Chernobyl (HBO Mini Series)
Discussion
Just got the DVD yesterday.
Have already got through the first two episodes and my opinion remains unchanged. If not the best, one of the very best drama series ever made.
Just one scene shows you how good a programme this is, the scene with the Central Committee in episode two.
The acting is amazing; the actor playing Gorbachev bluster as he comes into the meeting before realising the seriousness of the situation, Skarsgard as a man who has always played the Soviet system and clearly done it very well, knowing what's coming next when he asks the two scientists to show and tell having already been told what it means & its made him for the moment a broken man, Harris' character cheerily correcting Gorbachev when gets he the population numbers wrong,
But even the characters who have no lines in this scene are also acting their socks off; the General lifting his hand to his face as he realises the full implications of what is happening, the KGB boss thinking how he could use this to his advantage and his secretary who is basically s
tting herself as she hears what is coming.
But Gorbachev gets all the best lines.
"You made Lava?"
"What do you mean? Impact?"
"My permission for what?"
And all set in what looks like a resources room from an upmarket hotel set up for a sales seminar, even down to the pencils on the table and the bottled water. But instead of talking about revising commission structures, they're talking about the end of all life in a large part of Eastern Europe.
Incredible.
Have already got through the first two episodes and my opinion remains unchanged. If not the best, one of the very best drama series ever made.
Just one scene shows you how good a programme this is, the scene with the Central Committee in episode two.
The acting is amazing; the actor playing Gorbachev bluster as he comes into the meeting before realising the seriousness of the situation, Skarsgard as a man who has always played the Soviet system and clearly done it very well, knowing what's coming next when he asks the two scientists to show and tell having already been told what it means & its made him for the moment a broken man, Harris' character cheerily correcting Gorbachev when gets he the population numbers wrong,
But even the characters who have no lines in this scene are also acting their socks off; the General lifting his hand to his face as he realises the full implications of what is happening, the KGB boss thinking how he could use this to his advantage and his secretary who is basically s
tting herself as she hears what is coming.But Gorbachev gets all the best lines.
"You made Lava?"
"What do you mean? Impact?"
"My permission for what?"
And all set in what looks like a resources room from an upmarket hotel set up for a sales seminar, even down to the pencils on the table and the bottled water. But instead of talking about revising commission structures, they're talking about the end of all life in a large part of Eastern Europe.
Incredible.
RTB said:
The Hypno-Toad said:
But Gorbachev gets all the best lines.
"You made Lava?"
"What do you mean? Impact?"
"My permission for what?"
The fictional KGB head character has some good lines:"You made Lava?"
"What do you mean? Impact?"
"My permission for what?"
"Trust and verify"
"why worry about something that's never going to happen?"
jurbie said:
Did anyone else find that the way the actor played that character seemed very reminiscent of our current shadow chancellor John Mcdonnell?
That was my first thought as well. Although the KGB chief seemed like a nicer chap than John Mcdonnell (also seemed to have fewer communist tendencies).
I thought the alt-text* on this XKCD comic summed it up rather well:
"You know when you can't hear your speakers, and you keep turning various volume controls up higher and higher in confusion, and then someone hits the mute button and there's a deafening blast of sound? That's basically what happened at Chernobyl."
https://xkcd.com/2163/
(* - the text that pops up when you hover your mouse over the pic, when on the xkcd website. All his comics have it)
"You know when you can't hear your speakers, and you keep turning various volume controls up higher and higher in confusion, and then someone hits the mute button and there's a deafening blast of sound? That's basically what happened at Chernobyl."
https://xkcd.com/2163/
(* - the text that pops up when you hover your mouse over the pic, when on the xkcd website. All his comics have it)
Inside a nuclear reactor, not a Russian one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99C051arMo
Visible radiation in a cloud chamber. Didn’t know it was possible to see such things
https://m.imgur.com/r/Physics/3ufDTnb
https://m.imgur.com/r/Physics/3ufDTnb
p1stonhead said:
Visible radiation in a cloud chamber. Didn’t know it was possible to see such things
https://m.imgur.com/r/Physics/3ufDTnb
We did a less impressive version (alpha emitter iirc?) in a smoke chamber at school. https://m.imgur.com/r/Physics/3ufDTnb
I did my physics coursework on the level of dose required to fog regular 35mm black and white camera film.
I'd love to give some stats, but did it with Katy, who was f
king smoking hot, in a darkroom, at 17. Somehow got an A, although didn't actually expose any film whatsoever... Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff