this show may actually destroy me...*CHERNOBYL* (part 1/2)

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Original Series: Chernobyl
*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. All rights belong to their respective owners.

[@rapaz1997]

The Russian general that said "then I'll do it myself" is credited as General Pikalov.In real life, General Vladímir Pikálov fought in world war 2 from Moscow to Stalingrad to Kursk. He was in charged of the military units at the site of the Chernobyl and he died in 1992. This guy was the defenition of 'Never order your men to perform a task you wouldn't dare to do yourself.'

[@memnarch129]

He was Russias version of George Patton.

[@usmcmech96]

Gen. Torokov who was shown in episode four briefing the liquidators about to go out onto the roof, made multiple trips out there and took a near fatal dose of radiation.

[@xboxgamerhr]

@@memnarch129 ironic because George Patton hated russians (which was basically selfloathing, he hated them for being the same as he is)

[@DerOberfeldwebel]

It also helped establish credibility for the threat assessment. Anyone Pikalov could have sent, the uppers could have just claimed they made a mistake and doubt or outright invalidate the readings. Pikalov had his WW2 badass credentials on top of his technical expertise, he went because coming from him, they HAD to take it seriously.

[@chikitronrx0]

@@xboxgamerhr ​ That's the thing. Humans hate each other thinking they are different from the ones they hate. Also russian politicians were not different from the other side, orange agent in vietnam, south corea, the marshall islands incidents, shows how even the "good guys" will try to cover up their attrocities or mistakes, and they too sacrified their own people (soldiers) without giving them the information of what actually what was happening. And i'm sure that every goverment is the same.

[@parallaxnick637]

The composer for this show was Hildur Guthnadottir, who is indeed a genius. Thanks to "Joker" and "Chernobyl" she won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Golden Globe in the same year.

[@der4815162342]

fun fact: parts of the soundtrack is made out of recordings of steel doors and stuff from nuclear plants

[@michaelfitzgerald38]

That’s amazing! Some people take decades to earn such accolades.

[@CBDuRietz]

Another interesting connect between "Joker" and "Chernobyl" is the previous collaborations of Craig Mazin (writer of "Chernobyl") and Todd Philips (writer/director of "Joker").

[@mzcescapie]

Guess all she needs now is a Tony.

[@CBDuRietz]

@@mzcescapie "Chernobyl, the Musical", by Bialystock & Bloom.

[@Neclony]

The gore was reduced as it was just too much, they literally decompose alive. In reports it was described that upon raising the arm the flesh just came off the bone.

[@ButteredToast32]

Goddamn that is horrifying.

[@APixieNinja]

I read this also. It was way way worse. 😔

[@SoulessStranger]

@@APixieNinja I think the best summary of this process was a quote I saw on the internet in the japanese nuclear disaster with Hisashi Ouchi. A doctor there described it as this: "Normally you die and then your body starts to decompose, with radiation, you start to decompose and then you die." And I admit I don't think there is any more terrifying way to die than this. A bullet to the head would have been true mercy.

[@wastelandlegocheem]

To thise wondering, Fallout was fairly accurate with the design of their ghouls. But just a little more black plague looking.

[@alanfoster6589]

Some of the exposed workers were vomiting up their internal organs.

[@nocta66]

I laughed really hard when you said "go to France" twice. I'm French. Our sweet government told us "don't worry, Tchernobyl's cloud stop at the frontier !". You have no idea how many people got cancer in the years after that... But sure, the smoke stoped at an invisible wall.

[@jaybeekay818]

M... D... R... Encore à croire cette théorie du complot ? Aucun officiel du gouvernement a dit que le nuage s'était arrêté à la frontière, un point c'est tout. Le professeur Pellerin, chargé à l'époque de la surveillance de la radioactivité en France, a bel et bien informé dès le 2 mai via des communiqués quotidien à l'AFP que le nuage avait atteint le pays et que les radiations avaient augmentées mais que les niveaux restaient en dessous du seuil de dangerosité "acceptable" ce qui a toujours été la vérité. Il a fait parfaitement son boulot et n'a jamais menti ou dissimulé la vérité. Quand à tes "pleins de personnes ont eu un cancer après ça" prouve-le au lieu de dire des konneries, et va pas sortir l'excuse complotiste "le gouvernement a détruit les preuves" ou autre stupidité de ce genre. Y'a un moment donné où il faut arrêté de jouer les moutons et brancher son cerveau. Et si t'es pas capable de réfléchir 5 minutes ben dans ce cas, silence. Ça t'éviteras de propager la plus grande maladie de l'humanité : la bêtise humaine...

[@sullygaming1137]

Yeah fallout had reached all the way to Scotland they discovered it at the bottom of loch Ness lake

[@SoulessStranger]

Yeah I was half a year old at that time and in former Czechoslovakia so we were told nothing at all, and my mom as well as thousands of others were enjoying beautiful spring days outside. I still don't think it is a coincidence that when I was in high school 80% of my class had problems with enamel in their teeth, that is basically falling out off the teeth like fine sand. I am just waiting what else will come (hopefully nothing).

[@wastelandlegocheem]

Thank god I'm on the other side of the globe...

[@theholk]

In west West Germany it was "don't drink fresh milk, don't let your kids play outside and certain mushrooms are off the menu indefinitely" for quite a while.

[@RenegadeShepTheSpacer]

"This feels like a horror, man." I will go on record and state that this is far more chilling than any horror movie could ever be.

[@servantofmelian9966]

I don't know which effects me more: The incredibly bad management, or the incredible heroics.

[@VendettaProduction01]

Yeah it was one of the many also life ending events that happened during the Cold War.

[@nicholaslindsey7087]

What’s even scarier, is how they had to tone down some of the stuff…because the real life events were just too horrific and gruesome.

[@GabrielCarvalho-kb8yv]

Exactly, there's no demons, there's no ghosts, but there is radiation, and that alone is more terrifying than anything.

[@realburglazofficial2613]

@@servantofmelian9966 the combination of the two is what effects me most. And also the misinformation and denial that perpetuated the whole incident.

[@PierceArner]

Oh man… this is gonna be an intense one. I still consider this series to be one of the best examples of what cosmic horror actually is, and what _Alien_ or Lovecraft-type works are actually capturing in a deep, existential terror of something that acts wholly without regard to human emotion.

[@wackyvorlon]

I vigorously maintain that it is a horror. Except in this one, the monster is invisible and enormous.

[@ge2719]

@@wackyvorlon but is the bigger monster radiation or human stupidity and corruption?

[@justinsherman9350]

@@wackyvorlon and real!

[@PierceArner]

@@ge2719 This is exactly why I always make the comparison to *_Alien_* because the ONLY reason the crew dies encountering the Xenomorph is because the company has the classified agenda _"Bring back lifeform, priority 1. All other priorities rescinded."_ The tragedy that causes innocent people to suffer and die here and in that film is intentional ignorance and exploitation held in place by force & fear. Neither situation should ever have occurred. The inhuman & uncaring cruelty in eschewing one's own accountability and consequences on to others is always an extension of someone acting out of self interest. That's why the forces in cosmic horror that the main characters are facing is something that is both the darkest parts of ourselves and also unlike us in every way imaginable. Probably the clearest metaphor of both is the original 1954 *_Godzilla_* because it's pretty overt about those themes in direct connection to the real world Lucky Dragon 5 incident. However, Godzilla has a bigger and more complicated legacy from there that makes it harder to isolate the horror and dread compared to *_Alien_* or other overt cosmic horror.

[@michaelgonzalez6295]

It is horrifying but not cosmic horror IMO. Well perhaps a little bit. True cosmic horror requires a lack of understanding of how the universe truly works and that humans are in no way special. Here, the radiation does what it always would do. It is the lack of knowledge/understanding on the part of most people that dooms them. When they understand it is too late. Going in the Lovecraftian vein, they gave their loyalty and lives to the "cult" of the evil god bureaucracy.

[@AnnMegFair]

'Fun' fact: when I was very little, growing up in central Germany, there was a time when we were not allowed to eat crops grown in our local area, and it was regularly tested for contamination from the Chernobyl fallout. So yeah, when they said it would affect the entire continent, they weren't kidding.

[@angela-thebooknerdess2110]

We threw out a lot of produce in the UK also. I know of a youtuber who has disabilities because of her exposure to the fallout whilst her mother was still pregnant with her.

[@radioactiveassassin5218]

I don't know if it was relative or just a friend, but grandma told me she knew someone who worked at TV doing weather forecast (I live in Czech Republic) and immediately told her not eat mushrooms and any homegrown crops and to not go in forest.

[@Ninten007]

The response to this show in Russia was fascinating. The government actively tried to ban it, but the people keep watching. The fascination wasn't necessarily out of an anti-government sentiment, but out of positive response to finally seeing the unacknowledged hero's who stoped the disaster from escalating.

[@PUARockstar]

Their normal bullshit reaction to anything. They have the same lies approach to anything, and they still want to hold USSR pride, even if it was sorta different country. I know that as ukrainian, gladly we have a different approach here. Our president loved the show for example.

[@Ninten007]

@@PUARockstar oh for sure! I’d love to hear more about the Ukrainian response to the show given the actually location of the event. Also safe wishes to you if you are in Ukraine now.

[@sitting_nut]

con't lie. nobody banned it or even tried to ban it in russia. don't lie. state media was all praise. main narrative of the show is problematic because it is false. this false narrative depicts scientists seeking truth at any cost, conducting an investigation against wishes of the state , and revealing the results at great risk to themselves ( even of life and imprisonment). in fact what happened at chernobyl and aftermath (now known and even accessible in west through books like midnight at chernobyl) on those man narrative points, was quite different ( in fact almost 180 degrees different). investigation was done by state itself, and its findings were not hidden ( in fact were used by defense rather than persecution at trial) . nobody was at risk of back room execution, or imprisonment, because of investigation and a dramatic revelation of findings. legasov( who was heroically responsible for some important aftermath decisions) was ostracized not by state, but by fellow scientists,who thought he was proposing reforms ( not mentioned in show , some of them heroic in their own way ) detrimental to status of scientists, and finding faults with other individual scientiss ( some of whom suffered and were fired because of this ) who had earlier helped his career. show chose to lie on those points. those lies are especially problematic in a show with theme of" cost of lies" .

[@PUARockstar]

@@Ninten007 thank you! Yes, we're really nervous here right now since the all-out invasion is the possibility. Hoping for the best and peace. My father was a liquidator actually. I absolutely loved the show and can't get enough of watching reactions. Despite all the dramatisations I feel it stays true to what happened there. If you interested in some facts that I know about these 3 episodes (and comments to her reaction), I've made a post here in the commentaries.

[@735337707]

@@sitting_nut as someone who lived in the SU at the time of this event, the fact that the communist party came clean of it even happening was AFTER the west (Sweden) knew about it, should tell you everything you need to know. So yes, people in Soviet Union knew about it after the people in west.

[@Borsoo13]

"We are asking for your permission to kill 3 men" I got chills everytime I hear that. The way Jared Harris performs this line is just making it so brutal and raw. The most iconic line for me in the recent years of movies and series.

[@LauraSigns]

Jared Harris is great in everything he does.

[@rachelkapelkin4488]

Those three men lived! At least 2 I think are still alive. Radiation is weird

[@derekmclellan7337]

@@LauraSigns I could not agree more. He makes everything he is in good just by being in it. A truly exceptional actor.

[@realburglazofficial2613]

@@rachelkapelkin4488 yeah one died, but not from any radiation related illness. I think it was liver failure from excessive drinking.

[@RichardStrong86]

@@realburglazofficial2613 Heart attack. He was 65.

[@LeisurelyShtooping]

I feel sorry for Natalie for the next one. It's gonna break her.

[@mohammedashian8094]

Especially the 4th episode

[@memnarch129]

@@mohammedashian8094 For the Happiness of All Mankind

[@mohammedashian8094]

@@memnarch129 quite ironic isn’t it?

[@DaLander]

I wished people would stop "warning" reactors. It is giving away the mood of an episode and is raising certain expectations.

[@PLF...]

@@DaLander > its not like she hasnt seen the episodes already

[@Emma-mz8us]

Actually the story with Lyudmilla is real. I've read her story in a book Voices from Chernobyl and recognized it immediately when I watched the show. There are articles about it online if you want to her real story but it's definitely real. She lost her baby a few weeks after.

[@GeorgeRomneyO]

Good book, sad but still has its moments of redemption. Aleksayavich also wrote Zinky Boys about the war in Afghanistan, which is a good book to read if you ever want to get depressed enough to hang yourself

[@Myndir]

Her story is real, but she wouldn't have lost her baby from spending time next to her husband in hospital. Radiation sickness is not like a virus. Similarly with the Bridge of Death: there was a very radioactive bridge, but people didn't gather on it and didn't go en masse to hospital afterwards.

[@JoshSweetvale]

@@Myndir Wrong. Particulate transfer.

[@boardee664]

If you look the tribute part, at the end of the last episode, than you realize, that Lyudmilla actually got pregnant later on, and is still living in Moscow today. As far as I know, even with him. She got mentioned in this tribute....

[@David-gj9qr]

@@Myndir she did lose her baby, at the end of the show they state that her daughter that she was supposed to have died of radiation sickness

[@DemeterMedi]

It's so interesting to see you react! You know - I live in Hungary, one of the countries nearby, and I was 11 at the time. What you young people need to understand - especially from far countries - that the ordinary people of Chernobyl or Minsk weren't irresponsible or dumb to go there or not flee at the very first moment they could. They genuinely didn't know better. There wasn't internet at the time, we were never taught about the danger, you never heard about it from the media, and you couldn't possibly get the information needed from libraries - they were classified, and you wouldn't know to look after them in the first place. We in Hungary were in better place in the '80s - not free world yet, but getting there. But even we wouldn't heard that something very dangerous happened, just to wash the vegetables from the surface of the ground, and there was an explosion. But we were told not to worry and do not believe the hysterics of the western media.

[@lucianaromulus1408]

As someone born in 90, in the US, I'm grateful I'm a history nut. So many, even older generations, are so ignorant to the true woes of our world.

[@joe.banana]

"this whole storyline seems a little too crazy to me." Her storyline was actually watered down in the show. Her real life story was so much worse :(

[@richardsmall5514]

You're right. People can read Lyudmilla Ignatenko's account in "Voices from Chernobyl" / "Chernobyl Prayer" by Svetlana Alexievich. They definitely toned down some of the horror for the TV show. Not just in Lyudmilla's story, but in other areas too.

[@phaudraig]

Sadly, they also added some nonsense, especially in the Ignatenkos' story. Throughout the show they keep saying that Vasily is dangerous to her - he's really not, by then. The show makes it look like she killed her baby by ignoring doctors' advice, whereas the real Lyudmila (along with all the other firefighters' wives) was encouraged to spend time at his bedside. Tragically, she left for three hours to go to the funeral of two of the other firefighters, whose wives were close friends of hers. When she got back, he'd died and his last words were calling for her. But the part that annoys me is getting the science wrong about ARS - surely it's horrific enough without pretending that it's contagious or that it caused her miscarriage? The real Lyudmila said she started getting random phone calls accusing her of killing her baby, enough that she moved house. Weirdly, the part that annoyed her most was him crying out in the show; she insisted he never cried and was always stoic. If the whole thesis of the show is "the cost of lies", then it's all the more crucial that they are careful to be accurate about this sort of thing.

[@BiRios]

@@phaudraigit was based on misconceptions at the time. In modern times it is known that while fetal cells are vulnerable, nothing’s absorbing radiation away from the mother. The radioactive damage to the child was done just by the government letting civilians be in the city those immediate hours.

[@DanielTsosie]

Natalie: "Omg, she keeps breaking the rules!" Also Natalie: "I will smuggle my puppy out despite the rules!"

[@titanuranus3095]

I am not convinced that there would have been that much of a problem to evacuate the pets along with the people.

[@MathewCR]

Well, it's not like her dog is going to irradiate "cancer" to the people around him

[@hannahbeanies8855]

@@titanuranus3095 probably not as big of a deal as they made it. Could’ve just given them baths for the radiation on their fur (I think but hell if I know). However, they would probably all develop terrible disorders and suffer because of the exposure that did occur. But I know for me, I would rather have my cats with me and as soon as they started to show they were very unwell and in pain, I could be with them as they were euthanized. But I understand that this was a terrible emergency and they didn’t understand all the dangers. They did the best with what they knew, at least the citizens

[@aaronlock5091]

@@titanuranus3095 there are actually rules about evacuation. There would be an evacuation order (or other official act) where it will be said is it allowed or forbidden to take pets with you. It will be forbidden if there is no place for pets in the evacuation transport, when there is a risk of pets being contagious, etc. In Chernobyl situation people were taken out of the city in buses almost empty handed, because their cars and other things were radioactive already, and there wasn't much place for pets in this transport. And also there was a high risk of pets containing radiation dust in their fur, which could expose people in the bus to radiation, and there were no time to clean all pets and control the cleaning. So. No pets were allowed.

[@Galiant2010]

@@hannahbeanies8855 Enough pets and wildlife survived that they've kept up the population in the area. Not sure what that means for the safety of taking them with at the time of evacuation, just passing along something tangentially related.

[@jthoward]

"fun" fact: the firefighters' clothes remain in the basement of that hospital to this day, still dangerously radioactive.

[@Zac_Frost]

Yeah. A pair of their boots was reportedly stolen by a tourist a year ago, though. Poor bastard, whoever took them.

[@servantofmelian9966]

Good thing Gorbachev was Premier at the time. He actually listened to experts. Any of his predecessors, Chernobyl would have been even worse, and would have happened again. And they did real good on the first episode. What we see is chaotic. Which is the same thing that people who were there saw it.

[@fructosecornsyrup5759]

Gorbachev is so underrated.

[@lucianaromulus1408]

For a Communist, Gorbachev was a God Send, considering the situation.

[@mikeed2k9]

The most accurate description of this series I've seen is that "it starts with a suicide and just gets darker from there"

[@andrewgambin]

Recommendation: For all those people who are watching this series for the first time or who watched it before, listen to "The Chernobyl Podcast". You can listen to it after each episode, or after finishing the series to get a better insight about every episode and they also talk about the real events that happened in real life not just the show. Do not miss it.

[@badmojomagic]

Do they talk about why the show is full of insane lies?

[@kptmaci4979]

@@badmojomagic ffs. There are no major lies in the show. Of course it played out differently, certain characters didnt exist in real life, certain events didnt happen exactly the same and not because of the same things, some of it is pure fantasy at moments and so on, but still, the message and overall depiction of entire event gives sense of true tragedy it was. You probably refer to number of dead...? Are you from russia or something? All countries that Chernobyl cloud went above later in upcoming years and generations suffered massive growth in cancer rates across population. Chernobyl didnt only affect people at the scene. Its the major message of this show.

[@BabylonLurker]

The podcast is an excellent companion.

[@alachad]

Yes, there are major lies in the show. Radiation does not work in real life like they made it look in the show. People exposed to radiation are NOT radioactive. The helicopter scene is fake. The “bridge of death” is fake. The number id people who died stated in the show is fake. The divers who went in the water lived (one is still alive). It is a great show. It is not even remotely historically accurate when it comes to casualties or the way radiation works.

[@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll]

Seconding. It's a very good podcast.

[@user-sq4gv8ik6h]

Hello from Russia. Glad u started this series. For my country Chrrnobyl had a huge impact. Even i, 28yo man, have problems with my thyroid because of radiation. The radioactive clouds flew over a massive territory and one of the clouds landed near my town, Tula. My dad was one of those miners who diggeg a tonnel under reactor. He died 15 years ago from cancer. Really hope this one will never repeat.

[@PUARockstar]

Hello from Ukraine. Shame about your father, may he RIP. Doctors persuaded my parents to get abortion, since my father is a liquidator. Has complications the whole life. And some distant relatives also were brought to Chornobyl as miners from our coal basins. Hope your gov wouldn't pull something insane with that full-scale invasion they're planning now, it's Chornobyl level of stupidity and misery.

[@lyman6]

I appreciate the pixelation. The makeup department for this show was god-tier, and I've seen just enough of it to not watch the rest *because* of that. I don't need to see this shit in my nightmares, but I'm happy to watch your reactions and the parts of the show you show, because it really is remarkable.

[@jamezmcc]

"This is like a horror movie" spot on. I've never seen anything quite as horrifying and upsetting as this series. Incredible show.

[@W0NK042]

It's even more horrifying knowing it happened.

[@petrinafilip96]

Closest we get to cosmic horror in real life. You don't see it, but you see the effects. And there is still that element of the unknown.

[@ZetsubouZolo]

yep, I've never felt so horrified and sick to my stomach knowing this actually happened and could happen again. the sheer thought of being unknwoingly exposed to high radioactivity and beinung unable to do anything about it but die a long gruesome death.. I'd rather take the bullet tbh

[@John-ru4iz]

The scariest part of this is that in spite of how horrible this incident was, it could have been SO much worse if they hadn't prevented the second explosion.

[@IdealUser]

There was never any risk of a megaton explosion. That's one part the show got wrong. Nuclear meltdowns don't operate that way. It's physically impossible for a reactor to create the same destructive power as a nuclear bomb. At most any other explosion that took place would have destroyed the rest of the facility.

[@matthewfors114]

@@IdealUser wrong.

[@matthewfors114]

@@IdealUser i thought they were bullshitting too but i live near a nuclear power plant and my father helped wire it. i always been afraid of the meltdowns and though unlikely they can most certainly produce reactions/explosion on par with small nuclear weapons

[@IdealUser]

@@matthewfors114 Living near a plant or him doing some wiring for a power plant doesn't make you or him an expert on nuclear reactors. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a reactor in meltdown to achieve the same destructive power of a hydrogen weapon. At no point was there any risk that if the molten material reached the water, it would create an explosion that would reached the megaton range of a bomb. It would have released far greater amounts of radiation though as nuclear weapons have only a fraction of radioactive material than a reactor has stored.

[@douglasb7075]

@@IdealUser 29:15 "when the lava enters these tanks, it will instantly super heating and vaporize approximately 7000 cubic meter of water causing a significant thermal explotion." it was the water causing the destructive power, not the reactor itself.

[@langdalepaul]

“I’m going to look up where all the nuclear power plants are near me.” That’s exactly the response you shouldn’t take away from this series. It’s not about the dangers of nuclear power, it’s about the dangers of prioritising ideology above truth. In fact, this should lead to the opposite conclusion, because understanding the science and statistics should reassure you, not scare you.

[@michaelm.1947]

" it’s about the dangers of prioritising ideology above truth." Which is a perfect explanation of the mad world we live in today. As for the understanding science and statistics, those do very little to reassure me when I know it's fallible humans that build and maintain these things. I lived about a 2 1/2 hr drive away from the Fukushima nuclear plant when it blew. Science and statistics didn't help me much when the geiger counters at work were detecting radiation from Fukushima Daiichi. I live even closer now than I did then (and have since then been to the plant and even to the base of the building that was ground zero for the explosion) and... life is basically back to normal (not for those that lived in the immediate area, however). So there is that. I don't know anyone that thinks of radiation much now that 10 years have passed. But at the time, the uncertainty was definitely unsettling.

[@Myndir]

Yes, nuclear power plants are generally extremely safe... The USSR was not.

[@langdalepaul]

@@michaelm.1947 just to be clear, when you use the word “blew” to describe the events at Fukushima, you are describing a very different event from what happened at Chernobyl. All of the reactors were shut down either before or when the earthquake happened. The problem resulted from a loss of all power to the plant and subsequent failure of the cooling systems to the reactor cores. There were a few small hydrogen explosions that damaged the buildings and allowed the release of some radioactive fission products, but nearly all the release from the accident came from just one of the reactors where the primary containment failed. This was not a consequence of any kind of explosion. There was a significant release of radionuclides, but much less than Chernobyl, with a different composition, and less environmental impact. Still, the statistics don’t lie. Nuclear energy still has the lowest mortality rate of all, even compared with the so-called renewables. www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldwide-by-energy-source/

[@RailTV01]

Visuals exaggerated in this movie, radiation poisoning, you will look normal, internal bleeding will be at the end.

[@DragonIsNotASlave]

She lives in California and there’s a nuclear plant there. Pretty fucking stupid to put a nuclear plant near so many active fault lines. Just takes one big earthquake (which WILL happen as these faults are active), god knows what will happen to that plant.

[@Svadilfare]

This show is amazingly done and pay a lot of respect to the historical material. It takes certain creative liberties of course, like mixing the order of certain events around slightly, or having the cast talk english, but overall it is a masterwork of a show. One of the few shows I would rate 10/10.

[@sitting_nut]

main narrative of the show is problematic because it is false. this false narrative depicts scientists seeking truth at any cost, conducting an investigation against wishes of the state , and revealing the results at great risk to themselves ( even of life and imprisonment). in fact what happened at chernobyl and aftermath (now known and even accessible in west through books like midnight at chernobyl) on those man narrative points, was quite different ( in fact almost 180 degrees different). investigation was done by state itself, and its findings were not hidden ( in fact were used by defense rather than persecution at trial) . nobody was at risk of back room execution, or imprisonment, because of investigation and a dramatic revelation of findings. legasov( who was heroically responsible for some important aftermath decisions) was ostracized not by state, but by fellow scientists,who thought he was proposing reforms ( not mentioned in show , some of them heroic in their own way ) detrimental to status of scientists, and finding faults with other individual scientiss ( some of whom suffered and were fired because of this ) who had earlier helped his career. show chose to lie on those points. those lies are especially problematic in a show with theme of" cost of lies" .

[@cpob2013]

The show is a smear job, they hype bs like a Megaton scale steam explosion, exposure for the miners, the bridge crowd etc. The response was a mess but it was a chaotic explosion and no one knew the extent of the damage. It was like 9/11

[@PrettyGoodSamuel]

​@@cpob2013they literally state in the episode that they don't know whether that will happen or not. The show constantly shows you how people didn't know what they were dealing with

[@easagepie]

Oh my goooooooood I'm so glad you are watching this show. It's an absolutely devastating depiction of the disaster. Obviously with some dramatization but still good i think and I'm excited to see your reactions!

[@AlanCanon2222]

"Can you be exposed to radiation from another person... almost certainly not." True. The plastic you will see in later hospital scenes was there, in history, but the intent was to protect the victims' immunocompromised bodies from infections brought by visitors.

[@MinkePDX]

Misleading. You can’t transmit radiation. But you can transmit radioactive contamination. Their clothes were contaminated and will continue to emit radiation for 100,000 years. If you were close to them or touched them you would be burned with ionization radiation. That’s why the nurses hands were red after carrying the clothes.

[@AlanCanon2222]

@@MinkePDX Yes, true.

[@politedog4959]

@@MinkePDX yeah but they cleaned the patients and changed their clothing obviously after they were brought to the hospital, so theres no risk of human to human contamination. The plastic is just their to protect the patients against germs, i wish the show had explained that better

[@GMontag]

@@politedog4959 The dust they inhaled from the fire was radioactive and was still in their lungs. There is definitely a risk of human to human radiation in that scenario.

[@politedog4959]

@@GMontag thats negligible compared to the amount of radiation Ludmilla got exposed to in the 2 days in Pripyat before the evacuation

[@peteturner3928]

Extremely accurate portrayal of the events, I visited Chernobyl and Pripyat myself in 2020 and their portrayal of the real places is frighteningly good. This series is some of the finest drama ever made for TV.

[@michaelm.1947]

I've been to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Would love to visit Pripyat and see it as well. Certain scenes with abandoned buildings, etc. eerily reminded me of evacuated areas around Daiichi.

[@crutchy]

I was anticipating Nat's reaction to the end of Episode 2, when I watched this that was the part that freaked me out the most. It was like the failing lights and the screaming meters were indications of a monster stalking them in the darkness like it was a horror film. What really blew my mind was that when I googled it, that event actually happened... but the suicide volunteers survived!

[@jdtesch86]

Nuclear power is actually very safe, especially with newer-generation reactors. Chernobyl was a disaster for a lot of reasons, primarily the desire to cut corners and just look good: both at a national level and at a personal level.

[@juvandy]

Yeah, the other thing nobody talks about is how far, far more people have likely died due to longterm lung exposure to particulates from coal smoke and ash. Even diesel engines put out so much incompletely combusted nitrate that areas heavily-trafficked by tractor trailers have reduced lifespan and lung health (higher rates of asthma, etc) as a result. It doesn't kill you as fast as radiation exposure does, but it is still a massive problem. And then, of course, there is carbon emissions and the whole climate change thing.

[@TheTurinturumbar]

@@juvandy Deaths per TWh including pollution, accidents etc. Coal 100000 Solar 440 Wind 150 Nuclear 90 But the big disasters get the headlines.

[@Beldizar]

@@juvandy Also, a coal plant will release hundreds of times more radioactive material from trace uranium in the coal than you could even detect standing next to an actual reactor building. Several coal miners have gotten radiation poisoning from the coal. Per unit of power produced, coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear fuel rod waste.

[@calebweldon8102]

Yes and even more important fossil fuels are really deadly lots of people die from smog or mining disaster

[@MrPhooey442]

Nuclear power is undoubtedly the future of large scale power production. We won't have places like "cancer alley" down in Louisiana killing more than we can count. Oil companies love to make people afraid of it so they can keep lining their pockets.

[@MFBloosh]

Perfect example of how a show can take certain liberties in order to be entertaining, but still be close enough to the actual events that it sends shivers down your spine.

[@amydubuque2894]

This is SUCH a well done mini series but so freakin heartbreaking and hard to watch. I cried so damn hard throughout it. I feel for you, girl, i know this is gonna tear you up too. Episode 4 really, really hit me.

[@minkalampinen9519]

What happened to Lyudmila's husband and the other people hit by that much hard radiation was actually far far worse than they could even show. They ... fell apart and somehow were still alive in that state, we can't even imagine it. But Lyudmila took care of her husband until he died. The story of Chernobyl is something that shoud never be forgotten, because of heroes like her. And because the whole disaster could have been avoided.

[@ShanobyKin]

When she says: "this part of the story is fictionalized, its too crazy..." me at the same time: "if you would only know how much worse it actually was..."

[@nathanliteroy9835]

And also the storyline is true - the wife helped the husband and also other guys who were there

[@izzitheraider24]

Sad to realized that the true visual horrors wouldn't have been showed simply cause it would have been to much for audiences.

[@peters4115]

It’s ironic considering there’s a substantial amount of people in modern times that can’t comprehend the dangers of a virus because they can’t see the side effects. We really haven’t progressed as much as we’d like to think…

[@PLF...]

@@izzitheraider24 > show is plenty graphic. Reality was not worse.

[@badmojomagic]

It was never as bad as this series suggests; do you know the first thing about Chernobyl?

[@godalmighty83]

The 'then I'll do it myself' general was Vladimir Pikalov, at this point (of the shows timeline) he was already a heralded Soviet General, the type you didn't cross or question. He knew that if he was the one who took the reading, then none of the politicians would have the balls to say that he was wrong.

[@rafapopawski2559]

That shows true character of a person who does that.

[@lordmortarius538]

@@rafapopawski2559 Anyone that still demonizes Russians or Soviets as ALL EVIL is ridiculously stupid. We have just as many good, honest, brave, and dutiful people as anywhere else in the world.

[@rafapopawski2559]

@@lordmortarius538 That is what I thought up until few days ago when one Russian person was defending Stalin and genocide. I wanted to check how common is that. And then needed to revise my thoughts quite quickly when I checked 2021 poll results stating that around 51% of Russians think positively about person responsible for deaths of millions of people.

[@salmarwow]

​@@lordmortarius538 Wake up, no one demonizes sheep who follow their demon leaders.

[@lordmortarius538]

@@rafapopawski2559 You know that many people in 'Murica absolutely love Dubya, who is responsible for trashing the Middle East, right? You know that many people absolutely LOVE Trump for threatening to start WW3 with Iran, right?

[@lukoshey79]

This was so hard to watch with my girlfriend, she grew up in Czechoslovakia and was a young teen when this happened, shes subsequently had her Thyroid removed as so so many have since.. Poor girl, trapped behind the Iron curtain, playing outside, enjoying The Nature, as she calls it. Breaks the heart..

[@heydude1112]

Working in the Field of Radiology this is by far (for me) the most horror level based movie that I've ever seen. There's no big bad evil monster chasing you or going to get you, no jump scares. The best and worst scene by far was the scientist explaining the "bullet" where the scientist is explaining the equations/equivalent of getting exposed to high levels of radiation.

[@TheNewsDepot]

Just because Chernobyl was a real event, doesn't mean it wasn't a horror story.

[@lindala2602]

This an Dunkirk are some of the greatest horror movies/shows of modern times

[@mauz4588]

*Sees Natalie getting upset about the pets left behind.* Me, who's already watched the series: "Eh, not great, but not terrible."

[@LordSeth-hf8ew]

Good meme

[@fixer1140]

"Completely normal phenomenon"

[@saadesigner07]

How do I know they were left behind?

[@JulioVirrueta]

the happiness of all mankind...

[@elevate07]

@@saadesigner07 all the pets were taken with their owners. You're delusional.

[@niki4you]

40 minutes of Natalie yelling “NO NO NOOOOO OH NO” 😂

[@rybybgvgvubghnhn]

Glad someone else thought this

[@Pachyzookeeper]

Agreed, i love reaction videos but this was more just silent show and audible no no no lol

[@mudkatt2003]

Chernobyl was run by the soviet government, not a 'private company' like here in america so the two instances are not comparable. In the US we tend to not personally prosecute individuals for harm caused by companies because if we did than people wouldn't want to start companies so instead we fine the company, sometimes enough to bankrupt them. Often times individuals will be charged for individual crimes they might commit when working for a company like fraud, tampering with evidence, lying to authorities or embezzlement. This protection against personal criminal liability (not civil mind you) is a big reason why the US economy is so strong and dynamic.

[@darthroden]

Take it from someone who was alive when this actually happened, they can't make this movie worse than the real experience was. I remember watching the news at age 9 and hearing about the radioactive cloud that was moving across the world from this. Terrifying stuff.

[@MacTechG4]

Agreed, even here in America (Maine in my case) the fear from the fallout cloud from Chernobyl was noticeable, and speaking as someone who lived during the Cold War (and Reagan’s infamous “we have outlawed the Soviet Union, bombing begins in 10 minutes “joke” “ ) this compounded the already constant background low level dread of nuclear annihilation, there was a constant background fear that the “powers that be” would one day just wake up on the wrong side of the bed and “push the button”… You think the stress from the pandemic is bad, try living during a time when the two main superpowers hated each other, we’re always saber rattling, and the Doomsday Clock was, IIRC, TWO minutes to ‘midnight’ (thermonuclear war)

[@RenegadeShepTheSpacer]

This happened just under a decade before my time. I remember, when I was in school, we were given a presentation by an organisation that dealt with charitable work for the victims of Chernobyl. They showed us pictures and video clips of the power plant, of Pripyat and of the survivors (obviously, these were very much toned-down). It was the first time I had ever been exposed to the incident in any meaningful sense, but even that couldn't prepare me for my own research into the effects of Acute Radiation Syndrome and the portrayal of what happened in this show. The entire thing was a monumental disaster and we're lucky that people like the scientists, the liquidators and clean-up crews (among countless others) stopped it from becoming even worse. Chernobyl was an incredibly dark moment for humanity.

[@hafor2846]

Of course they can overdramatize it and make it worse than the real thing. They did. It's pretty accurate, but a lot of stuff like the enormous steam explosion was completely fictional and would never have happened. Chernobyl was bad, but it would never have created a megaton range explosion, that's simply bullshit. And even back then, if you listened to the scientists and not the doomsday hypers, you knew what and how it might affect you. It was bad, but if you actually thought the evil doomsday cloud would come and get you, you listened to the wrong people.

[@darthroden]

@@MacTechG4 I was 13 when the Berlin Wall came down and just two years older when the Soviet Union collapsed. All the same I remember being a kid and watching movies in the 80s about the prospect of Global Thermonuclear War. I remember the childhood dread of what might happen at any given moment. Today's generation has no understanding of that fear, unless of course Biden, Trump, or some other partisan moron makes shit worse with Russia, or maybe China. Even then I doubt that it would, or could, reach the same level of deep dread we all felt in those last couple decades of the Cold War.

[@chaospoet]

I remember that. Living in New Hampshire here. I was a few years younger but I remember that.

[@LeonardoKlotz]

This is essentially a real life COSMIC HORROR

[@stephensinclair3771]

Good point. Its all very "Colour out of space". Probably its a kind of reminder of the HPL quote from one of his letters "....the 'truth' is of course that the universe cares no more for us than chickens, dogs, pterodactyl or domestic geranium plants. Or any other organic energy..." But. Despite all his obvious faults lovecraft (like most misanthropic people) was himself very kind to individuals he encountered.

[@gottagetitgaming7759]

I am a 48 year old male and this series absolutely destroyed me when I watched it when it first aired. Such an amazing mini series. It still amazes me to this day what happened and what could have happened. It is truly terrifying to think how this could have changed the world so much more than it did. As bad as it was, we can all be thankful for the many men and woman who sacrificed themselves in one way or another to make sure things didn't turn out much worse than they did. Good on you for getting through this. I knew if you ever watched this series that is was going to be a really hard watch emotionally, let alone how gruesome some of the scenes were.

[@Honk4frogs]

I'm loving your little fact checks! Its an effort I haven't seen anyone reacting to this show take, and I think its important for translating the dramatized series to the actual events.

[@ebolast]

I was a little kid when it happened, living like a 150 km from there (Pripyat'). Family grabbed me and my cousin and moved us to a far village in western Ukraine for almost an year. I remember there was no any notice, just rumors spreading. Upper layer of a ground has been removed in my city on an area of several square kms because of a radioactive pollution. Thousands of kids of that time still suffer different thyroid disorders.

[@condition1bsg756]

I hope Nat has been warned about the next few episodes, she's going to need more than one box of tissues and likely pause the episode for a few minutes to calm down. Extremely intense, but a lesson in humanity and technology we all must remember.

[@dante2037]

She finished this series like a month ago on Patreon. Suffice to say, it was rough

[@kookamundo]

@@dante2037 Dang....I want to warn her against it! I don't even know if I can watche her watch this!

[@danielmacdonald9287]

Especially episode 4...

[@jabbawookeez01]

i always skip the dog part the most

[@DJKuroh]

Why do people feel the need to warn reactors? It's a soft spoiler to say "oh watch out for episode xyz!" She's a grown adult who doesn't need warnings. People did the same thing to Squid Game reactors.

[@Native_Creation]

Absolutely tragic, heartbreaking, and a testament to real heroism, standing up for the truth and to protect others.

[@gimmethunder]

If you are interested in the accuracy of this show, I think it's important to note that, contrary to the pop-up comment about Ulana Khomyuk, she was not a completely fictional character. She was a composite character based on the many real scientists who investigated the accident. Instead of complicating it with a ton of actors to represent each scientist, they wrapped them up into one character, so her actions are accurate.

[@reallykmart5185]

I had a chemistry teacher who grew up in Poland during the crisis and said that she remembered her and her family drinking iodine for protection so the scene is historically accurate.

[@vkdeen7570]

iodine is absolutely necessary in that scenario because 1 of the products of thay type of nuclear explosion is an isotope of iodine which the body will absorb and then continue to emit into the body until u die..... therefore u saturate the body with regular iodine so it cannot absorb the isotope and u simply expel it form your body

[@annafirnen4815]

Indeed it's true, my parents were teens when it happened, all kids at schools here were basically forced to drink iodine, they were distributing it to everyone. And let me tell you, it's not tasty. But it was a must in this situation.

[@DamonCzanik]

Fun fact: If you took a drink every time Natalie says "No", "God" or yells at the characters you'd be dead by the end of the video. A horrific event but everyone should watch it. But after, watch comedies for the next week.

[@Trepanation21]

dude you're right, that was super fun :|

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

like don't look up

[@barisagalozu2287]

That would be an excellent challenge!!!

[@FHB71]

I was a teenager in Germany at that time and I remember it as a very terrifying time although the danger was not really palpable or visible. And the initial perspective is not random, Lyudmilla Ignatenko has written a book about it and it is so good!

[@mradriankool]

Hildur Guthnadottir composed the music by making sounds at a power station, the noises of the operational rooms, pump stations, feed systems what ever she could record is sampled and played back, stretched, speed up, droned down, to create the soundscape score. Respect for picking up on it so early, it’s an incredibly score

[@joeyterrell2613]

this is legitimately one of the greatest shows ever made. you’re in for a wild emotional rollercoaster.

[@csmkorn1]

Yes!!! I think it’s so incredibly underrated.

[@jedenzet]

@@csmkorn1 underrated? do you even know what that word means? everyone was praising this show, what the fuck are you talking about?

[@nonamenola33]

@@jedenzet Down boy.

[@csmkorn1]

@@jedenzet Actually it is *you* who seems unaware of the definition. All underrated means in this context is that I believe it should have received more publicity and more praise than it did. Seeing as there is no definitive limit to the amount of publicity or praise something can receive, anything and everything can be viewed as underrated. But based on your response, you sound like someone who has a very fulfilling life with lots of friends and loved ones, and who definitely has no deep seated emotional issues whatsoever. I’m sure both of your parents were present, attentive, and loving to you while growing up. You’ve certainly never experienced any traumas or betrayals that you lacked the fortitude and/or maturity to deal with, and you absolutely do not spend all your time on the internet irrationally unleashing all your mishandled and misplaced rage onto perfect strangers for no reason. /sarcasm

[@IronTauru]

Except this rollercoaster only goes down.

[@BabylonLurker]

Chernobyl is one of the hardest stories to watch, mostly because it is rather authentic. Yes, there are some cases of "artistic license", but it is not too far from what happened. One example is the female scientist who is , in the show, representing a team of scientists. The next part will break your heart, and the finale will probably make you mad.

[@QuantumS1ngularity]

"how true to history it is...". Well it's true to the level that the trash bin he was taking out in the first episode was the same my parents used to have when i was a kid, as well as 60% of the rest of the families in the Eastern Blok and the USSR. When you get historical accuracy for the trash bins in your TV series, that's some next level attention to detail. The chairs, the wallpapers, the children' s school backpacks everything is like the time was turned bac.

[@nulltheworm]

I went on a tour at Chernobyl and the surrounding area (the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone) a few weeks before the new containment structure was set into place atop the original building and sarcophagus. The nuclear facility itself was fascinating. But walking into old Soviet buildings, Soviet elementary schools, classrooms for children, swimming pools, etc. -- this was a surreal experience. But my experience that made it very human to me was some short time later, while living in Romania, I started dating a girl who had a number of problems related to exposure as an infant in the weeks and months after Chernobyl. She had been informed that she couldn't have children on account of that, and it broke her heart.

[@shehansoysa571]

Nat, one thing you need to remember going through this is that these people don't know anything about nuclear radiation. This never happened before. We have the luxury of hindsight. Edit: by people, I mean regular citizens. Obviously the doctors and the scientist knew what was going on.

[@SweetLou0523]

It kinda already had on a smaller scale in the Soviet Union. The issue is information like that was heavily compartmentalized. The average soviet had no idea how truly dangerous nuclear could be. The show itself has many inaccuracies from a scientific standpoint but those are deliberate. Manzin said he wanted to tell the story from the average persons POV and based much off of their own testimonies or books. He wanted the inaccuracies and misconceptions because it was how they at the time understood everything. To me, it is a brilliant choice. We dont need another documentary about the reactor or the explosion. We needed to experience the story from the perspective of the victims and the survivors.

[@davebcf1231]

That's not true at all. This was more than forty years after the nuclear strikes on Japan. Their understanding of radiation wasn't far behind what ours is now. Most reactors I've seen reacting to this series don't know any more about radiation than the civilians depicted in the show. Do you think that means that we know nothing about radiation? It's just that the average person isn't going to have anything more than a basic understanding of something unless it impacts their life on a regular basis or they just have an interest in it.

[@shehansoysa571]

@@davebcf1231 I was talking about citizens like the wife. She didn't know what's going on, and today more people know about nuclear radiation than people of the Chernobyl era. Obviously, the scientists knows what's going on.

[@davebcf1231]

@@shehansoysa571 She didn't know what was going on because the truth about what happened was being covered up. The show is also a docudrama, not a documentary. I'm sure in reality she was well aware her husband and the other firefighters she took care of weren't just suffering from burns as she watched them die from radiation sickness. This disaster was only 36 years ago. We're talking about the mid 80's, not the mid 50's. People in the 80's were well aware of radiation. If anything people in the 80's were more aware of it than people are now seeing as how it was the cold war and potential nuclear attacks were a constant looming threat. The average person just isn't going to know anything beyond the basics, which is still true now even with unprecedented access to information. There's no reason for them to. That doesn't mean that they don't know that radiation is dangerous. They just obviously aren't going to be able to diagnose that's what's wrong with someone when they're not being told the truth.

[@shehansoysa571]

@@davebcf1231 nope she really wasn't. Saw the a small article about her. She knew he wasn't suffering from normal burns but didn't know things like how radiation might effect her baby.

[@swordmonkey6635]

Natalie: "Look at all the dogs... oh the poor dogs..." Me: **cringing. Knowing what's going to happen later.**

[@SaraRodrigues-]

Yeah same

[@NatalieGoldReacts]

😭😭😭

[@rexhavoc376]

@@NatalieGoldReacts Yeah, pretty much. Stay strong, we're rooting for you

[@kylereese4822]

@@NatalieGoldReacts Here is the real Anatoly Dyatlov’s story about the Chernobyl explosion was told by himself (he was deputy chief-engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant). The interview was taken in 1994, a year before his death. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGnCkKlvetiqhJY&ab_channel

[@kylereese4822]

@@NatalieGoldReacts kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3-WhIeia9Z5gqc&ab_channel=AbsoluteDocumentaries Igor The Deformed Child of The Chernobyl Disaster | Absolute Documentaries

[@loganinkosovo]

Chernobyl was not the only Soviet Nuclear Accident and not the worst Soviet Nuclear Accident. Since 1950 the Soviet Union had 57 land based Nuclear Accidents. The worst of which more than doubled the release of Chernobyl. These, for the most part, were in desolate places and closed cities in Siberia and Kazakhstan. One accident was in Leningrad/ St. Petersburg! They also had releases of weaponized anthrax among other things that wiped whole villages off the map. I strongly recommend you watch a documentary called "The Russian Woodpecker" that shows Chernobyl was not an accident but a deliberate sabotage by the Soviets to cover up the millions upon millions of Rubles they spent on this massive radio spy array that went finally switched on just made a constant knocking sound. That would have got the head of the project and everyone in leadership positions shot. I was in The Federal Republic of Germany at that time and down wind of the radiation. We ate a lot of canned food from the states for months after. You never got sick when coming to Europe from the states until Chernobyl. Now everyone gets sick after the first week or two on the ground.

[@acapellagirl24]

My parents lived in Kiev at the time and we talked a lot about it while the show was airing. It was really realistic and true to history, so much so it was difficult for them to watch, like living through it again.

[@spaulagain]

This show is a masterpiece. As someone who's had radiation therapy, yes radiation is a very prolonged and destructive force. 30+ years later and my body is still changing and breaking from the radiation.

[@PUARockstar]

Stay strong and may you lead a long and healthy life! My father was there for a month until he got the maximum allowed dose (at that time) of 20R (it was like 30-40 for the guys who came earlier) and, while living a decent life, he struggles with lots of radiation-related issues to this day, and they are actually getting worse at time. His count of white blood cells was way too big back in '86.

[@kossowankenobi]

I worked with a man from Kiev who lost his Dad to cancer (Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union). He was a power engineer called in to help lock the reactor down. Only lived a few more months. A powerful story that can't be forgotten. Thanks for keeping it alive.

[@uu5744]

Kyiv not Kiev

[@kossowankenobi]

@@uu5744 Ah, вибач. I learned something today - thanks.

[@uu5744]

@@kossowankenobi 👍😉

[@Honk4frogs]

Amazing reaction, can't wait for part 2. This entire series is heartbreaking, and a very respectful telling of a series of events that to most of us has always been very unclear. I don't know how you decide what series to put in your polls, but if I could ever recommend something, it would have to be Arcane. I really think you'll be able to appreciate what a beautiful story it is, as well as just an amazing work of visual and storytelling art.

[@ItsDesm]

That shot of them dumping the firefighters clothes on the pile.... That pile is still there to this day, untouched and still radioactive. There's modern day photos of it and it's crazy.

[@dailycarolina.]

Part of the series is based on the book Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich, it's such a heartbreaking piece of non-fiction literature. If you haven't, I suggest listening to the Chernobyl podcast with Craig Mazin, the showrunner, in which he explains how this series was made and what other resource material he used.

[@manalbakhtaoui3741]

I had this book in my french program last year under the theme "the force of living" and it's really sad especially because it was paired with "les contemplations" of hugo and "le gai savoir" of Nietchez

[@sitting_nut]

he also lies a lot . main narrative of the show is problematic because it is false. this false narrative depicts scientists seeking truth at any cost, conducting an investigation against wishes of the state , and revealing the results at great risk to themselves ( even of life and imprisonment). in fact what happened at chernobyl and aftermath (now known and even accessible in west through books like midnight at chernobyl) on those man narrative points, was quite different ( in fact almost 180 degrees different). investigation was done by state itself, and its findings were not hidden ( in fact were used by defense rather than persecution at trial) . nobody was at risk of back room execution, or imprisonment, because of investigation and a dramatic revelation of findings. legasov( who was heroically responsible for some important aftermath decisions) was ostracized not by state, but by fellow scientists,who thought he was proposing reforms ( not mentioned in show , some of them heroic in their own way ) detrimental to status of scientists, and finding faults with other individual scientiss ( some of whom suffered and were fired because of this ) who had earlier helped his career. show chose to lie on those points. those lies are especially problematic in a show with theme of" cost of lies" .

[@najhoant]

The guy who created this show and wrote the episodes, Craig Mazin, is also developing a series based on The Last of Us and has written the screenplay for an upcoming Borderlands movie. And also the Hangover movies and some of the Scary Movies, but clearly he’s gotten better

[@BassLineProductionsI]

I was just thinking anything based on The Last of Us could be a wicked production, and if it was taken seriously like Chernobyl 👍

[@tealsquare]

@@BassLineProductionsI it's an HBO production that has the full involvement of the creators of the game itself.

[@kerryonmywaywardson9805]

He was also Ted Cruz' college roommate and hates him lmaoooo

[@dragonmac1234]

I was 22 in 1986 and living in the UK, I remember news reports saying there was the risk of a massive explosion that would spread radioactive debris across Europe. I still occasionally think about that time, and haven't been able to watch this show because it reminds me of that event and the incredibly brave men who sacrificed their lives to save millions.

[@uodbouqwerty7128]

The sheer terror in Legasov's eyes when he said the pilot will beg for the bullet is truly a masterclass in acting.

[@djlow9915]

This show really is such a hard, but important watch. It's powerful stuff, and so well made. Thanks for your reaction Nat 💛

[@wackyvorlon]

It’s honestly a masterpiece.

[@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps]

"Importance" is a myth, it never exists outside the imagination. We could have gone extinct after the Cuban missile crisis or a long time before that.

[@djlow9915]

@@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps If you say so.....

[@nt78stonewobble]

Yeah, but a shame they weren't entirely accurate apparently.

[@wackyvorlon]

@@nt78stonewobble it is. Some parts are fictionalized because we can’t know exactly what happened in those moments, others for simplicity. There’s some that are just bonkers though, like the “3 megaton” steam explosion. It’s an absurd number.

[@Fenr]

A lot of good actors and characters in the show but Boris is well above the rest. Amazingly written and Stellan Skarsgård gave a stellar performance.

[@BabylonLurker]

So did Jared Harris, and many others.

[@Fenr]

@@BabylonLurker Oh I absolutely agree. I've been a fan of Harris since Fringe and he's amazing in this. I just personally think that the combination of Boris' character and Skarskård's performance is what elevated him above the rest.

[@BabylonLurker]

@@Fenr Funny you should mention Fringe, I just started a re-watch of that one today, as it appeared on my HBO Max in Denmark. I will look out for Harris better than I did the first time. (and yes Denmark was affected, too, but not quite as much as some other places).

[@oneilprovost2287]

@@BabylonLurker Jared Harris is the son of Richard Harris, of Camelot, The Field and of course, the original Dumbledore.

[@derbydriver]

I just found your channel and you’re easily one of the best reactors I’ve seen. You’re sharp, logical and you pay attention. It’s nice to see someone who actually understands what is happening on screen.

[@somethingthe1]

Nuclear power is actually the safest and cleanest way of producing energy we are capable of doing.

[@lockekappa500]

This series broke me. A couple scenes were truly heartbreaking. Like uncontrollable sobbing I have to pause the show because I can't see through tears levels of sad. Stay strong Nat.

[@Palmieres]

I live in Lisbon, Portugal. We're at the western most end of Europe so Chernobyl was a shocking event but, unlike so many further up north and east, we were not affected. It was only recently that I learned there is a program in place for local families to have children from the Ukraine come over for the holidays, and it's families who go on vacation by the sea. This is so those children can receive natural doses of iodine from the ocean for a few weeks, to help counteract the effects of the still lingering radiation out there. I thought it was a beautiful idea, but I feel very sorry that even to this day so many are suffering the consequences of this tragic event. If these are children, their own parents were children or not even born when this happened. Time has passed but the consequences have not. And there's an additional enormous danger most people don't know about, which are the wooded areas around the site. A lot of plant life died as a consequence of radiation, but it didn't decay. The radiation itself was trapped in the, still standing, dead trees and if that ever catches fire we're all going to be in a LOT of trouble: the smoke would not just stay over Russia and Europe, it would spread out and take the radiation with it around the world. It's not over, and it won't be for a long, long time.

[@PUARockstar]

Nice, I'm telling you as a child of Chornobyl. But please do not refer to USSR and its people as Russians, it just plain wrong, even if it were tradition in anglo countries. There were 14 countries-states/nationalities and 189 ethnicities registered within USSR. I'm speaking as ukrainian. The people (and authorities etc.) of USSR are called soviets.

[@kenpatchi7778]

I literally went to binge this show when I saw you were doing a reaction to it. It's been on my list to watch for a while and it was very well done.

[@iCortex1]

The ending of episode 2 with the dosimeter (?) going off like crazy along with the workers heavy / panic breathing is honestly the one movie / show scene that's the most terrifying to me. Way above any horror movie.

[@Topcat6103]

A thing to keep in mind about the average citizen characters reactions, even when they knew there was radiation, is that at that point in time the average person really didn’t know anything about radiation or it’s dangers, and it’s because of Chernobyl that it’s fairly common knowledge now.

[@cupguin]

I was watching The Magnetic Monster recently and one of the characters early on freaks out because she hears clicking and assumes it's a time bomb. The scientist calms her down by saying it's a just radiation being picked up by their Geiger counter. And sure the source is radioactive enough to kill people but they're downstairs they can totally just hang out protecting by the ceiling. It is not a good movie or scientifically accurate but it's an amazing reflection of what the general public understood about radiation. For the people who lived next to the reactors they'd been there for years and everyone thought they were safe. Even the staff had lived through multiple accidents including a partial core meltdown and everything turned out to be fine. Before the Chernobyl disaster there was really no basis for them to fear a Chernobyl disaster.

[@goldenageofdinosaurs7192]

Especially in the Soviet Union of that time. People knew about radiation, but they weren’t told about the dangers of it. Or, more specifically, how dangerous it could be. The state was constantly telling the people that it was safe & underplaying the dangers of the radiation. In general, most average people in the world knew radiation was dangerous, but we really didn’t know exactly what it could do. We knew it made you sick & could cause cancer, but the things shown in this program were aspects of radiation poisoning that most people hadn’t considered. I’d guess the people living in the Chernobyl area had been assured repeatedly that nothing like this could ever happen.

[@lordmortarius538]

Yup, we all knew the destructive force of atomic bombs, but we didn't know about radiation and the dangers it posed, especially since the effects are not immediate and couldn't really be pinpointed unless one were versed in radioactive effects on the body :P

[@seanmcmurphy4744]

@Lord Mortarius Medical science knew plenty about the effects of radiation, from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, tests on animals, accidental exposures during 50s nuclear weapons tests, and many people killed during nuclear industry criticality accidents over the years. It was just that in the Soviet Union information that might make people nervous or be embarrassing to the State was kept secret

[@xen0bia]

@@seanmcmurphy4744 You read about other incidents in Soviet territories such as the Kyshtym disaster and the subsequent Lake Karachay incident, which were kept entirely secret until many years after Chernobyl, and realize how the flippin' governement just let hundreds of thousands of people get irradiated for years without tellng them a thing or evacuating them, to protect the secrecy of a facility, but most certainly out of embarrassement as well, I just cry. The disregard for human life is too real.

[@AgathaVitoriaTavares]

Nat, I don't know if you already reasearched this but the storyline about the pregnant woman and the firefighter is 100% real. They had a lot of real elements in this series, breaks our hearts even more 💔

[@leslieturner8276]

Indeed her story (and other first hand accounts) are described in a book called "Chernobyl Prayer" by Svetlana Alexievich, If I remember rightly it was also published as "Voices from Chernobyl". As detailed in book what happened to her husband was far worse than was shown on the screen, they had to tone it down, because the reality would be just too horrific. Needless to say the book is an extremely tough read of what people experienced as a result of the disaster, so have plenty of tissues ready because you will cry.

[@gdiaz8827]

not the baby shielding the mother part

[@plutopepsi578]

There are descendants of the pets left in Chernobyl that still live there! About five years ago a program was started to give them veterinary care, vaccinations, and having them all spayed/neutered. They’re living the best lives they can under the circumstances. Zirconium 95 is an isotope that lasts longer and decays slower than most zirconium isotopes.

[@LeeMaitland]

I'm an engineer who has studied modules on nuclear power plants, and when I saw the scene when the firefighter pick up a piece of graphite moderator I got goose-bumps. this truly is a horror show.

[@LeeMaitland]

Also, we have iodine in our bodies anyway and it usually accumulates in the thyroid. Radioactive iodine-131, a short half-life fission product of uranium can be taken up by the body and accumulates in the thyroid. Iodine tablets saturate the thyroid, limiting the amount of radioactive iodine that accumulates. It isn't perfect but it helps.

[@Rick_Cleland]

@@LeeMaitland 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻👌🏻

[@CorSmit]

These events happened a few weeks before my ninth birthday - I still remember the news reports on the TV, and the ensuing anti-nuclear energy protests. Even though I lived in Holland, twelve hundred miles from Chernobyl, we were still affected by the fallout - which reached us on May second. We weren’t allowed to eat certain vegetables and imported products, or drink milk for a while

[@magtovi]

Sadly, the milk from Chernobyl was bought by the Mexican government and given away as welfare milk for poor people.

[@PUARockstar]

And Soviet officials still held a May 1st massive celebratory parade in fricking Kyiv, just a hundred killometers away!

[@Deckard-ig4qd]

"fun" fact : in France, the communication around the Tchernobyl incident and the radioactive cloud looming over Europe was very messy and unclear. Anyone there will tell you about how the TV said that "the cloud will stop at the border".

[@karanbirsinghbhullar]

so this stupid media thing is not new

[@Jindrolim]

Don't worry, the radioactivity was detected everywhere in Europe, but there was no contamination in socialist Czechoslovakia. Miracle? Maybe we just had a really good border patrol ;)

[@karanbirsinghbhullar]

@@Jindrolim hahaha

[@gdiaz8827]

how did that make sense to anyone? who were they expecting to passport check a radioactive cloud?

[@Deckard-ig4qd]

@@gdiaz8827 Well I don't think people really believed it + they didn't exactly say that on TV, it's more of a Mandela effect thing generated by the lack of a clear report on the situation combined with a weather report saying the winds would push clouds from the East away

[@Ben_Kimber]

I believe the guy you were referring to early in the video was Hisashi Ouchi. He was sent to a hospital in a university, if I remember correctly, because cases of ARS like that are very rare and they wanted to study him. They kept him alive against his will for 83 days. During that time, they resuscitated him around three times. He was kept alive for 83 days as his body gradually decayed and fell apart, in agony the whole time, and all he wanted was to be allowed to die.

[@October-TE]

The firefighter's clothing is still in the hospital basement to this day, and still highly radioactive from the contamination

[@DianaBell_MG]

The three men who went in the water suicide mission... one died of a heart attack in 2005, the ohter 2 are still alive today, radiation can be pretty damn random, and water is a fantastic insulator against it

[@Cthulhu013]

Yeah, honestly, the danger of radiation and specifically of Chernobyl has been massively overstated. There are people who never evacuated the area who are perfectly fine. You have to be pretty dang close to the source for it to have the detrimental affects that only resulted in 50 deaths in the first few days and weeks.

[@a.a677]

@@Cthulhu013 it killed more than 50 people, the rest was a cover up and no one knows for sure how many

[@Cthulhu013]

@@a.a677 The U.N disagrees.

[@stalefurset9444]

One crazy thing about this is that after the accident, the 3 other reactors was still used for many years. The last one shut down in December 1999. People still had to be on site to operate them.

[@johndoecake]

"People still are on site to operate them" there fixed that for ya. It will take years, to disassemble the whole thing. There is still personel working there not the whole crew but still many many people.(not counting the sarcophagus crew) Like the one reactor in my country being disassembled since 1979 (after being shut down after second acident in 1977).

[@badmojomagic]

There are still people living in the area; they never left.

[@johndoecake]

@@badmojomagic more like they came back after they left

[@DocuzanQuitomos]

"It's nuclear energy... you should not go to watch it" Half point. Back in those days both the USA and the USSR kept a secret from the public the dangers of radiation for "safety purposes" (in general, the governments didn't want the backlash of scared communities... and they didn't want to reveal to the other side just how vulnerable the reactors could be to an accident). When a radiation related accident happened people didn't know in general they should not try to go to see the fires of strange colors... or worry because the air tastes like metal. "Don't worry about it and just shut up" Well... that's basically the idea that ruled many of the most questionable choices of governments (and the USSR). And it's not the first time we've seen it: that's exactly what the "political officer" in X-Men First Class was doing in the bridge, overriding any concerns of the captain: if the doubts about the things happening threathened to cast doubts about the government's version or the government's capacity to deal with the issue at hand... one's patriotic duty was to shut up and let people think its government could deal with it. It was a dangerous thing to have common sense against the official narrative under such circumstances. "They didn't even get them good flashlights" Actually, the flashlights (while outdated) were good. But such levels of radiation basically fry any electric circuit; the flashlights were a tool doomed to fail from the start. (Natalie searches for it later on): And they most likely thought the flashlights would fail, but it would be more somber to send those poor volunteers without any tools inside. The flashlights could have been just a symbol of hope, but nothing more. "We need to know what happened" It's an interesting narrative element, but also puts you in the shoes of everyone at the time: most of the world (even in the Soviet Union) didn't know the reactor had exploded until the news officially broke out; then, at the same time there was this race to prevent a bad accident from becoming the worst nuclear explosion in history, people everywhere were wondering "How the heck this happened?" and if there would ever be answers from behind the iron curtain. And that would be it; it's nice to take this somber ride along with you; see you in the next one.

[@raelshark]

This is one of your best reactions, and I can only imagine where it goes from here. This series was probably the scariest thing I've watched. And it's not the horrifying radiation effects or the terror of the scenes that scare me the most, but the people and the systems. The individual lives affected are tragic. These types of people and systems are what allows this kind of thing to happen again and again throughout history. [Waves hand at the current state of the world]

[@pranjoshi4323]

Oh man. This is a masterpiece. Absolutely haunting. And i heard that the creator used to predominantly work with Comedies. This is really a good time with Jordan Peele, John Krasinski and more guys from mainly comedy making their mark on other genres.

[@kuhpunkt]

His comedies were utter trash. Like Scary Movie 4 and Superhero Movie.

[@dEc0dEnT]

well, the amount of scenes that made me laugh of how stupid they were shows he's good at making comedies. "Show me how a nuclear reactor works or I will get this soldier thrown out of the helicopter". it was basically the funniest thing ever! Even imagining this interaction in those years is an joke.

[@kuhpunkt]

@@dEc0dEnT He was not good at making comedies, though. Look at his filmography. It's awful stuff. Which makes Chernobyl even more impressive.

[@artizek]

Yeah, he wrote the sequels to the Hangover movies and then he comes out with this masterpiece.

[@vwlssnvwls3262]

If this series doesn't make you tear up or cry, then you have no soul. The way I survived this series was to focus on the courage, and amazing things they did to work on this disaster.

[@miguelmars422]

Yeah, I really wanna watch the entire video but man, 8 minutes in and I'm already reliving all the stress and rage I felt at the very start of this series. I'm gonna have to come back to this later 😅😅

[@eltzrothm1]

My favorite line from the Coal Miner was 'You don't have enough bullets.' That is my favorite character in this show

[@ShinoNC]

Nat, you gotta remember, this was during the cold war era Soviet Russia. If they had stood up to dietlov (their boss) the would have been thrown in jail, and most likely their families thrown in jail as well. Or worse, they could have been killed.

[@richtifilmpalast5373]

no worries, US Americans are on a strait path to experiencing this shit for themselves first handed. electing a regime that will be just as rigid when it comes to people trying to stand up and tell te truth

[@xboxgamerhr]

Lmao, Russia has 10 times lower prison population than USA. I think it's pretty easy for Americans to imagine. America also hunts its' whistleblowers all over the world.

[@PUARockstar]

@@xboxgamerhr Russia isn't the Soviet Union though.

[@catem3102]

It's absolutely appalling and heartbreaking. I remember it well, but we were not told the truth in the news. This programme needed to be made.

[@grzegorzpajduszewski1452]

You guys were totaly lied in the tv in that time , people didn;t have any clue what they are talking about , which cause so big panic and sadly many worse things

[@catem3102]

Grzegorz, I know. When we watched this in the UK we were so shocked to hear the truth. It's so terrible I don't have words.

[@rastiga9196]

I grew up in America and this happened when I was about 8 or 9. One time another Kid asked about it in class to the teacher and we were told that she knew as much about it as the rest of us via the news. She was absolutely right, we weren't much better than the Soviets at sharing information albeit a little better educated about radiation. I grew up with a genius brother and even he couldn't say what happened.

[@rafapopawski2559]

Now ask yourselves all folks here, do you think you are being told the truth in the news nowdays?

[@catem3102]

The news is pure propaganda. Worse now than ever.

[@williamjackson6705]

Possibly the most wonderful & horrific series ever filmed. The fact that this actually happened is terrifying. I hope you can sleep after viewing it.

[@RemoraDFC343]

Helicopter Crash footage - kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZmUiIOGmah-pck - The basement of the hospital still has the discarded clothing of the firemen, and it is lethally radioactive to this day. - The 3 volunteers who opened the water release valves survived. - The Firemans wife, was pregnant. She gave birth to a girl that died 4 hours after being born due to congenital heart malformations and cirrhosis of the liver (both of which have been linked to radiation exposure). - She was told that the child absorbed all the radiation from her, which is why she never got sick. But as a consequence she would never be able to have children again. Doctors were wrong, she had children years later.

[@Station-Network]

That was my first "lockdown." I was not allowed to play outside for most of the year and was only allowed outside when necessary. Even the school breaks we had to spend inside and I live almost 1400 km away from Chernobyl in Berlin. Fortunately, it was explained to me correctly and I was already old enough to understand.

[@donhigbee9919]

I was at the Chernobyl plant a few months ago and walked thru Pripyat and it's indescribable to see the result of these events and talk to people who live with this result.

[@PUARockstar]

Great. Those who wants go there - absolutely should. Especially since it would be destroyed within the next 20 years (to prevent buildings falling off by themselves spreading lots of unwelcome Chornobyl dust). And sadly, in those years after the tragedy its getting increasingly harder to find an untouched flat etc, the city was like 95% looted. They even took some firemen' cloth pieces and a helmet! Ukraine cemented entrances to the hospital basement like a year ago precisely so people wouldn't get there and pull something shitty and dangerous like that.

[@Lsucasas]

The “a brief google says:” part is a nice touch

[@pallenda]

Not only is this show a masterpiece, it might very well be the #1 mini series ever made. I seriously can't think of any flaws.