but also an utterly fascinating one.
The frustration begins!! It's pretty accurate for the main stuff. They condensed some things and expanded others. The "fun" part is after watching looking up all the real people and events to compare You guys said you didn't know anything about radiation or power plants, you will soon.......
well, RBMK reactors anyways. Pretty much everything else on the planet operates on almost wholly different principles, sharing only the most basic theory of function with graphite 'piles' like this one.
My favorite reaction channel by a mile and it's criminal you don't have more subs. What I really appreciate is you actually react to things like normal people and don't exaggerate and play dumb like some other reaction channels.
This is very true... You have to know, in USSR there weren't a place for mistakes. They want to believe that USSR is the greatest country in the world. If you didn't agree with this, the goverment was able even to kill you. Very, very dark times. I remember this catastrophy, I live in Poland...
Exactly. I think the best modern day comparison is to ask people what they would think would happen if Chernobyl happened in China. That seems to bring perspective as to the actions of these people.
Bless you and your family. So much suffering happened in the land of my fathers. I can't imagine life under the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, in America we are seeing some of this dark history repeat itself. God help our future generations.
When the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident happened in the US, we were VERY lucky to have Jimmy Carter for president. He had a degree in engineering, had worked on a nuclear sub program, and knew EXACTLY the severity at every juncture, the right questions to ask, the right actions to approve. He actually was a pretty great president (negotiated a lasting peace between Egypt and Israel, negotiated the bloodless release of 52 American hostages of 444 days in the Iranian hostage crisis, and truly cares about the little guy...)
In this series, they did an amazing job of giving the released radiation this looming presence that it almost feels like a character of its own. Its like this insidious serial killer that can't be seen or stopped.
I've been an aficionado of horror and suspense for almost forty years, always searching for new ways to feel fear and tension - but I gotta say, that first few chapters of Chernobyl may be the most terrifying hours I have ever seen.
I was born in January 1986. I am Scottish and that year the UK had some of the radiation fall on it after winds had blown it our way, it fell on the UK in the form of toxic rain. 9,000 British farms were affected by sale restrictions for fear of the radiation being in the crops and animals. My parents told me how scared they were when they heard of the disaster at the time, especially with a three month old baby to think about. I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been for those more drastically and directly affected (although this show certainly helped with imagining it). Very scary to think that this literally happened in my lifetime and I'm only 35!!!!
OK, I clicked the sub-button now. You deserve it after watching this horror. Being a ten year old German kid in Berlin-West at that time I remember vividly 1986, first the Challenger desaster, then Chernobyl. No going out for a full spring, no milk. We "buried" our vegetable garden we had back then. When this show came out, I stumbled over it in my mothers place (she has sky channels), and it was "the horror". I literaly shivered in front of the TV and it was hot summer. After the second episode I had to force my mom to keep on watching it, such a harrowing experience, especially for those who were already afraid of it back in 1986.
If you’ve seen the Harry Potter films, you might recognize the guy who played Fomin, the plant manager with glasses and receding hairline. He played Harry’s dad!
There was a companion podcast for this show that goes episode by episode talking about how they made it, what was real, what editorial changes they made(very few but sensible).
It's so insane that the explosion happens exactly at 1:23:45...There are things in life that are so precise and unique, you just can imagine them to be real ! Numerologist are still going crazy over this one !
Actually quite many of the workers and the firemen were saved with long treatments. Thats why the "official" death count is 31. Of course latter death count is probaply 10000 times higher.
The way this series presents true-to-life events as a horror story is masterful. Definitely suggest checking out the filmmakers' supplemental materials (they did a podcast) discussing and analyzing the process of putting the actual events into a narrative structure. The showrunner Craig Mazin is also in charge of The Last of Us adaptation, which, considering how well he captured the apocalyptic tone here has me actually very excited for that series.
This. The podcasts answer a ton of questions that just couldn't be explained in the show without bogging the narrative down. I enjoyed the podcasts as much as the actual show.
Stellan Skarsgard and Jared Harris are brilliant in this - starting out hating each other (govt vs scientist) then growing to respect what each can and cannot do. Awards went to both actors.
One thing to remember, this took place in the Soviet Union. Pretty much everything of their nuclear program was a state secret. NO ONE who lived close were ever told of the dangers of radiation.
Excellent series and excellent reactors? What a nice surprise. It will be awesome to experience this with you guys over the next few weeks. Thanks for giving us some fantastic content to look forward to and keep up the great work!
Radiation "COOKS YOU ALIVE"! This is the scariest horror film of the past decade! That site will be lethal and deadly for a thousand of years. I got so anxious and stressed by the first episode that I didn't watch any further episodes!
This was part of the reason the USSR collapsed. The nuclear disasters they've had before were covered up, but in the late 80's you cant hurt this many people and not get found out.
One of the best HBO has done since Band of Brothers and The Pacific! It’ll make you really angry with the secrecy, terrified at what could’ve happened, and eternally grateful for the people who helped with the prevention of everything
I'm from Russia and I was a child, when this accident happened. But I remember how everyone were really nervous about radioactive contamination, despite the fact that we were living very far away, no one knew nothing and a lot of rumors were spreading around. This series catched up the atmosphere pretty accurate, this is one of the most realistic portray of what happend there. Sorry for my bad English.
@@serge470 Bro this isn't a dissertation, it's a TH-cam comment. It isn't "The Queen's English" but, it is just fine for the purpose it serves: getting his point across. Definitely nothing to apologise for. English isn't my first language either, so I get where he's coming from, given all these grammar Nazis on here. Being able to comment without the anxiety of your every word & syntax concord being under scrutiny is what will help him become better from more practice. Instead he feels the need to apologize because of an insecurity that was placed on him by people that could never write a single sentence in Russian throughout the entirety of their existence.
I don't know if I've ever watched a more perfect mini-series. Not a SINGLE second of this series was wasted on a filler or some sort of worthless story that is normally necessary to bridge to the next meaningful scene. I think I said out loud to myself, "I can't believe this really happened" at least 50 times per EPISODE! I think all other mini-series should be measured against Chernobyl. Just amazing television! You two do a great job of reacting and talking through what you're watching. Subscribed!
in 1986 when this happened Gorbachev was only in his first year of being General Secretary and you had many Soviet hardliners who were still in from the Chernenko, Andropov, Brezhnev, Khrushchev eras in various positions of power. Their job was to control the people and keep them believing that the Soviet/Communist system works and that everything was fine. After this event Gorbachev went about removing such hardliners from positions of power and bringing in new, younger communists to help fix the country which would eventually collapse some five years after this event
This series was so great! I'm glad you guys are doing a reaction to it. I loved the series. It was appropriately dark and heavy, and it did a great job with explaining the incident as well as the lessons we learned (or should have learned) from it.
@@TBRSchmitt I love Sam's reaction to the music.. Hildur Guðnadóttir is one of my favorite composers and she fucking nailed the tone for this show. She's an Icelandic cellist/vocalist/musician, and she recently won an Oscar for the score to Joker
I highly recommend reading "Midnight at Chernobyl" by Adam Higginbotham when you're done the series. The show is great, but as always the book fleshes things out and paints some characters in a slightly different light. Great, fast read.
I am from Austria and i remember that day very well! I lived far away to be in real danger, but there were days, we should stay at home, because if the wind brought the particles in our direction, it was a risk to go outside! Greetings from Austria!
Здравствуйте! Thank you for watching Chernobyl. Please keep in mind that the general public, and even many working at the power plant, had not been fully informed as to the risks of radiation; This will explain much of their behaviour throughout the series. It is not intentional ignorance, but at the time, even in the West the average citizen did not have much information on how nuclear power functioned and what damage could be caused. This led to protests in the West after Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania, but in Russia, this information was largely supressed until Chernobyl began to result in somewhat more public awareness of nuclear risks. Please look up the prior accidents, Kyshtym and Mayak as well as Chelyabinsk, to understand more if you would like. Also, not only was most nuclear information not public knowledge at that time, but there were very few places to learn about it; Remember the internet was not an option, and no average local library carried this type of academic text unless it was a science university! So if you find yourself being frustrated at people's actions, please remember with compassion that there was no way anyone could know. And the people who did know, kept it secret... EDIT: Also, NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH, but the IAEA has real accident reports for nuclear incidents available publicly online. If you wish to learn even more about these types of situations, there are many files such as this one for you to read: www.iaea.org/publications/10602/the-radiological-accident-in-lia-georgia However, please, please read with caution, as these reports contain medical information.
Thank you for watching this. The radiation was unbelievably powerful. My mother actually contacted and died from a rare cancer from working as a nurse in the radiology ward in a hospital. It's absolutely nothing to fuck around with. And yes, at that level, these people are in a sense melting from the inside out
"This is going to be a roller-coaster... of a series" You know how at the start of a roller-coaster ride you have that *BIG* first drop and your heart goes into your throat and you're screaming your head off and you think you're going to die... And the bottom of that drop finally comes and you can breathe... Maybe even let out a laugh and enjoy the rest of the ride? Yeah... There's no bottom with this one.
Welcome to the Soviet Union. There’s nothing wrong here everything is perfect and fine. And if you say other wise the KGB visits you and you disappear forever without a trace
I know it’s meant to be a grim joke, but “disappearing” people was more of a Stalin-era thing. Although the post-Stalin periods were varying shades of repressive and KGB surveillance was an ever-present thing, consequences were usually different though perhaps no less insidious and harmful.
You're right! The Soviet Union was a great country, where people had huge social guarantees, the best medical insurance in Europe, free education for everyone and on every level, no racism, no gender inequalities. If you worked hard at your workplace, the government gave you an apartment or a house if you lived in the countryside (for free), if you worked even harder, the government gave you a car (again for free). Soviet people never complained about living anywhere in the USSR because they had everything they ever needed. A dream social oriented country. Speaking of the KGB... these guys were real heroes of their country. Moreover, they didn't have to visit any "inconvenient" civilian. They had some more important stuff to do, like going after CIA or MI6 spies or going overseas to spy on western people.
@@alexanderberto3699 Found the Tankie. Funny how millions of Eastern Europeans would completely disagree with you. You know. The people who actually lived under Soviet occupation.
I'm not the type of person to watch films or TV shows multiple times (Once you've seen it you know whats going to happen) I've watched this 5 or 6 six times. One of the best TV shows I've ever seen and I'm 53 this year.
This show is really scary because it was real... And the scariest part (to me) was that when this happened, I was 5 years old. So this is not even something that "happened before my time" or something "that happened a long time ago". It was real and still is, since the surrounding area is still a forbidden zone because of the amount of radiation still present in it.
keep in mind that most "mainstream known info" about radiation, was learned from this accident and normal people basically had no idea. and you couldn't say you were at fault, or you just got shot..
If you are ever in a position where you are going to be exposed to Iodine, make sure to bring your own. The thing with Iodine is that it is essential for your body and it binds to the gland. If you consume the radioactive version then you are stuck with it in your gland, so people in these situations take regular iodine as a preventative.
Chernobyl is so unique...it has the tone of a psychological horror movie...until you realize its very real , it happened and is very viceral at the same time...A little taste of apocalypse that the people of Pripyat at to suffer too...One of the best mini-serie of the decade easy !
It's not unique. It's not even extraordinary. This is the result of people who believe in socialism, in any of it's forms. Period. It is the ideology that created the system that enabled this horror show, and so many others. It WAS real Socialism. Period. It ALWAYS ends this way. Period. Every single time. In every place it's ever been tried. Just like all the instances in this first episode of people denying reality, it is the stark reality that Socialism causes disaster that people delude themselves into believing isn't real.
The 1st episode left everyone so confused. As it goes on and you start to understand everything it makes you furious! RIP to Legasov & Shcherbina and the countless other heros. 🙏
Really glad you are reacting to this GREAT show! And horrifying history! From what I've read, the show is pretty accurate - very accurate for only 5 hours. So that makes it even more immediate. They even based some of the scenes off of real footage. The acting is a-mazing! Especially seeing Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgaard playing off of each other. What's very scary is the containment structure that cost billions is already close to 35 years old and will only last 100 years. Yikes.
Gotta remember, this is the Soviet Union. The wrath of the government could be worse than radiation. The belief of country over personal liability is prevalent. Failure is not acceptable. And secrecy is paramount. At least that’s what we were taught as American kids in the 80’s!
I read Midnight at Chernobyl and one person they did not characterize was an architect of Pripyat, the city next to the Chernobyl power plant. The military wanted the city plans but she only had one copy. She couldn’t make copies with a copier because only the KGB had access to copy machines, so she had to make hand drawn copies of the plans. Mind blowing. 🤯
In the 80's Russia no one dared pass on bad news. During the cold war anything that shows failure had to be hidden from the world. Nothing was allowed to diminish for the reputation of the great soviet state. for a good example of this look up the death of Vladimir Komarov's.3.5 is HUGE exposure is normally measured in MILI rems as in 0.001 rems.
A terrible disaster, but wish HBO hadn't played with known facts for dramatic effect. There was virtually no smoke after the initial explosion and fire, the bridge of death is also disputed. There are other factually incorrect incidents like this later in the series. Some of these incidents can been seen from video of the actual disaster. Frustrating because the story is powerful enough and the series is a very dramatic account.
The series is actually fairly accurate. They changed the timeline of the helicopter colliding with the crane cable, and exaggerated a bit how some of the radiation burns looked/bled, changed Legasovs academic background a bit, and had to have the compilation character. They take some heat for repeating the story about the miscarriage due to radiation, but that account came from the mother herself. And she may have very well been told that, as it was a common radiation myth in the USSR at the time, and some medical professionals might not have known better due to the USSR heavily restricting access to radiation information, or it was an over precaution since some bodies still had radioactive material lodged in them, hence the zinc and concrete coffins.
They also passed probably more blame from Akimov to dyatlov than they should have, but overall I’d say it was an accurate show. It has caused some misconceptions and perhaps unnecessary fear about nuclear energy/radiation in general, but was still a great watch.
SPOILER ALERT!! completely agree,the physics in it is generally terrible,and the biggest thing that upsets me with this,that "In theese stories it doesnt matter who the heroes are all we want to know is who is to blame" and I feel this show makes you dispise dyatlov so much,and when you research you realise that dispite him being a bad boss,an arrogant man,and while he knowingly disregarded safety rules(he did it because they were made by people who had no idea what they writing,and he knew not to test them) this accident was maximum 5% his mistake,we all know he was blamed in a showtrial,that is why he was not killed for it,but people tend to forget this,people focuses so much hating dyatlov(even the normal things he does upsets everyone,like calling the day shift in,thats their job,yes its dangerous to go there but someone has to) that people forget to concentrate on the heros,also the show is not correct with legasov's character.I love that it raised people to realise to heros here,and i really appreciate that,but also its made in a way to focus more on hating,then sacrifice,even in the epilogue,what they did with Ludmyla though is unforgivable.The thing is with this show,some footage are so accurate that people forget to separate facts from fiction,and they act on it real life.Its so two sided show,a part you appriciate and the other part is "half-truth maniplution" or just completely made up.
An astonishing episode of television that completely captivated and infuriated Sam and me! Can't wait to watch this miniseries!
Thank you for all the support!
3.6 roentgen, not great, not terrible
If you guys are interested in the history behind the show, I would highly recommend listening to the podcasts! There is a companion podcast for each episode where they interview the writer of the show. Important to note that each podcast cover only the corresponding episode and do not have spoilers for future episodes
I'd watch something light and humorous after this, to cleanse the palate after The Pacific and Chernobyl. Thanks for tackling this though, and hope you enjoy the series 🙂
I hope you two watch one episode after another and not wait several days in between. It is only 5 hours in total and should be watched with nothing else in between. Hope you guys will upload multiple episodes, in chernobyl things just get started. :) One of the best mini series of all time after Band of Brothers. Enjoy.
This is a really good show, it's one of the better dramas to come out in the last few years. Just be aware that while excellent, it's not a documentary and not agenda-free; while events are generally quite accurate, the story was written with a bias toward survivors' recollections rather than pure objective reality. Radiation is scary stuff, but it's not quite as bad as it's portrayed here - it's a well-understood danger and not "magical space cooties". A few of the medical cases shown later are flat-out inaccurate for the sake of drama as well. Know that going in and you'll get a lot out of the show (the general Soviet paranoia and blame-laying is pretty accurately portrayed, so there's that).
Source: my father worked in nuclear power for 35 years (including the time during this event), and was intimately familiar with the disaster and the reactor type involved. He also created nuclear cleanup procedures at a contaminated Superfund site that used to manufacture atomic bomb triggers.
"This music is freaking me out." The same year, the composer did the score for Joker, which got her an Oscar.
A lot of the score took sounds from a working power plant.
@@paulhewes7333 plagiarism!
@@paulhewes7333 the whole score
Ghosts, slashers, extra terrestrials don't scare me. THIS scares me.
Amen to that!
Yeah man, this show got me with absolute silence and just some clicking.
And Democrats
@@dabbadoo2226 what are you even talking about...
That’s an unfortunate takeaway people have from this series. Nuclear energy is actually an incredibly safe zero-emission energy source. Both Fukushima and Chernobyl were predicted years in advance and could have been prevented. The real tragedy was the Soviets response to the disaster as well as the poor state of their nuclear program in general. Also, many people may be surprised to hear they can receive more radiation on a commercial airlines flight than some place inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/is-radiation-safe.aspx
might be the best miniseries in the last decade, grueling but so good
Definitely. I’d put it up there with the 1st season of True Detective & the first 4 seasons of Game of Thrones as the best television produced in the last 10 years.
I agree. I'd put this up there with True Detective as well.
D A R K
The Terror
It's a masterpiece of drama and the cinematography that goes with it. Unfortunately, it's based on a historical event that it distorts beyond belief. Now thanks to the impact this very well-made series made, lots of people think that these characters actually were like this IRL back in 1986, like the crazed villain Dyatlov etc. It's nothing short of character assassination, and quite distasteful. The rest of the let's say "liberties" HBO took certainly don't help either...
IMO, they should've just made up fictitious names for their characters in the series, since the script already portrayed them as doing and saying things they didn't actually do. That would have been more courteous...
Most of all, I feel for Lyudmila, who is exploited in the HBO series. She didn't agree to any of it, but they used her name and likeness, and stole her stories in verbatim from her testimonials to Alexievich, and then they added things around it to distort it all to make it more dramatic and better suited for a drama series, yet they kept her name without her (or the author Alexievich's) consent. Neither Lyudmila or Svetlana received a dime, or were even credited, HBO just stole their stories and as if that wasn't anough, it messed around with them, falsifying stuff. Incredibly shitty behavior.
But hey, it's the entertainment industry. And some poor retirees in the former USSR can't win a legal battle against Hollywood giants. So they're being exploited and being lied about, and nobody can do anything about it.
"I don't know what radiation poisoning does..."
You will soon...
It's truly a nightmare on every system within the human body.
And I heard that HBO toned it down a bit just because it was so bad.
@@archstanton664 That's why in the hospital you never see Akimov's face as she is interviewing them....
@@archstanton664 I mean, there's only so much realism they can show when your internal organs are literally turned to mush (and you are still alive somehow) etc. It's just, horrible stuff.
@@archstanton664 The depiction in the show isn't very ralistic though... I saw a documentary where one of the nurse who treated people from Chernobyl and she was reacting to some scenes of the show and said it didn't look like that at all.
Regarding the management's reactions: You have to put this in the context of the old Soviet Union. Although the USSR of the 1980s was very different from the old Stalinist days, state workers in jobs like these could still face severe consequences for screw-ups at their job. It was still a police state, and anyone could easily be stripped of their job, position and sent to Siberian labor camps or (worse) KGB prisons.
It was a time and place where if the boss (the party official or the chief engineer) said white was black, everybody, except an incredibly brave few, would say, "Man, that's black!" even if it was as white as driven snow. It was also a time where hardly anyone had the courage to take responsibility for their actions, because the system was almost designed to make somebody the fall-guy for failures...because failures didn't happen in the worker's paradise. And the series does a good job capturing that mental and emotional landscape, even as it had to compress some things for the sake of the script. A great series.
@@douglasdaniel4504 Exactly- gotta keep in mind soviet system mentality- ussr boasted/claimed to be the best country, the best system and nuclear power industry was one of it's proud achievements. And in a time of a cold war such event is a huge blast to ussr's self proclaimed superpower state status, it's prestige. No wonder ussr admitted(were forced to) the catastrophe just couple of days later- after radiation was detected somewhere in west countries(coming from chernobyl). Note what the old official in bunker said- he felt, kinda foresaw the theatening impact this event potentially may have(on system, of course, not the people- people were just means, the goal was communist state)- so, basically, whatever happens, whatever the cost - we must save ussr's prestige, must keep the system running etc for the sake of soviet people themselves (shielding system with pseudomoralistic propagandistic cliches). Very much like keeping cattle in a farm stall. And it's an appropriate decision- from a self preserving system's standpoint, of course. Ironically enough, I think this is one of the reasons that "paradise" fell apart- and I thank God for that.
yup, i was gonna come and say the exact same thing. the USSR is a completely different beast.
The people in the higher echelons particularly the party boss who made the decision to cut Communications worked under Stalin
@@JITKanno0 And don't forget. It was named the Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant. That particular plant BETTER NOT explode.
Distance and time are the killers with radiation. Imagine a radiative source, like the graphite piece the firefighter picked up. The radiation is streaming out in all directions creating a spherical shape with the graphite at the center. The closer you get, the more radiation you receive per second. The only thing to do is to move away. It's like moving away from a light bulb, the light gets less intense as you get distance. However, length of exposure matters too. It's a constant stream of radiation. Distance will help, but if you keep getting exposed, the damage is cumulative. It just keeps getting worse and worse. You just have to get as far away as possible as quickly as you can.
Its called the inverse square law. Imagine a pyramid with its top point touching your imagined sphere. As you go towards the base of the pyramid and away from the ball the same amount of radiative energy is spread four times as much per unit of distance. One inch of movement away from radiation cuts the dose of exposure by a factor of four, and that scales. 4 inches aways means 1/16 the exposure concentration. The total rads radiated are constant but they have to keep "spreading" to abide by the laws of physics.
Remember that our SUN is a constant radioactive explosion as well..... Sunburn is basically Radiation burn.
Protection matters too.
Having lead lined clothing/suits makes a difference.
@@IH8YH Radiation burn is a bit of an ambiguous point in the context of nuclear reactors though relative to sunburn.
With the sun's light at ground level on Earth you are talking UV electromagnetic (EM) radiation only, albeit enough to cause long term damage (possibly cancers) to your skin under constant exposure over weeks to months.
This is because that light has traveled millions of miles through space losing energy along the way as it spreads out and then lost further as much of the energy is absorbed by the miles of Earth's thick atmosphere.
Contrasted to an open nuclear reactor which is belching out alpha (isotopic nuclei) and beta (sub atomic - ie neutrons, protons and electrons) radiation particles, as well as gamme (high intensity EM) photons.
Each of the successive types of radiation become more dangerous as alpha is large enough to be stopped by a sheet of paper, beta can penetrate further and gamma needs relatively thick lead shielding to offer any protection at all.
The radiation has much less difference to travel too vs the sun.
Aside from getting farther away you can always put stuff between you and the radiation source. Lead, water or concrete are good shielding materials. So the people inside a building with thick concrete walls should not receive significant amounts of radiation... unless of course radioactive dust is carried inside by air or stuck on people that went outside.
The guy who propped open the radiation room door and had a smoke while water dripped down actually survived the radiation. He had a lot of surgery and had to wear bandages for several years, but he lived and even did a few documentaries about the event.
thats crazy. i thought for sure he'd die
Yeah, he lived and the guy with a moustache who gives him a cigarette lived too.
Yeah, that's the thing I actually didn't like about the show. They overplay a few things, like the guy who just randomly starts bleeding. Relatively few people (given everything that happened) died of acute radiation exposure as a result of Chernobyl. Most of the evacuated people didn't, and even a lot of the emergency people we see in the show didn't.
The really scary thing is that, had it not been contained, it would have killed a lot of people, especially in the longterm via cancer. There was a small uptick in cancer in some parts of Europe, but it could have been so much worse.
@@juvandy Eh, I question the official narrative from the Soviets a bit on who did or didn't die, how many died, etc.
@@rostikskobkariov5136 It was touch and go for a bit for him. He said what saved him was getting transferred to Berlin where they were able to do some micro surgery on him to transfer blood veins to the parts of his body affected by radiation. I wish they had shown that some of the guys did make it, and were able to live on afterwards. I think for me, Akimov was the most tragic story. Unlike Dyatlov, he stayed with his men and tried to stop things from getting worse. And he wanted to live so badly. If you have the stomach for it, you can read the recounting from his wife who talked about how upset he got when it became clear he wasn't going to make it. I wish the show had given a little more light to Akimov's actions during the show and the fact that he was honored by his people for his actions at Chernobyl.
The disaster portrayal in the first episode almost felt like an alien invasion; they did such a great job of making the danger feel mysterious and terrifying in the moment.
The actor who played the guy doing the test and was completely lying to everyone sadly passed away to cancer last year. He was in a British sitcom playing the father and in the series finale which was more of a behind the scenes segment his cast members said goodbye to him. It was lovely. (The show is called Friday night dinners) RIP.
Do you mean Dyatlov's actor Paul Ritter?
A shame he was clearly a great actor.
@@mnomadvfx yes
RIP Paul Ritter. He was great in this.
I was a kid in Germany when it happened, i don't remember but my parents told me, because of the radiation, we (the children) were all in quarantaine, we couldn't go out to the park to play, could go outside or eat many things.
I was a kid in Sweden when it happened and there where a lot of public warnings about the fallout cloud that was reaching the country. I remember we couldnt pick berries because of the radiation risk.
As a matter of fact: In Bavaria it is still mandatory that any wild boar is tested before it is allowed to be sold. The events of the past still affect us today.
episode 2
Special note for episode 2 (no spoiler): the dispatch calls/tones were the actual ones made the day of.
Supernatural stories are scary.
Chernobyl: Hold my elephant's foot.
There are so many apologists for nuclear power around these days because they believe it to be a solution for climate change. And I'd like to have each of them kiss the Elephant's Foot like it's the Blarney Stone before they open their damn mouths.
You need to have a look online regarding the Elephant foot today, apparently it's reactivity is increasing & they're not sure how to solve it.
@@bigbrockbear4963 no, you have listen to much tp Tabloid media, its not corect
@@stefanstiefsohn5398 number of People that have ever died in a private comersial ractor meltdown: 0
People that died in rewenewable; ~35/year... in uk alone
What is your argument?
@@matsv201 You are not worth my time. Since you already fail at basic spelling ("comersial ractor"), I consider you unfit for any further discussion.
This is a harrowing show. You guys are in for a ride... One of the best shows in years. There's also a Chernobyl podcast for all the episodes with the writer and showrunner of the series on TH-cam. One of the things he discusses is what actually happened, what didn't, and the process for choosing what went in to the show. They do discuss spoilers for episodes, so best to watch, then listen. Incredibly informative.
The composer of the score is an actual genius; she used sounds created by reactors to make some parts of the scores for the series.
Yeah.. I'm ready for this show again. As someone in another comment section once said... "Everyone is Gangsta until the nuclear fuel rods start dancing."
This one is going to get heavy.
Yeah... I'm sure we will keep seeing the effects of radiation as it spreads!
no, it will get light
@@TBRSchmitt It's not just the radiation that shocks you, it's the unbelievable corruption in the USSR.
There's that word again,heavy. Why are things so heavy in Chernobyl is there a problem with the nuclear core?
@@lito6062 Just put water through the core it'll be fine lol.
My dad and I watched this series and he (an engineer) told me that his company adopted a lot of new safety standards due to Chernobyl. He said it was insane to watch it unfold in real time on tv, and it was really crazy later when he learned that everything he saw/heard had been so heavily filtered and redacted.
"The official policy of the state is that a global nuclear catastrophe is not possible in the Soviet Union."
How stupid this sounds. It angers me. And another 'pearl'.
"Our power comes from the perception of our power."
🥴
@@manuela1986 "Trust but verify" That annoys me too.
@@clumsyturtle8544
Ikr. Like 'which one is it? Choose one!'
@@manuela1986 Yeah it's not trust if you have to check on them all the time is it.
And today? Just look back a year or so: 'It's going to disappear, one day, it's like a miracle, it disappears ...'
th-cam.com/video/r8yOv4PwttM/w-d-xo.html
I was 7 years old when this happened. It's the first major global news event I actually remember following.
It might not be an easy watch, but it is utterly compelling and an important piece of Television that should be viewed by everyone, at least once.
7:44 Medusa Eyes: they're looking exactly into the opened core, which means, basically, watching death into the eyes.
I'm really happy you chosed to watch this series guys (it's a real 5/5 stars!), but be prepared to the next episodes, because you will see some serious brutal scenes.
TBR: "It is only five episodes, so it is short and sweet..."
Me: "Sweet? Oh, you sweet summer child."
This show is a masterpiece. Just 5 episodes, more like a really long movie. Just so well done and terrifying.
Radiation basically shreds your DNA at the molecular level and your body responds by liquefying from the inside. If you’re exposed a little further away, that DNA damage isn’t as quickly destructive, but it results in cancer throughout your body.
This series gave me nightmares.
Horrifying. How I understood it is that your DNA gets damaged and your body basicaly stops the renewing and replacing processes, immune system goes down. Not replacing the cells with new ones, you are stuck with what you have in your dying damaged body. When that starts eventualy failing...well, you're done 🤔
The DNA shredding does not cause the rest of your body to liquefy.
DNA shredding is what causes the cancers for those who were not exposed badly enough to die within days/weeks of exposure.
The liquification occurs because of that same radiation causing excessive damage to the membranes that surround all the important metabolic machinery (DNA/RNA/ribosomes/mitochondria etc) within our cells and keep it from escaping or getting contaminated.
The membranes also bind each individual cell to its neighbour, allowing cellular tissue to form and stay together over time - those tissues together form our organs.
So when you drastically weaken the stability of individual cell membranes it's a domino effect that destroys the entire body.
Once that breakdown happens the normal bodily processes/movements will tear the weakened cell membranes apart gradually over time.
The pressure of the blood pumping around the body is more than enough to strain an already weakened structure, just imagine how far blood can jet out the body when you are cut deeply to realise how much pressure the blood vessels are normally containing.
Not to mention the continuous movements we make without even meaning too, each little twitch will only hasten the breakdown.
In all honestly the best you could do for someone at that level of exposure is to inject them with a fast working poison directly into the brain so that it does not have enough time to dilute into the body with all the degraded blood vessels leaking into various organs.
@@mnomadvfx I disagree with your first point but the rest is spot on. The DNA damage DOES cause the liquefying.
No, you totaöy confused two things. Also, its mostly not true.
1: radiation sickness. Its when ypu get som much radiativity that loads of cells die, to fast to replace. This is the same kind of damage as a sun burn, but in all of the body. It have nothing to do with dna.
The other part is cancer, that is when dna us damage. The thing is that dna is automatically repared. So there have to be a lot of damage. To this Day science is unsure how god od a conection there is betweem radioactivity and cancer. On of the problem is chernbyl. A lot of data is from cherbobyl, when ussr broke down cancer spiked, this coloered the data. There is a simular effect in Japan where they lossed to war right after the nukes, also colloring the data.
Removed collored data the levels need to be rather high before cancer is likely. It would seam as the conection between medical x-ray and cancer dont exist... at least as far as proven.
@@matsv201 you’re misunderstanding . I’m talking about the men that worked inside the facility. They were exposed directly to the highest level of radiation. It accurately showed the men bleeding out of their skin. They died within minutes.
Radiation poisoning is so scary, and frankly terrifying to even comprehend. Much, much scarier than any horror film monster anybody could ever come up with, and a realistic danger that still exists today. Keep tissues nearby, you'll need them! Great reactions.
Yeah, let's just say when we see some people later on? Those poor souls were WORSE off then what the show showed us.
The problem with radiation posining is that its nothing like in the tv series, including this one. Also, its very rare. Non of the first respondets died of it (check it up)
@@matsv201 Correct, actual ARS looks different. But even the *Soviet* official count lists about 30 deaths among the first responders. And in the end, if the coroner writes "heart failure", he's not lying either, and hey presto, that person hasn't died from ARS *officially*...
@@DevSolar yes of cause, there was quite a few death, but a lot of People, mostly with a agenda, want to belive there is a conspiracy of coverup and while this is not totaly uncalled for in the ussr that did do a lot of coverups, there is very little evidance of one in the Tjernobyl case, probobly due to being so very close to the end of the cold war.
This compared to the dam that broke in China thag took decades to know the full death told from.
@@matsv201 What do you mean by first responders?Because, if you mean firefighters, they actually died from it, not all of them,but still..Also, check on youtube Chernobyl: Radiation effects of RBMK explosion, real ! The effects of radiaition poisoning maybe not exactly like how it is depicted on the show,particularly regarding Ignatenko's case, but you have to consider that the effects may change from day to day or week to week and some of the pictures in real life maybe not in the final state of the patients.Igantenko's wife also wrote in the book Midnight In Chernobyl that her husband's had different color skin from day to day and parts of hs liver was coming out of his mouth, a really horrific and gruesome thing
Very excited for this. Everyone needs to see it.
I watched 5 minutes of the first episode and then immediately bought the whole series on Amazon Prime as it was obviously so good.
Welcome to the scariest television show you will ever watch.
It’s like watching a slasher movie, the killer is right there we know it’s there but the characters don’t.
It's incredible how much more frightening reality can be than any type of horror movie.
@@РамильБилалов-м2ч Comrade, the accident was REAL. That was scary.
@@catherinelw9365 the story is (mostly) not
Things that are based or real life events hit different.
It’s interesting how in every reaction video I watch of the first video, almost everyone assumed that one guy with the bloody face was like that because of radiation. He only managed to live that long because he was standing on the top level of the turbine hall. Sadly his coworker who was on the main floor got crushed by the rubble when the pumps fractured and impacted because of the explosion.
Radiation poisoning is fairly non-intuitive. The line between what is imminently fatal and what could still allow for a fairly long life can be pretty hard to distinguish. Some things you would assume would kill you may not while other kinds of exposure will kill you within days or weeks.
If you're in the same building as a core erupting, you can guarantee your days are numbered. The only 'if' comes from those who were at the distance of Pripyat.
@@nachgeben Well not necessarily. Remember Dyatlov survived for instance.
At a minimum, radiation exposure follows the inverse square law. The amount of radiation you receive decreases with the distance (from the source) squared. So at 2 meters you get 1/4 exposure, 100 meters you get 1/10,000 the exposure, etc.
@@juvandy yes, the key factors are how intensely radioactive the source is, your proximity to it and the time spent in proximity to it. If particles in the air are contaminated and they get into your lungs or stick to your skin they can do more damage. Technically there is a difference between alpha, beta and gamma radiation too but I cant remember all the differences.
@@nachgeben Well not exactly, most of the people in chernobyl power plant survived and people worked there until 2000, actively generating power on the remaining reactors.
And they are still working there today under the new dome, dismantling everything and disposing of it. Eventually the whole building will have been processed and removed.
I never watched a single episode, and I heard this series is so hard to watch, it's like you're there, knowing what those people had gone through.
Based off episode 1, it is definitely deserving of a full watch!
@@TBRSchmitt Yeah. U watched the entire Series multiple times and even watched the Show Directors Interview. They researched everything, spoke to Families and Eyewittness accounts. It tolk them over 1 year of Research and travelling before the Series was even created.
I love that a couple of these actors had the previous year been in the show The Terror which was my favorite show of 2018, and then this was my favorite show of 2019
This is quite possibly one of the top ten pieces of media ever created. It's horrifying, it's incredibly well shot and told, and it's about something that actually happened. You've got some difficult episodes ahead, but stick with them, be assured that all the questions you have as you watch this will be answered by the end.
Fun fact/Spoiler?? I dunno, it's history:
The two workers who shared a smoke together near the end of the episode- the guy who held the door open and the one with glasses, both survived. I believe they have both passed away now, but knowing you've survived this is incredible.
“Survived” is relative lol. The guy who held the door lived in agony for 20 years, and had to get multiple skin grafts on his side where he held the door.
I remember talking about it in school the day after it happened, teachers told us all about how radiation works and how the detectors in my country were set off. It's an incredibly scary thing but also an utterly fascinating one.
3.6 not good not terrible.
Guy who knows what radiation does: Evacuate immediately.
Even people in Scotland were told not to drink any rain water and keep the windows closed as much as possible. That’s how big this was.
The frustration begins!!
It's pretty accurate for the main stuff. They condensed some things and expanded others. The "fun" part is after watching looking up all the real people and events to compare
You guys said you didn't know anything about radiation or power plants, you will soon.......
The radiarion posining is really just right out garbage
well, RBMK reactors anyways. Pretty much everything else on the planet operates on almost wholly different principles, sharing only the most basic theory of function with graphite 'piles' like this one.
My favorite reaction channel by a mile and it's criminal you don't have more subs. What I really appreciate is you actually react to things like normal people and don't exaggerate and play dumb like some other reaction channels.
This is very true... You have to know, in USSR there weren't a place for mistakes. They want to believe that USSR is the greatest country in the world. If you didn't agree with this, the goverment was able even to kill you. Very, very dark times. I remember this catastrophy, I live in Poland...
Exactly. I think the best modern day comparison is to ask people what they would think would happen if Chernobyl happened in China. That seems to bring perspective as to the actions of these people.
Bless you and your family. So much suffering happened in the land of my fathers. I can't imagine life under the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, in America we are seeing some of this dark history repeat itself. God help our future generations.
Hopefully things are better for Eastern Europe now.
@@nachgeben Or the USA... let's not pretend, shall we?
When the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident happened in the US, we were VERY lucky to have Jimmy Carter for president. He had a degree in engineering, had worked on a nuclear sub program, and knew EXACTLY the severity at every juncture, the right questions to ask, the right actions to approve. He actually was a pretty great president (negotiated a lasting peace between Egypt and Israel, negotiated the bloodless release of 52 American hostages of 444 days in the Iranian hostage crisis, and truly cares about the little guy...)
In this series, they did an amazing job of giving the released radiation this looming presence that it almost feels like a character of its own. Its like this insidious serial killer that can't be seen or stopped.
I've been an aficionado of horror and suspense for almost forty years, always searching for new ways to feel fear and tension - but I gotta say, that first few chapters of Chernobyl may be the most terrifying hours I have ever seen.
I was born in January 1986. I am Scottish and that year the UK had some of the radiation fall on it after winds had blown it our way, it fell on the UK in the form of toxic rain. 9,000 British farms were affected by sale restrictions for fear of the radiation being in the crops and animals. My parents told me how scared they were when they heard of the disaster at the time, especially with a three month old baby to think about. I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been for those more drastically and directly affected (although this show certainly helped with imagining it). Very scary to think that this literally happened in my lifetime and I'm only 35!!!!
This became my favorite show ever to be produced. It does exactly what it's supposed to do, make you feel angry and sad.
"... the danger is that if we hear enough lies, Dyatlov will spend the next years in a prison labor camp."
that cut really made me laugh.
YES! Looking forward to these!
Awesome!
OK, I clicked the sub-button now. You deserve it after watching this horror.
Being a ten year old German kid in Berlin-West at that time I remember vividly 1986, first the Challenger desaster, then Chernobyl.
No going out for a full spring, no milk. We "buried" our vegetable garden we had back then.
When this show came out, I stumbled over it in my mothers place (she has sky channels), and it was "the horror". I literaly shivered in front of the TV and it was hot summer. After the second episode I had to force my mom to keep on watching it, such a harrowing experience, especially for those who were already afraid of it back in 1986.
you guys are in for a wild ride. This mini series was very well done and truly shows the devastation caused by this horrible accident
If you’ve seen the Harry Potter films, you might recognize the guy who played Fomin, the plant manager with glasses and receding hairline. He played Harry’s dad!
There was a companion podcast for this show that goes episode by episode talking about how they made it, what was real, what editorial changes they made(very few but sensible).
Where can one find this podcast? Would be interesting to have a listen :)
@@speggeri90 I believe its just called The Chernobyl Podcast. HBO produced it in conjunction with the show
@@ph8429 Thank you sir, I'll have a listen!
One of my top 5 series ever. One of the most chilling quotes..."Do you taste metal?"
That’s what I said when I first tasted blood pudding. 🤮
It's so insane that the explosion happens exactly at 1:23:45...There are things in life that are so precise and unique, you just can imagine them to be real ! Numerologist are still going crazy over this one !
Actually quite many of the workers and the firemen were saved with long treatments. Thats why the "official" death count is 31. Of course latter death count is probaply 10000 times higher.
The way this series presents true-to-life events as a horror story is masterful. Definitely suggest checking out the filmmakers' supplemental materials (they did a podcast) discussing and analyzing the process of putting the actual events into a narrative structure. The showrunner Craig Mazin is also in charge of The Last of Us adaptation, which, considering how well he captured the apocalyptic tone here has me actually very excited for that series.
This. The podcasts answer a ton of questions that just couldn't be explained in the show without bogging the narrative down. I enjoyed the podcasts as much as the actual show.
Tbh in this series there is so much wrong, the name is close to the only thing they got right xD
So glad to see you reacting to this. Remember at the beginning they say. “What do lies cost “. It costs so many lives….
This show is great! I’m excited to see your your reactions!
Thanks for the support! The first episode was amazing!
Stellan Skarsgard and Jared Harris are brilliant in this - starting out hating each other (govt vs scientist) then growing to respect what each can and cannot do. Awards went to both actors.
So pleased you’re reacting to this series.
Strap in - it is going to be a truly devastating ride
Extraordinary television
One thing to remember, this took place in the Soviet Union. Pretty much everything of their nuclear program was a state secret. NO ONE who lived close were ever told of the dangers of radiation.
Excellent series and excellent reactors? What a nice surprise. It will be awesome to experience this with you guys over the next few weeks. Thanks for giving us some fantastic content to look forward to and keep up the great work!
Radiation "COOKS YOU ALIVE"! This is the scariest horror film of the past decade! That site will be lethal and deadly for a thousand of years. I got so anxious and stressed by the first episode that I didn't watch any further episodes!
The old dude in the very beginning is in The Expanse. Btw, please watch The Expanse!
I would look Jared Harris up on IMDB. He is a seasoned actor to say the least. I would say The Expanse is one of his weaker roles in comparison.
He was great in Mad Men
Great Belter accent
This was part of the reason the USSR collapsed. The nuclear disasters they've had before were covered up, but in the late 80's you cant hurt this many people and not get found out.
Hahaha you nutters.
Band of brothers and the Pacific was fun, let's cheer our selves up with some Chernobyl lol
God I love these two.
Have at it.
One of the best HBO has done since Band of Brothers and The Pacific! It’ll make you really angry with the secrecy, terrified at what could’ve happened, and eternally grateful for the people who helped with the prevention of everything
This is such a heart wrenching series. Those poor, poor people
Don't forget the dogs
🐶
This series is so totally dark and brutal. I find it way more scary that unlike most other shows or movies, this actually happened.
I'm from Russia and I was a child, when this accident happened. But I remember how everyone were really nervous about radioactive contamination, despite the fact that we were living very far away, no one knew nothing and a lot of rumors were spreading around. This series catched up the atmosphere pretty accurate, this is one of the most realistic portray of what happend there.
Sorry for my bad English.
No need to apologise, your English is just fine mate
Just to echo Merriam- your English was fine and you communicated your thoughts well.
"Catched up the atmosphere pretty accurate"???...are you been there? Such a bold statement.
@@serge470 Bro this isn't a dissertation, it's a TH-cam comment. It isn't "The Queen's English" but, it is just fine for the purpose it serves: getting his point across. Definitely nothing to apologise for. English isn't my first language either, so I get where he's coming from, given all these grammar Nazis on here. Being able to comment without the anxiety of your every word & syntax concord being under scrutiny is what will help him become better from more practice. Instead he feels the need to apologize because of an insecurity that was placed on him by people that could never write a single sentence in Russian throughout the entirety of their existence.
I don't know if I've ever watched a more perfect mini-series. Not a SINGLE second of this series was wasted on a filler or some sort of worthless story that is normally necessary to bridge to the next meaningful scene. I think I said out loud to myself, "I can't believe this really happened" at least 50 times per EPISODE!
I think all other mini-series should be measured against Chernobyl. Just amazing television!
You two do a great job of reacting and talking through what you're watching. Subscribed!
Use Radaway
Another settlement needs our help!
Just drink more vodka.
in 1986 when this happened Gorbachev was only in his first year of being General Secretary and you had many Soviet hardliners who were still in from the Chernenko, Andropov, Brezhnev, Khrushchev eras in various positions of power. Their job was to control the people and keep them believing that the Soviet/Communist system works and that everything was fine. After this event Gorbachev went about removing such hardliners from positions of power and bringing in new, younger communists to help fix the country which would eventually collapse some five years after this event
In his memoirs, Gorbachev said Chernobyl was the straw that broke the camel’s back and brought down the USSR.
This series was so great! I'm glad you guys are doing a reaction to it. I loved the series. It was appropriately dark and heavy, and it did a great job with explaining the incident as well as the lessons we learned (or should have learned) from it.
Can't wait to watch it all! Amazing television and informative is a winning combo!
@@TBRSchmitt I love Sam's reaction to the music.. Hildur Guðnadóttir is one of my favorite composers and she fucking nailed the tone for this show. She's an Icelandic cellist/vocalist/musician, and she recently won an Oscar for the score to Joker
I’m glad you’re reviewing Chernobyl, this is one of the best limited series I’ve ever seen.
I highly recommend reading "Midnight at Chernobyl" by Adam Higginbotham when you're done the series. The show is great, but as always the book fleshes things out and paints some characters in a slightly different light. Great, fast read.
I am from Austria and i remember that day very well! I lived far away to be in real danger, but there were days, we should stay at home, because if the wind brought the particles in our direction, it was a risk to go outside! Greetings from Austria!
Words can’t describe the emotions from watching this series.
Здравствуйте! Thank you for watching Chernobyl. Please keep in mind that the general public, and even many working at the power plant, had not been fully informed as to the risks of radiation; This will explain much of their behaviour throughout the series. It is not intentional ignorance, but at the time, even in the West the average citizen did not have much information on how nuclear power functioned and what damage could be caused.
This led to protests in the West after Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania, but in Russia, this information was largely supressed until Chernobyl began to result in somewhat more public awareness of nuclear risks. Please look up the prior accidents, Kyshtym and Mayak as well as Chelyabinsk, to understand more if you would like.
Also, not only was most nuclear information not public knowledge at that time, but there were very few places to learn about it; Remember the internet was not an option, and no average local library carried this type of academic text unless it was a science university! So if you find yourself being frustrated at people's actions, please remember with compassion that there was no way anyone could know. And the people who did know, kept it secret...
EDIT: Also, NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH, but the IAEA has real accident reports for nuclear incidents available publicly online. If you wish to learn even more about these types of situations, there are many files such as this one for you to read: www.iaea.org/publications/10602/the-radiological-accident-in-lia-georgia
However, please, please read with caution, as these reports contain medical information.
This series is a masterpiece.
Thank you for watching this. The radiation was unbelievably powerful. My mother actually contacted and died from a rare cancer from working as a nurse in the radiology ward in a hospital. It's absolutely nothing to fuck around with.
And yes, at that level, these people are in a sense melting from the inside out
"This is going to be a roller-coaster... of a series"
You know how at the start of a roller-coaster ride you have that *BIG* first drop and your heart goes into your throat and you're screaming your head off and you think you're going to die... And the bottom of that drop finally comes and you can breathe... Maybe even let out a laugh and enjoy the rest of the ride?
Yeah... There's no bottom with this one.
Perfect analogy for this amazing show!
7:45 When you're staring into the fire that just killed you.
Welcome to the Soviet Union. There’s nothing wrong here everything is perfect and fine. And if you say other wise the KGB visits you and you disappear forever without a trace
I know it’s meant to be a grim joke, but “disappearing” people was more of a Stalin-era thing. Although the post-Stalin periods were varying shades of repressive and KGB surveillance was an ever-present thing, consequences were usually different though perhaps no less insidious and harmful.
@@gustavskarlismikelsons4295 but still people “disappeared” when it comes to the KGB
You're right! The Soviet Union was a great country, where people had huge social guarantees, the best medical insurance in Europe, free education for everyone and on every level, no racism, no gender inequalities. If you worked hard at your workplace, the government gave you an apartment or a house if you lived in the countryside (for free), if you worked even harder, the government gave you a car (again for free). Soviet people never complained about living anywhere in the USSR because they had everything they ever needed. A dream social oriented country. Speaking of the KGB... these guys were real heroes of their country. Moreover, they didn't have to visit any "inconvenient" civilian. They had some more important stuff to do, like going after CIA or MI6 spies or going overseas to spy on western people.
@@gustavskarlismikelsons4295 Sometimes people went "disappearing" after being interrogated by the Stasi in east germany during those years.
@@alexanderberto3699 Found the Tankie. Funny how millions of Eastern Europeans would completely disagree with you. You know. The people who actually lived under Soviet occupation.
I'm not the type of person to watch films or TV shows multiple times (Once you've seen it you know whats going to happen) I've watched this 5 or 6 six times. One of the best TV shows I've ever seen and I'm 53 this year.
Very adequate content. Thank you.
Thank you good sir!
"Not great, not terrible." :)
This show is really scary because it was real... And the scariest part (to me) was that when this happened, I was 5 years old. So this is not even something that "happened before my time" or something "that happened a long time ago". It was real and still is, since the surrounding area is still a forbidden zone because of the amount of radiation still present in it.
keep in mind that most "mainstream known info" about radiation, was learned from this accident and normal people basically had no idea.
and you couldn't say you were at fault, or you just got shot..
Спасибо всем ,кто понимает и знает что произошло в Чернобыле в 1986 году!
Мы с этим живём!
If you are ever in a position where you are going to be exposed to Iodine, make sure to bring your own. The thing with Iodine is that it is essential for your body and it binds to the gland. If you consume the radioactive version then you are stuck with it in your gland, so people in these situations take regular iodine as a preventative.
I've watched this show 3 times, it's just that good. and more terrifying than any horrofilm I watched in the last 10 years
The fact it's not even a fire but a glow that's literally cooking everything is terrifying and a kinda
Incredible
Chernobyl is so unique...it has the tone of a psychological horror movie...until you realize its very real , it happened and is very viceral at the same time...A little taste of apocalypse that the people of Pripyat at to suffer too...One of the best mini-serie of the decade easy !
Scary knowing this came out a year before the pandemic hit. The various similarities were eerie.
It's not unique. It's not even extraordinary. This is the result of people who believe in socialism, in any of it's forms. Period. It is the ideology that created the system that enabled this horror show, and so many others. It WAS real Socialism. Period. It ALWAYS ends this way. Period. Every single time. In every place it's ever been tried. Just like all the instances in this first episode of people denying reality, it is the stark reality that Socialism causes disaster that people delude themselves into believing isn't real.
@@chestonunnewehr6954 It's unique and extraordinary in the fact that such a particular disaster involving nuclear material had never occurred before.
The 1st episode left everyone so confused. As it goes on and you start to understand everything it makes you furious! RIP to Legasov & Shcherbina and the countless other heros. 🙏
Strap yourselves in. This one is gonna be rough. And make sure you have tissues within reach for Episodes 3 and 4.
One of the best scores in TV history
"what a bunch of lunatics!!"
*Soviet Union* haha
Really glad you are reacting to this GREAT show! And horrifying history! From what I've read, the show is pretty accurate - very accurate for only 5 hours. So that makes it even more immediate. They even based some of the scenes off of real footage. The acting is a-mazing! Especially seeing Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgaard playing off of each other. What's very scary is the containment structure that cost billions is already close to 35 years old and will only last 100 years. Yikes.
Gotta remember, this is the Soviet Union. The wrath of the government could be worse than radiation. The belief of country over personal liability is prevalent. Failure is not acceptable. And secrecy is paramount. At least that’s what we were taught as American kids in the 80’s!
The Cold War was an era of madness. Oblivion at the push of a button.
Holy shit. I was getting intense chills from this.
I read Midnight at Chernobyl and one person they did not characterize was an architect of Pripyat, the city next to the Chernobyl power plant. The military wanted the city plans but she only had one copy. She couldn’t make copies with a copier because only the KGB had access to copy machines, so she had to make hand drawn copies of the plans. Mind blowing. 🤯
In the 80's Russia no one dared pass on bad news. During the cold war anything that shows failure had to be hidden from the world. Nothing was allowed to diminish for the reputation of the great soviet state. for a good example of this look up the death of Vladimir Komarov's.3.5 is HUGE exposure is normally measured in MILI rems as in 0.001 rems.
A terrible disaster, but wish HBO hadn't played with known facts for dramatic effect. There was virtually no smoke after the initial explosion and fire, the bridge of death is also disputed. There are other factually incorrect incidents like this later in the series. Some of these incidents can been seen from video of the actual disaster. Frustrating because the story is powerful enough and the series is a very dramatic account.
The series is actually fairly accurate. They changed the timeline of the helicopter colliding with the crane cable, and exaggerated a bit how some of the radiation burns looked/bled, changed Legasovs academic background a bit, and had to have the compilation character. They take some heat for repeating the story about the miscarriage due to radiation, but that account came from the mother herself. And she may have very well been told that, as it was a common radiation myth in the USSR at the time, and some medical professionals might not have known better due to the USSR heavily restricting access to radiation information, or it was an over precaution since some bodies still had radioactive material lodged in them, hence the zinc and concrete coffins.
They also passed probably more blame from Akimov to dyatlov than they should have, but overall I’d say it was an accurate show. It has caused some misconceptions and perhaps unnecessary fear about nuclear energy/radiation in general, but was still a great watch.
SPOILER ALERT!!
completely agree,the physics in it is generally terrible,and the biggest thing that upsets me with this,that "In theese stories it doesnt matter who the heroes are all we want to know is who is to blame" and I feel this show makes you dispise dyatlov so much,and when you research you realise that dispite him being a bad boss,an arrogant man,and while he knowingly disregarded safety rules(he did it because they were made by people who had no idea what they writing,and he knew not to test them) this accident was maximum 5% his mistake,we all know he was blamed in a showtrial,that is why he was not killed for it,but people tend to forget this,people focuses so much hating dyatlov(even the normal things he does upsets everyone,like calling the day shift in,thats their job,yes its dangerous to go there but someone has to) that people forget to concentrate on the heros,also the show is not correct with legasov's character.I love that it raised people to realise to heros here,and i really appreciate that,but also its made in a way to focus more on hating,then sacrifice,even in the epilogue,what they did with Ludmyla though is unforgivable.The thing is with this show,some footage are so accurate that people forget to separate facts from fiction,and they act on it real life.Its so two sided show,a part you appriciate and the other part is "half-truth maniplution" or just completely made up.