ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- In this first companion episode to the HBO mini-series Chernobyl, show creator Craig Mazin and Peter Sagal of NPR’s “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me” discuss the moments leading up to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
#HBO #Chernobyl
Subscribe to HBO on TH-cam: goo.gl/wtFYd7
Don’t have HBO? Order Now: play.hbonow.com/
Get More HBO:
Get HBO GO: play.hbogo.com/
Like on Facebook: / hbo
Follow on Twitter: / hbo
Like on Instagram: / hbo
Official Site: www.hbo.com
I want to express my gratitude (from Russia) for not using Russian accents. It is really immersive when actors are not acting accents.
Raymond Saint It would be best when they speak the foreign language but that is maybe difficult finding the right actors. I always hate war movies with Germans that speak english with german accent.
@My Thoughts You are probably the kind of fucking asshole that caused Chernobyl in the first place. Ruminate on that you fucking piece of shit.
@My Thoughts Accents, language, voice, music, sounds have a lot to do with a film.
@My Thoughts hahahahaha he got u good u Muppet
My Thoughts Yeah, because voicing your opinion is idiotic right?
This show is the epitome of "show don't tell".
Everything from the wind, to the ash, is telegraphing how fast and far the radiation spreads.
I was at Chernobyl (for a 2nd time) April 16-18. This time I visited the plant and went into Control Rooms 1, 2 and 3. 3 is identical to Control Room 4. Watching this is eerie and I'm really grateful for the podcast and the explanations they provide. Well done.
I've looked at the entire site on Google earth and was amazed to see people walking around with no protection whatsoever.. aren't they about 10,000 years early for that?
@@aliengranpa it's safe to walk there. Mostly.
@@aliengranpa You don't spend much time (or stay) in Pripyat. There are a lot of regulations about where you can and can't go and what you can do while you're there.
I vividly recall the Chernobyl explosion, but 2 episodes in, I'm learning what happened in so much more detail. Getting information, true info, from the Soviets was like pulling teeth. Instead of announcing this danger to the world & seeking expertise, they clammed up and intended to keep it secret until their hand was forced when Sweden detected radioactivity in their atmosphere. I recall Americans on the west coast hysterical that the uranium cloud would drift to saturate them. That this series opens with "what is the cost of lies" is hitting the nail on its proverbial head and relevant even today.
Whose expertise would they seek? The USSR was (and Russia remains) an unquestionable leader in nuclear energy.
@@paultrushin9483 Yet they built flawed reactors capable of eradicating a continent! When US levees broke creating Katrina, the Dutch offered their expertise. The day countries can't help others because of politics is a day you see people pay the price & suffer needlessly.
Thank you for making this mini-series & for this podcast... It's obvious the Craig Mavin gets the significance of what happened at Chernobyl.
I remember watching the news reports about it as an 8 year old, but it was only after watching "the Battle for Chernobyl" just two weeks before Fukushima melted down did I begin to understand the scope of it. You capture the utter horror they must have felt. The smothering pervasive fear.
I absolutely love this series. I love that the story is written in English without using a fake Russian accent, which kinda reassures me that it's actually a dramatic reenactment (no one is actually in danger in the show). I also love that the series doesn't paint the people of Soviet Russia or Ukraine as bad, which most Hollywood productions usually do, but rather the Soviet Union as the bad guy, which is true.
It also scared me a lot because I'm from Bangladesh 🇧🇩 and we're building a nuclear power plant. May God have mercy on us.
I read somewhere that Legasov wrote journals rather than audiotapes, so I thought that was artistic license, but Mazin says here that there were audiotapes, so now I'm confused. lol Also apparently the "bridge of death" was more of a rumour? I'm no expert on Chernobyl, though, and do not have access to the sheer volume of material the creators must have drawn from. It's excellent regardless. Easily the best of its genre I've ever seen, and possibly the best television show I've ever seen as well. And the overwhelmingly positive response gives me hope for humanity too. Sure, we like our fantasy, sci-fi, etc. but this is what people really want to see: dramatizations of real events told as accurately as possible within the limits of the medium it's being depicted in.
WitchVine interesting to leave a comment giving such high praise but start it off with two incredibly petty nit picks lmao. “Amazing show, the industry should learn from you. Very tastefully done. By the way it was a journal not an audiotape” like wtf? This man created an entire show that you loved and you still couldn’t help but insert your shitty nitpick lmao
@@HieronymousLex The show's premise is about the cost of lies, so yeah, details are important.
Regarding the audiotapes/journals it was more of a question: were there or were there not audiotapes? As for the "bridge of death" it seems out of place to include something that seems to be nothing more than a rumour in a show that tended toward the less sensational versions of the stories it used.
But since you're getting this defensive, maybe you're the kind of person the show was addressing? The kind who likes stories with no care for the truth. I, for one, care about both. There's nothing petty about that.
When they said they seal the city and cut the phone lines, I almost threw my laptop at my tv screen.
My hands actually tightened into fists when I watched that part. Seeing all of them applaud that old man was so horrifying. The fact that lying and isolating people was met with wild approval was shocking. Like I knew a bit about the secrecy and hive mind promoted in the USSR at the time but that scene really drives it home.
Definitely hated the old-timer who viewed communism-Leninism as his religion. I've been saying that betrayal of the public trust is one reason we couldn't have new permits for nuclear approved after Three Mile Island. Some new pro-nuclear fanatics don't see it that way.
The caption on this says Lennon instead of Lenin at one point, and I'll never get sick of that pun.
Just finished the mini-series and I was very interested at how it happened and the podcast is a nice addition to help understand the show better.
Thank you for for that kind of work, my grand was there, he still lives. Our government does not give a fuck about people, who went through this hell.
I felt so bad for that young firefighter and his wife.
I know right the firefighters just thought it was a roof fire but little did they know....
I felt bad for her at first until she ignored very clear safety codes like 5 times.
Now do pompeii, very similar situation, it would be a very great miniseries
Consider me gripped.
"do you taste metal?"
by metal you mean emmy trophies??
@Ari big little lies will compete as a drama series this year, as oppose to its first season when it won as a miniseries
.
fun fact, if you can taste metal in a situation like this, then you're basically fucked. You have maybe 10 agonizingly painful days to live.
@Ari the last season of GoT has been a huge failure so far
@@The_Sock_ I wouldn't call it fun.
As a viewer from Poland I'm very thankful to all of the team for making the show so visually acurate. Honestly, this was the first western production about USSR that did not seem...comically western. It was believable, I think you won many Central and Eastern European viewers with this decision. Great job!
Usually the western productions mock the USSR or Russia and the whole of eastern europe. This series tries to be as close as possible to the reality of the times.
Agree. It shows things as they were back then, but it's extremely respectful.
Ten serial po polsku puszczają w Polsce?
@@norbertmarkowicz1728 Można obejrzeć na HBO GO. Jak najbardziej po polsku.
Yeah, but HBO wont let me watch this here in Russia
Sincere gratitude from Ukraine for amazing love and attention up to smallest details. All up to cassette tapes, cat eating from soviet plate (indeed there were no special pets food bowls) and hundreds more.
th-cam.com/video/luCfHQpYAmQ/w-d-xo.html
I love that I know that detail now.
I absolutely agree. I'm so impressed by how much thought were put in there, I recognized many items, cars, buses from that time. I was in 3rd grade when that happened. Outstanding job on miniseries!
And yeah, thank you for not bringing up the accent, they spoke to each other without accent and so English speakers should hear dialogs without any accent to just get the content.
the producers roots are from Ukraine ;)
Even down to the pens they use!
"do we stock iodine?"
"why would we?"
oh, i don't know... BECAUSE YOU ARE A HOSPITAL 10 MILES AWAY FROM A NUCLEAR REACTOR?!
Every hospital stocks iodine, stable iodine in the form of potassium iodide (KI) was a different matter in Soviet Union as everyone, including reactor management and technicians were made to think their nuclear reactors were flawless and perfectly safe.
Ironically, this series is filmed at Ignalina power station, which suffered a similar incident in 1982 iirc, a power surge caused by graphite tipped boron rods. If they had circulated this information, that graphite tipped boroncan cause a power surge, Chernobyl could've been avoided entirely.
Cold war secrecy was responsible for most of this horrific 'accident'.
it's only 3 km.
@@CuoreSportivo
3km, 10 miles... same difference... you know what i meant
@@Houseballey yeah i know, my bad.
Those officials are the Titanic guy going "Bah, this ship can't sink!" but x100.
The overwhelming sense of dread I felt watching this was insane. I don't think I've ever felt anything close to it from any other film/tv show ever before.
That heightened sense of dread must come from the fact it's based on real life events. Fiction couldn't come close to how it makes the viewer feel emotionally. I mean, how gutted were you for Sitnikov at the end of the episode?
Same a pit in my stomach the whole way through the ad breaks were welcomed relief from it.
But you're Caligula? Aren't you used to these things?
Omg me tooo!!!
I remember that dread in 86 vividly. The show did really well in recreating that feeling again. We were horrified all over.
The soundtrack is made of actual sounds a nuclear power plant makes. I was wondering why does the soundtrack creeps under the skin. Mind Blown
What? Damn.
Those sounds are out of this world...the music gives me goosebumps.
poirot 😍
@@pollyjasmine At your service☺️
I felt like I was getting irradiated just watching. Such a strange sensation - the sound design was superlative.
It reminds me of how sound was used in The Conversation as a character in its own right. Brilliant in both films. Both are creepy and filled with dangerous suggestions.
I watched the entire series through good quality headphones. The way they represented the invisible radiation through sound was brilliant.
th-cam.com/video/bTw1-nw5S4A/w-d-xo.html
I loved the music and sound. Well, 'loved' is the wrong word, but you all get it.
SAME
The non-use of accents was PRECISELY the right choice. We don’t need a miniseries telling us these people were Ukrainian, Russian, etc...the whole world knows that. What matters is the people. I remember watching “the battle for Chernobyl” years ago and thinking “these people are goddamned heroes...why do we not know about them?”
That’s why I was so happy to see this come along. The public perception of “Chernobyl happened, commies made it go away, no one lives there now” is so off base. I’m glad this series is doing the human cost and personal sacrifice justice. The history books need to acknowledge this...
We weren't taught that they were heroes because we were taught that as a whole that the regime was run by idiots who let it happen. As we can see now, it's very similar to many countries where you have idiot leaders but the average citizen is fundamentally good.
I found the coal miners to be very relatable.
But the series was made PRECISELY for political reasons, to show how the poor Ukrainian people were the victims of the evil Soviet reactor. Now... should we draw a parallel and make a movie about Fukushima, showing how the poor Japanese people were FOR THE THIRD TIME nuked by an evil American nuclear device.
Yeah agreeing with all you said, been watching documentorys about those guys who went up on the roof in the thousands.Iif the sovjets should have celebrated the bravery of men, like US does to the soldiers on D-Day, this should be theirs. On the language thing, yep clear english is perfect. Russian would be nice for authentic reasons, but as said, casting would be a total other story then and don´t force non-russian speakers to learn fluent sounding russian in a haste.
It’s important as a reminder that this is a story - not a history.
It may be carefully researched and as accurate as they could make it, but it will still contain errors, including ones that may be grossly incorrect.
The moral of the story - that truth does not obey political convenience, that is the message. Too perfect, and people will not understand that this is a narrative, not a transcript.
This miniseries already has me hooked. Having an easily accessible podcast like this for an after show ear snack is such a great idea.
Right? I just found this and think its awesome. The show itself is magnificent! Well, the 1st episode at least. Hooked!
I was planning on checking it out because this conversation was intriguing up until around 32:00 mark when the idiot called the Soviet union a communism which it wasnt
@@richardgrace4500 THe soviet union was not Communist?
@@wezross NOPE... what do you the the anagram USSR stood for? And all you have to do is Google "Soviet union" and. It will tell you that it was a "socialist state"... stalin absolutely hated communism as did Hitler and Mussolini and Castro and many more who people commonly mistakenly list as communists
@@richardgrace4500 Yes I know what it stood for, but just because they labeled themselves socialist doesn't make it socialist. From wikipedia - "The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR)."
"Socialist State governed by the communist party".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union
I feel irradiated watching it, makes my skin crawl. The sounds, the flakes of ash, the particles, the geiger counters, the music, and the way people are acting like theres this constant ominous fear in everyone's eyes, it psychologically gets to you as the viewer. Very well done.
I felt psychosomatic symptoms too while watching this!
I haven't been this fearful of little gusts of wind since The Happening. Which is to say, this is the first time I've been fearful of little gusts of wind.
Hi guys!
where is the link?
I can't find it in you tube
how can I watch and download the series?
plz suggest me any links of it
@@satarhasrat7275 you will only get lies here.
someone get him out of here.
Happening with me too
I'm an ex US Navy Nuclear Plant Operator and was on stationed on a submarine in 1986. Reports/lessons learned on Chernobyl were required reading. My wife grew up in Soviet Russia, St Petersburg, and was a young adult in 1986. She remembers the accident and the Soviet propaganda well. We were watching episode 1 last night from two very different perspectives. My nuclear engineering perspective and her Soviet era perspective. We were both enamored by the attention to detail of the accident and technical aspects thereof and of the environment, acting and general feel of Soviet era Ukraine. During the hospital scene with the two pregnant women I thought my wife was going to spew the wine she was drinking from her reaction. She pointed and said that is so authentic! Reminded her of when she had her son a couple years after this event. We are both enthralled with this miniseries and can't wait till episode 2. Well done!!!
Thats crazy, glad you can get something from the mini series take care!
Vern Shurtz WOW! That scene was horrible, as a nurse, I’m looking at those women laboring on stretchers, looked like no sheet underneath, compared to how spoiled we are here in America, birthing suits, etc...
Did you learn of the Chernobyl disaster as soon as it happened?
@@zachmontoya6969 There were initial reports that were broadcast to the fleet while it was occurring. Sort of like news bulletins. Once reports on the cause of the accidents and actions taken were known they are put into a special report along with other lessons learned and sent to ships with Nuclear Propulsion plants. We would read about various incidents in the Nuclear "Realm" regardless of military or civilian or of country of origin. In the Nuclear industry they are really keen about operators knowing as much as possible including causes of incidents and actions take.
The US Navy has the safest Nuclear Power program with over 80 Nuclear Powered ships operating around the world at any given time and has never had a serious nuclear incident. Not too bad for High School graduates. Granted the Navy's Nuclear Power school is akin to a 4 year degree in Nuclear Engineering crammed into a single year.
Compare that to the Russians/Soviets who have had over a dozen Nuclear related accidents with dozens killed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_navy
ex Nuke as well (
1979-1985)...aircraft carriers... good post Vern
Thank you for not including the Russian accents. It would be really weird. Why should anyone think about it? When Milos Forman filmed his “Amadeus”, he didn’t make his Mozart or Saliery sound like Germans or Italians. He just made the film.
The best thing that a foreign show runner can do it to make the whole movie look like a dubbed one.
The fact that they used the correct regional accents for the different groups of people as well it's fantastic, you can tell local party, high party, working class, middle class, it's great
Sounds like a cope, it they used russian accents people would praise the show and no one would be talking about this to begin with.
I cant watch "Chernobyl" series without tears in my eyes...Thank you HBO, for the best visualisation of this tragedy and great storytelling. Much love from Ukraine
Chernobyl is another Outrageous case of White Male Privilege!! They have always had it so ridiculously easy...
@@theexile6605 You make no sense, even if you are trolling.
i cried through all episodes!
@@Ryan-zv3os I hope you can recognize sarcasm when you see it, genius! My point is obviously that the men who had to cope with the disaster had no "White Male Privilege" whatsoever! And if you disagree, you're a fool!
@@funtourhawk What's your beef? You must be guilty of "toxic masculinity!" Ha.
The people who down-voted this podcast are in shock. Get them out of here.
Those dislikes are from Bolsheviks, "party men" and ex-KGB agents, I'm guessing.
*their delusional send them to the infirmary*
Berlin Ocelot I can still enjoy art without minding the addition of politics to it... it’s sad that he needs to “come out” as woke right away mentioning the election of 2016.
They're in denial.
Must be the feed water I’ve seen worse
This show has scared me to my CORE.....
I was blown away!
Me too
Same
BUT THE CORE IS GONE, Dyatlov!
i suggest put more water in your core
they even got the mustaches right. damn
You can look up photos of the real people, the plant workers and some of the politicians, and a lot of the actors look just like them!
If they did not match the real people accuracies the HBO was supposed to send their hitmen to the profuction company.
The actors were matched incredibly well with their real counterparts, as far as google photos show, it's eerie
Well, thank god they got SOMETHING right.
@@Ranger1PresentsVirtualRealms They've got a lot of stuff right. It's a dramatization, and it's better than most of the documentaries on the subject. There are some faults of scientific accuracy, but at least they motivated you to become an armchair internet nuclear expert so you can snub your nose at the mainstream plebs.
This really brings home how horrifying this situation really was
this is a show, it is not documental
@@Ivan-wp1ne1 Did you listen to this video? It focused entirely on what is factual as well as written accounts of what happened. Most of is true, it happened. It isn't a documentarytrue, it's a dramatization and the creators wanted to be authentic as much as they could.
@@andytaylor5476 they positioned this as "true untold story"
@@andytaylor5476 the scene with miners is total bullshit. cmon, it was not 1937
Ironically documentaries themselves are not as truthful as people may think and also rely on drama factor.
Last year, Ukraine declassified the KGB archives. Including information about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The station was built with many serious violations of the technical regulations from the very beginning. I am not sure that the translation of these numerous documents into English already exists. But I am Ukrainian, I know Russian, and I read them as much as I could.
There are reports of KGB agents that even the foundation, piles and columns were built with terrible violations. Moreover, one of the KGB agents directly wrote in the report that these violations could lead to a serious accident. It was 8 years before the disaster. But in Moscow, no one paid attention to these violations.
No one gives a single f*ck until it exploded.
Do you have a link?
I'd be interested in a link as well, although guess it's not likely the info would be in English.
That;s a reason why we, lithuanians, are so very much against the new Belarus' nuclear plant on the border
@@UtamagUta we are not happy too
sorry to all, cant find it in english. Looks lite It can be in UNESCO Memory of the World project but cant see anything on their site.
Have olny scans in russian here
avr. org. ua / index . php / ROZDILY_ RES?idUpCat=867
Delete all empty spaces, hope it works.
HBO makes up for the horrible game of thrones season!
That show really went downhill fast when they ran out of books.
🙄
Lets be fair that wasnt HBOs fault. HBO offered Dumb&Dumber 10 seasons 10 episodes per and well Dumb&Dumber refused.
PrasannaJ Paul seriously
I think i am the only person who actually thought it was okay, God what is wrong with me !
I'm from Belarus and my city isn't far away from Chernobyl. As for me I perfectly remember those days. The weather was nice and all the children were playing in the streets. It was getting dark suddenly and blowing up strong wind. It was impossible to stay outside because of wind and everyone went home. Nobody knew the truth, we had a big holiday on the first May and people were walking in the park. Only after this holiday we were told the truth. Almost all the children were being taken to other cities during summer vacation. I remember that we got the biggest help from countries all over the world. Children from my city started spending their vacation in different countries since that time. Many years have passed since that time but the situation related to safety of our lives leaves a lot to be desired.
My godfather worked at the station and the only reason he didn't get even bigger dose of radiation is because he worked during day shift. He stills suffers the consequences of the explosion. Thanks from Ukraine.
My father passed away in his 69 years... He worked at cleaning works in Chernobyl. In 2 years his health was down to 0. His last words was "I am waiting to die"...
I'm in the UK and it was a massive story at the time in part due to radiation levels rising with the contamination that drifted across so much of Europe.
The fire crews and others who tried to prevent the contamination were 100% heroes as people will see in the next part of the series.
Thanks to the crew from Russia. I was fascinated by the accuracy of how citizens, living and infrastructure was shown in the miniseries. It is amazing. Now I listen to this podcast and I understand what a team of professionals made the show. I don't even speak about the plot, actors and all other staff - it is 10 of 10, but really when me and wife were watching first two episodes every 5 minutes we were wondering like oh my gosh how they made it, it is like our apartment, oh my gosh the girl has the same make up like that time, exactly. I hope the director of costumes will get Emmy for this titanic part of the job.
I've been really curious and interested in the reception this show has received in Russia, The Ukraine and Belarus, particularly those who were old enough to remember 1986.
Has it been positively received or criticised?
@@albaPhenom I've seen mixed reviews. They say that, unlike what the series showed, the plant personnel were professionals and did everything that was humanly possible. Unlike the series, there was no panic among the staff - people were doing their job. As for the head of the shift sending people to death under the barrel of the gun - there were no accounts of that.
@@alexrogov7186 I kinda beg for difference, because I agree they were expert employees, but employees were killed due to Dyatlov's idiotic reaction in the early hours of disaster. Read Svetlana Alekseyevich's Voices of Chernobyl. It will give you lots of insight. But respect to the workers EXCEPT Dyatlov. There was a design flaw in RBMK, but without his recklessness the accident wouldn't have happened.
@@beomkyu0730 Alekseyevich has never been an expert on the topic. Neither are we, and we'll never be able to get into Dyatlovs skin that day. It is funny though how putting the blame on Dyatlov goes in line with the official Soviet narrative :-) By the way, according to INSTAG-7 report, the maintenance staff was not informed that RBMKs had issues while running on low power. So how could Dyatlov know? I don't imply Dyatlov was innocent (he put at least part of the blame on himself during the trial), but a technological disaster of such scale is usually triggered by multiple factors.
@@beomkyu0730 search 1986.04.26 P.S. on youtube, it is a series of documental videos commented by real liquidators. It gives fair insight on what was really happening there. Gunpoint thing is idiotic, since people was cooperating and to certain degree afraid of government that you just do not need some additional threat.
Congrats from Poland, this show is masterpiece. I don't remember Chernobyl disaster myself but my parents were thrilled seing this. Here in Poland people were forced to drink Lugola liquid to protect from radiation after disaster. The sacrifice soviet people to stopped this disaster were incredible. These soldiers, firemans, miners, scientist, engineers were heroes. We must never forget about this. Whoever is blamed THEIR sacrifice is undeniable.
In turkey state gave free contaminated hazelnuts to the kids in school.because they couldnt export it. I dont know what to say
@@oguztokur3673 Read from somewhere that they did similar thing with celery in East Germany when the radioactive cloud drifted there and started raining down. They sent it to schools.
I watched all four episodes in a single day.. Thank you for this masterpiece and much love from Kiev!
one more coming out monday?
Sam Reagan yeah, last one! I showed my grandma the first episode today, she said she got a very big headache from it, from reliving that tension and all the lies, the hurt, the pain.. She told me I shouldn’t watch such things before bed (little does she know I binge watched the four episodes until 3am 😅😅)
Same!!! I can't wait for the next one!
I'm glad you are still there!
I hope the people behind this show see this comments section. It's solid proof that they have knocked this one out of the park.
That’s because all the people who don’t like the show have been taken to the infirmary, they’re clearly delusional
I hope so and I hope HBO sees these reviews.
You really approve of the asshole producers using this podcast to try to sell their messed up politics? Are you really that weak? That much of a sheep?
@@kell_checks_in 🤣😂🤣😂😂😂
the show is just amazing so far. that moment in the 1st episode when the two technicians looked into the core... that was crazy terrifying.
That they would actually get close to a burning core and look into it shows 1 of 2 things. They lacked knowledge or were more afraid of the political repercussions. Dead by day's end.
Jonathan Branch, it’s USSR bro. They thought that this accident like walking on the water. Impossible.
The first episode is riveting. I went to the Soviet Union four years after this happened. The art direction on this series is absolutely spot on. It looks exactly like the Soviet Union I remember. It's so well made. I can't wait for the rest of the series.
I keep having to remind myself everything happened in the mid 80s. Everything looks decades older than that to me. I'm more used to the bright flashy colors that's more representative of the American 80s.
@@Thumbsupurbum Yeah I know it's weird because I thought the same thing when I was over there. I went in 1990 and everything looked old fashioned compared to the US. Their fashion was at least a decade behind. Blue jeans were coveted and hard to get. Everything was old, dull and looked worn. The flats in the HBO series are spot on perfect. They were all poured cement low rise walk ups with exposed plumbing and tacky wallpaper. They lived in very humble apartments.
@@Thumbsupurbum I think the film makers did a great job of capturing the look and feel of the Soviet Union in 1986. Another thing is people would wear the same clothes for a few days. They had far fewer outfits than the average American. They would just rotate the same 3-4 looks for each season. It's not like use with brand new outfits every single day. They just couldn't afford to do that and they didn't have the space. It's sort of why in the US Russians tend to go all out. Their apartments are really heavily decorated and they are very flashy with their clothing. The Russian homes in Sheepshead's Bay look like mini castles. Once they get some money they go completely over the top. There's nothing subtle about Russians anyway. They are an intense people. They've been through a lot of suffering and they live life to the fullest.
Juliet Jeske knowing the city scenes were filmed in lithuania(which was one of the countries taken by ussr) i would guess the location scouters just found a flat that is originaly in the kind of condition. Have in mind it was filmed in vilnius - the capital of the country. To this day i see posts where people are giving up away furniture from that time. And i remember when i was little and we were visiting grandma, her flat was looking exactly the same as in the series
@@Julietjeske It was filmed in my country and those apartment buildings are still here. Being renovated, yet still here.
How many people saw the commercial for chernobyl before game of thrones and watched it, loved it, and came here for more information
i was shopping for bananas at the local supermarket and decided to look up chernobyl after thinking about the dose of radiation we get from simply eating them
As an Ukrainian, I was kinda interested what it's gonna look like. First part didn't disappoint me.
@@andrewgusak123ua th-cam.com/video/luCfHQpYAmQ/w-d-xo.html
I watched the premiere without watching the trailer, it was a mistake. I wasn't ready for this.
Only 5 episodes. Not enough to patch the wound of GOT final season debacle.
The most horrifying moment in episode one was when people went out to watch the fire with there children which I think anyone would do just chilling ...
And all that people died
The bridge of death, so so sad
Yes, the Death Bridge it’s called now. Crazy fallout kids playing in like snow.
It’s crazy how this mini series can be compared to the COVID 19 pandemic
that was my thought too, i watched it before covid, then covid happened, after covid "ended" i revisited the miniseries on chernobyl and couldnt believe the similarities. u the first comment i came across that draws that comparison and i am astounded more people dont comment more on that
A relative of mine was one of the emergency workers who were there trying to fight the consequences. He died from acute radiation syndrome 4 years later after the disaster. Now I want to say that I'm extremely grateful to HBO for this mini-series - for all the immense work that has been done to make this show and for the respectful attitude towards the people who sacrificed their lives. People need to know about this tragedy, its horror and its victims! And about the culpable reaction of Soviet government. We must remember and learn our lessons well.
I cried while watching. With sincere respect and gratitude from Russia.
The moral of the story, never trust a government, especially a socialist one.
@@SteveSmith-fh6br Well, that lets out Denmark and Sweden.
If we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all!
Well said!
Yh idk. Bullshit is bullshit.
And flat earthers are the result
Well modern times are many times worse,... Soviets lies was easier to see trouth
@@Groovy_Bruce Our American government is SO good at telling the truth. Especially with Trump.
@@Groovy_Bruce Do I need to tell you that many things he says are lies? Notice I started by say our American government meaning there are people in power are lying just as in Russia and probably most other governments. That I cited trump was my right to speak. Yeah, call me ignorant if that hejps you defend him. The majority of people do not back him.
I watched with my Chinese friends. And they felt effectively disturbed but also familiar by the lies, the bureaucracy, to the hierarchy issues that were shown in the show. First, many of them never heard about Chernobyl, and second, they never made a connection between the Chernobyl event and the collapse of USSR.
this is really interesting thx for sharing
No, sir. It is HBO who LIES!!!
I'm from Ukraine. My country was the epicenter... I watched the first episode yesterday and it made me burst into tears... It was the time of my grandparents, my mom... I can't imagine how the government could hide information about this catastrophe from people! I'm very happy that Soviet Union is gone. Unfortunately, we have a lot of older generation people who even want that time to come back. It can be clearly seen through elections :(
By the way, we still have a lot of "chornobyltsi" in the country - they are that citizens from Prypiat, firemen and other stuff and they're still suffering.
I wonder do you see any physical or other effects of this tragedy in your country?
Alohomora086 UA with all due respect, Belarus had suffered equally.
открою тебе тайну сейчас в украине еще больше нищеты и воровства всем чинушам насрать на людей , в ссср была сильная пропаганда которая позволила леквидировать последствия...а сейчас эту пропаганду пытаются восстановить 5 лет петька и его команда воровала и наживалась и дальше хотят продолжать и это факт !.. совет смотри на вещи шире и поймешь в чем суть пропаганды и кому она выгодна.
all things considered, at least the bright side of all the secrecy is that the government were able to mitigate the disaster pretty effectively. I mean im not saying secrecy is good or anything, but im saying that through secrecy, all elements of the cleanup effort can work cohesively and decisively, even though in the end it all came at a very very heavy price. at least, thanks in part to this secrecy, ukrainian and byelorussian children can now play in the parks without getting exposed to lethal doses of radiation.
@@wargame635 😂 поради з-за порєбріка?)
@@innas9546 отсутствие мозга твой диагноз , с идиотами дискутировать бесполезно ...
Hey HBO.
Can you please make one series on Bhopal(India) gas disaster? That happened before Chernobyl. Thank you 😊
Remember those names - the first firefighters who arrived at the scene of the explosion and started combating the fire:
lieutenant Vladimir Pravik - died May 11, 1986
lieutenant Victor Kibenok - died May 11, 1986
Leonid Telyatnikov - lived longest among these firemen, which is a miracle in itself. Died in 2005 of Chernobyl-related cancer.
Vasiliy Ignatenko - died May 13, 1986. In 2006 posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.
Nikolay Vaschuk - was instrumental in preventing fire from reaching reactor number 3. Died with the rest of his crew on the same day. Hero of Ukraine.
Nikolay Titenok - died May 16, 1986. Hero of Ukraine
Vladimir Tishchura - was the first firefighter victim of the atomic fire because received ungodly amount of radiation of 800 roentgens.
Leonid Shavrey - miraculous recovery in the facility in Kyiv. Had bone marrow partially replaced which help the organism and DNA to fight off radiation exposure and sickness.
Ivan Shavrey - the younger brother of Leonid. Also survived by miraculous treatment in Kyiv. Again, partial replacement of bone marrow.
Petro Shavrey - the oldest brother. Also survived. There should be a book about this family of heroes or maybe a separate HBO movie.
Alexander Lelechenko - electrician technician of Chernobyl NPP. Was responsible for preventing an additional hydrоgen explosion. Received lethal dose of radiation and died on May 7, 1986. Hero of Ukraine.
The first wave of firefighters consisted of 28 men in total.
@
“The story that we all knew, but didn’t know.” Craig Mazin My husband and I just finished watching episode one. Words don’t convey. I’m listening to the podcast now. I really appreciate this kind of expansion of behind the story. Thank you. Set DVR to record all of the series.
My daughter read the book, "Midnight in Chernobyl" and said the episode was exactly as the book.
@@TimberWolf2025 I'd recommend the book "Voices From Chernobyl" as well, by Nobel Prize winning journalist Svetlana Alexievich. She interviewed people who had lived around the plant, people who returned to the exclusion zone, surviving "liquidators", the wives of some who didn't survive, and compiled an amazing document of how this disaster affected the people caught up in it. It's amazing, gutting, and unbearably human.
My heart goes out to the firefighters and soldiers who gave their lives instead of running away. If the core had melted down the entirety of western Europe from Finland to southern Spain would have been rendered uninhabitable. Those people had a choice, run and die or stay and die but save millions of people. We will never know the true cost of this disaster. The "Official" death toll was 32. Other estimates range upwards of 200,000.
The firefighters deserve the upmost respect absolutely, but I recommend you research about the 3 divers who had to gear up in scuba equipment and actually dive down into the reactor and drain the huge pool of cooling water so the radioactive material didn’t cause a second steam explosion which would have in turn blown up the entire facility... and the fallout from that second explosion would have wiped out the whole of Europe and possibly even Asia/Africa... those men’s names deserved to be etched in stone in every city square on earth
@@Lucky-sh1dm But would it really? I mean no doubt we would have a lot of radiation related health issues and shorter life spans, but ''wiped out Europe'' seems far fetched, since well... Pripyat people didn't die en masse. I understand that there's a need not to downplay the effects of radiation but those statements about uninhabitable Europe etc. seem weird.
lkrnpk so if the radioactive material connected w the water it would level 200 square km of Ukraine, all of Eastern Europe would be completely wiped. I see what your saying and I am probably over exaggerating but depending on which way the wind was blowing it would have done insurmountable damage to all of Europe. The explosion would erupt the other 3 reactors as well so just imagine literally 4 Chernobyl disasters just spewing radiation pretty much forever because if the 2nd explosion did occur no one would even be able to get close w/o passing out dead after a few seconds
lkrnpk He’s probably right though. Imagine 4 RBMK reactors completely exploding and having no way to contain it. At the least, a sarcophagus was built around the destroyed unit to contain the spread of radiation, but imagine the entire plant exploding. Not sure about you but I can’t think of a worse scenario
@@Lucky-sh1dm That scenario is very farfetched, the divers saved the groundwaters for sure but the possible explosion of the other reactors was fiction friendly
Watching this episode, it's hard to explain the mix of feelings, because the events are so _unreal,_ I almost didn't know _how_ to react to it. Confusion, alarm, mounting horror, until finally it's just too overwhelming and you watch in numb helplessness as things unfold.
The way it moved from a false calm of the far away explosion, to the tortured tension of the control room, and magnifying chaos until the two workers actually reach the core and look into... what? What is something that is death to look at? We've only got mythology for reference -- Medusa, basilisk, and whatever it was that these humans had made. It looked and felt so dangerous that I felt nauseous, as if the radiation could penetrate even my screen. If something so horrible can exist, then what _isn't_ possible?
You have said it so much better than most...
I never thought that the Great Old Ones of Lovecraft would be humans and that the eldritch horrors would be our creations.
I just realized the time Chernobyl happened is 12345. What a damn universal coincidence.
Also, it was the fourth time they were trying the "safety test"... 4 is death.
@@adolfodef why is 4 death?
You're reading into it too much
At first I thought that was some creative licensing from HBO until I did more research and confirmed it as an interesting coincidence.
"That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!"
Thanks from Russia. thanks for the incredible screen version. it all really looks like the USSR.This is a terrible tragedy and thanks to those who did not allow even greater tragedy. My dad's aunt from Kiev died of cancer a few years after Chernobyl. This is a personal story for me. When I was in school, I read the book "Chernobyl Prayer" by Svetlana Alexievich and I remembered all that horror.
My friend said this and it is very true:
''Be glad that this occurred under the Soviet Union communist regime, for money was not in any of the equations to find a solution to the problem. Whatever it takes, it will be done.''
''Had this happened in today times, half the world would have been dead before the investors and businessmen got together to discuss potential profits and costs on the matter.''
I know that many post-USSR people appreciated the love that the series show to the culture. We are used to have the western movies turn everything into a popcorn show. But this was very well made, some very good work on the sensitive material as it is!
Greetings from 2021. The cost of lies, indeed. We have seen a greater death toll than even the highest estimates for the accident at Chernobyl.
Economy is more important. BACK TO WORK! (Sarcasm)
This series was SO so excellent, I watched it 5 more times after the initial airing. It really got to me like no other drama. The last time I felt this way was when I saw "Titanic". The Chernobyl series made Titanic seem like a cartoon. I am going to watch this again and again. It was perfection in every way. Film-makers will be using this as a standard from now on. It made me feel like I was there. It made me think.
And thank you for not using Russian accents.
mamaboo cee I completely agree. This is a new pinnacle in film.
Aw nice shoutout to good ole master luwin. Donald sumpter is a stellar actor for sure
Love ur videos :3
I was born in Bulgaria two years before the Chernobyl disaster. As I was watching this incredible mini-series, I repeatedly thought: "all those heroes sacrificed everything, and I've got them to thank for growing up healthy and (mostly) radiation-free." At the time, Bulgaria was a Communist country, a Soviet satellite and as brutally disinformed as the whole of the USSR was. I am deeply grateful to you, Mr. Mazin, for showing the world the quiet heroism involved in containing the Chernobyl disaster, as well as exposing so eloquently and intelligently the institutional rot, the widespread culture of fear and disregard for truth in the USSR. "Chernobyl" moved me very, very deeply. Thank you.
Those 3 men who went underground believing they'd probably be dead within a week are near the top of this list.
I'm from Ukraine. And I want to say Thank you for your Great job!
The first episode was riveting. I've always been intrigued by this human made disaster and tragedy. From the first preview HBO slipped in front of me, I couldn't wait to see this mini-series. I was very excited to see Jared Harris and Emily Watson playing central characters, then boom Stellan Skarsgard! Stellan Skarsgard is always a win! As someone, who has seen many documentaries and read articles and stories about the incident. I look forward to continuing the series and watching how you've blended history and story telling.
Same! I’ve been waiting for something like this for years when I first learned and researched Chernobyl. After I saw the trailer and promo for this show I was soooo excited and after watching the first episode I loved it!
I totally don't care about GOT ending now, just staring at this drama like a deer in headlights
I think this series deserved two seasons. There is so much to cover, even before the accident, how people got to work there, the first incident of the RBMK reactor that was covered up (in a way being responsible of what happened at Chernobyl). How corners were cut when building the plant in order to cut costs and speed up the process. There is A LOT of information out there, there are also eyewitness reports of at least one firemen looking into the core and while being rushed to the hospital his eyes had apparently changed color. As a person living in eastern EU i didn't find any of this far fetched and having researched the subject myself i can say i'm glad that so far you have recreated the events as accurately as possible. I think that should honor the people who gave their lives so that most of Europe isn't an inhabitable radioactive mess. Also, by being accurate i hope viewers will learn something from this, truth is something that is becoming more and more scarce everywhere you look in the world, and that needs to change. Hope the heroes of Chernobyl will not be forgotten and we won't end up making the same mistakes again (even tho Fukushima kind of proves we did). Thank you to all who took part in making this, you did a wonderful job so far.
emdea, thank you for bringing up Fukushima. No one seems to understand the seriousness of the effects of using nuclear power. There is no way to "clean up" or to store the waste anywhere safely on this planet. The cover-up of Fukushima is beyond words. Now, in 2019, there is still talk of building more of these Earth killing "power plants." What a sad thing Earth and all her wonderful species will be killed by humans. Peace, Lizzy
@@lizzyinatizzy6188 The only difference between nuclear power, as you describe it, and Fossil fuels is that while nuclear power is only dangerous is something goes catastrophically wrong, fossil fuel plants are deadly all the time.
@@lizzyinatizzy6188 Oh yeah, instead let's build a ton of coal power plants like germany, to produce the required power, what a great idea!
Lizzy inA Tizzy well Fukushima was built on a coast and also along a fault line. And Chernobyl was built by communists. So yeah just don’t do reckless shit like that, treat nuclear with utmost respect, and it could work. But we have to be so much more careful
...fukushima happened because of an earthquake AND a tsunami... and unlike chernobyl, its not the reactor that exploded, its the containment building...
As a Lithuanian I was surprised this series was filmed in Lithuania as I could hardly tell that anything was from there. As a historian I'm glad you tried your best to make it as accurate as possible and even using tapes and other primary material this is amazing! I also agree the decision to keep off the Russian accents as it would have been weird and the actors pulled of their characters fully without the need of accent. Great Job!
I'm glad theres no ridiculously fake Russian accents! +1
I wish the show started a bit earlier what actually happened in the control room before the disaster was pretty crazy.
I love the show so far, it seems very true to reality.
In France the media lied to the entire country at the time claiming the cloud stopped at the border...people ate contaminated foods...the deathtoll of this catastrophy is probably still growing... I consider myself lucky to have been born over a year later.
RIP to all those who died because of these lies. Fascinating subject! I cannot wait for next week!
Haugs perhaps they might do a flashback sequence later in the series?
DerrenBrown100 I don’t tbh
I noticed Skellan Skaarsgard kind of winged a little bit of a Russian accent.
@@theduder1981 Is it a russian accent or is it just his swedish accent coming through?
@@chupaxf
That's right. They've recalled the epic tradition of beginning in the middle.
My wife is a CRO at Three Mile Island and when she watched this episode with me she said "the dialogue is verbatim what is in the Chernobyl report we all read"
F*ck me sideways I love this miniseries. Nearly makes up for how bad Game of Thrones seasons 7 & 8 were.
It impressed me, how accurate they portrayed the little details of soviet life - clothing, everyday item, and yes, the feeding of the cat.
The explosion scene was brilliant. Just awesome how it was shown. Unexpected in a distant. suddenly flash of light.
That was shot at the ignalina power plant including the control caps jumping up and down, 😁
In The Death of Stalin film all the actors just used their native accents. It makes sense cause the Soviet Union was huge and had plenty of different accents just like the US. It was a dark comedy though, fricken Steve Buscemi plays Krushchev
That movie was ass propaganda
@@alexp8785 The movie was a comedy, not meant to be taken seriously
@@Gamealishis comedy cannot be propaganda
@@alexp8785 That's my point. The movie was not propaganda, it was a comedy playing on American stereotypes
@@Gamealishis Lol no it wasn't, the director literally said "it’s a fiction inspired by the truth of what it must have felt like at the time. My aim is for the audience to feel the sort of low-level anxiety that people must have when they just went about their daily lives at the time."
Literally just propaganda. Yes, comedy can be propaganda.
"50.000 people used to live here... Now, it's a ghost town."
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. ❤
The first episode made me terrified and pissed off all at the same time. The people in charge seemed to be so incompetent and that's just the first episode. I bet also however they didnt want to believe how bad it could be or was. I'm so ready for the next episode
you call this a drama, no sir. This is a horror series.
Nothing more horrifying than reality
My favorite detail is the static sound when the camera gets close to heavy radiation
as a Russian I'd like to say thank you for that show. State officials whose only desire is to put responsibility on common people's shoulders, stupid and completely unnecessary propaganda, mistakes amd errors. But still brave men, brave politicians and scientists that try to solve this hell - I mean it's good to watch the show, that is so authentic and carefull to details. And shows soviets not only as angry and mercantile idiots (there were a lot of such men unfortunately), but also as selfless and decent men. Second episode was still cool. I hope it will keep such a high level.
SO real!!! It seemed that I was there. For some reason it was difficult to breath when you watching...I guess it was because of total immersion in the story.
Thank you for not making russian accent btw.
And thank you for puting so much effort and attention to the details.
Girl from Moscow! )
I came to watch thinking it's scary in the sense blood and gore but it was even way scarier. It makes you think how small the earth is. The distance that fume can travel and make earth inhabitable.
Do we have an alternative earth to evacuate to.
The blue lights that they were watching from the bridge reminded me of Aurora Northern lights charged particles from the sun which is actually a nuclear reactor.
I loved the show but I also hated the way it depicted Director Bryukhanov, it's so unfair and untrue. Bryukhanov built both the plant and the town, when he started in 1970 it was literally nothing there. Fully dedicated, he worked very hard and cared so much about development and welfare of Prypiat, it was like his life's work. After the accident he almost instantly insisted to evacuate the town, but party officials denied his requests. He didn't handle the crisis well enough, that's true, but you can't suspect any bad intentions there.
Yet in the show and here in the podcast writer is treating Bryukhanov as a regular spineless aparatchik without any merits (from 33:20). It's obvious he didn't take enough time or effort to really research the true character. It's a little sad especially since the man is still alive today.
well they did have Bryukhanov with a look of sympathy/regret on his face during the trial scene
Definitely looking forward to more of this show and podcast.
Such a tragedy everyone facing the unknown with misinformation...and ultimately the after effects will never be fully realized
When those two engineers looked directly down into the core I was completely in shock! I couldn’t believe they were willing to commit a slow suicide by doing that. This series is amazing!!
Nitpicking but in reality its unlikely they were actually right over the exposed core. The reactor hall is HUGE and standing at the walls they likely "only" managed to peer into the edge of the pit, regardless getting exposed to deadly dose in a minute.
That scene stuck with me too. The way that core looked was so horrific
Watched episode 1-3 twice already and I started 2 days ago. This show is breathtaking
Go watch four lol
I was watching the episode in my living room with my mum and sister while they were on their phones, not really paying attention to it. They immediately gauged interest after the blast sound at the beginning. Incredible first episode.
This is so powerful, dramatic, realistic and scary that I can't even pick appropriate words. My heart almost broke ribs! Also, the antourage and atmosphere, it's like a time machine. After I finished watching I re-watched whole episode again. Biggest thanks for depicting soviet system as it was - lying and hypocrite, it didn't care one bit for it's people. From Ukraine, bravo to showrunners, cast and all involved!
I love how accurate this miniseries is to the real life events which happened in April 1986 I was literally cringing the entire episode because how the events which transpired where handled. The Soviets completely lied about everything to make it seem like everything was ok which was of course a LIE. Anyway if the rest of the series is as accurate as the first episode everyone’s in for a ride cause the events that unfolded after the explosion are just insane. I won’t say anything else. Also the uniforms and equipment being used in this show is soooooooo accurate, it’s amazing!
Where you there?
Please tell...
"If it's true, I'm dead already. I can't accept that. So it must be false."
TimberWolf no, I just do too much research. Lol
@My Thoughts cringe doesnt mean awkward you dumbass. When you see someone fall and snap their femur of watch a surgeons scalpel slice through flesh thats cringe. Thr post was in a completely appropriate context and you complain about him using it lol.
Asking someone if theyre 11 lol.. Are you 16?
@My Thoughts lmao you got put in place
I think the different English accents work. Actual Soviet people were from a variety of cultures and had their own unique dialects. “Death of Stalin” also featured different English dialects to represent the diversity of Russian, Georgian, Ukrainian, etc. dialects.
this podcast is clearly a ploy to make me want to pay for the full show
and it's 100% working
As a russian,first of all I want to thank you for an outstanding work.Secondly,I was watching the series in English and for me it was also kinda weird to hear this comrad thing as it does refer to some kind of parody.I know it means russian tovarishch,but probably it would be better to use it as it is without translation.And as for comrad,we actually use the word to show a foreigner trying to act a russian:)
I must say, episode 1 was well done. I'm in it till the end.
The makers of the dark comedy movie "The Death of Stalin" made the exact same decision regarding character speaking in accents - the actors just use their own native, natural manner of speaking, be it from somewhere in the UK, the US, Australia, etc. And that really is a top-notch decision, there - it allows the actors to actually PLAY their characters, instead of trying (and failing) to impersonate them. Short of literally just having the movie - or in the case of Chernobyl, the entire series - acted out in Ukrainian and Russian with actors from those speech communities, allowing the Anglophone actors to just be Anglophones is the best possible compromise the creators could've made.
Yeah. Since some accents have stereotypes attached to them, it would be interesting to see casting that tries to use that to enhance the understanding of the region depicted.
Raising a glass to that "walking around without a thyroid" comment. :D Here's one more person to add to that long list of casualties. I was a little kid living in Finland, washing my bike in the rain with water running down a drain pipe from the roof of my grandma's house in an area where most of the Chernobyl nuclear waste, for example I-131, was brought by the winds from the South-East and then carried down with the rain in which we children played. No one had been told of the disaster at that point in time, there had been no news coverage released, no warnings. Are the lies still going strong in today´s world? Even though the Finnish authorities do not openly confirm the connection between high rates of thyroid cancer and the Chernobyl disaster, I have been told by several doctors of their understanding that Chernobyl is one of the known factors in causing these health problems and that the contamination of the Finnish soil continues to cause health problems even today - and even in children who are born today.
Thank you for this masterpiece. I was nearly crying by the end of the 2nd episode.
This looks like the next great HBO, must see series
It really is a must-watch!
"This is our moment to shine." Or glow.
With enough roentgens we will.
Maester Luwin totally nailed it.
Sandra Hammond and glow with many medical issues due to Chernobyl
Japan is still probably glowing very brightly right now, they just aren't talking about it much
Being older and having lived through the Cold War, this film is absolutely terrifying. Shocking, disturbing and necessary to be seen. Thanks for making.
I don't sleep well since episode 1. This show touched me and disturbed me like nothing before. I have dreams now about radiation and nuclear damage and I spent most of my days research nuclear power plants and atom bombs. Thanks HBO and good job!
same here:(
Same!!!
They downplayed it when it happened just like Fukushima.