Chernobyl (miniseries)

[Tears of Lys]

Risto, thank you for your perspective.  There is nothing quite like the testimony of someone who has direct experience of a thing to really make a reader stop and think.  

[red snow]

3 hours ago, Triskele said:

There's a pretty quick list here of 10 things that the show supposedly got wrong.  I would say that they're mostly here pointing out minor embellishments for dramatic purposes, but one thing that jumps out is that both the divers and the minors turned out to have done what they'd done in vain because the problems got addressed in other ways.  I guess I can understand that choice though because they really did apparently take those actions for the same reasons as depicted, and in both cases it also seems to fit with the theme of the USSR asking them for major sacrifice.  Be curious if the USSR knew that the missions they were sending them on were of questionnable importance.  

Points 5 and 6 while scientific inaccuracies are not historical inaccuracies as this is what they thought was correct at the time?

So while the divers and miners turned out to be pointless they weren't pointless at the time. Tbh the show didn't really portray either action as solving the problem but they may have led us to think they were key stepping stones.

It would be very disappointing if the potential explosion and aftermath described in episode 2 was a complete fabrication though.

[Which Tyler]

On 6/26/2019 at 3:41 AM, Triskele said:

There's a pretty quick list here of 10 things that the show supposedly got wrong.  I would say that they're mostly here pointing out minor embellishments for dramatic purposes, but one thing that jumps out is that both the divers and the minors turned out to have done what they'd done in vain because the problems got addressed in other ways.  I guess I can understand that choice though because they really did apparently take those actions for the same reasons as depicted, and in both cases it also seems to fit with the theme of the USSR asking them for major sacrifice.  Be curious if the USSR knew that the missions they were sending them on were of questionnable importance.  

There's a lot of nitpicking in that article; mostly "stuff that was thought then we now think otherwise - therefore they shouldn't have shown it being thought back then"

 

#1 - Scientists are the heroes of the show; but scientists were also responsible for the initial design - well, yes, of course scientists were resonsible for the initial design. In so far as "the show got this wrong" it only got it wrong by not starting based 20 years previously. The design phase was not within the remit of this show.

#2 - A factual inacuracy about research into the liquidators - yeah, that's probably lazy and unneccessary.

#3 - The miners - The show didn't get that wrong, those managing the disaster got it wrong, with hindsight that was unavailable at the time. The miners did those things; that it didn't really matter doesn't mean that they didn't do it.

#4 - The helicopter pilots largely missed the core - Exactly as the show said - they had to miss, and rely on the wind blowing enough over to make a difference. How much did get in wouldn't have been known until many years after the end of the show's timeline.

#5 - The divers - The show didn't get that wrong, those managing the disaster got it wrong, with hindsight that was unavailable at the time. The divers did those things; that it didn't really matter doesn't mean that they didn't do it.

#6 - Reactors aren't bomb - Wasn't that acknowledged as exaggeration for effect in the show? making a point in order to be listened to by people who didn't have a clue what was being talked about? I'll need to re-watch, but I don't recall it being presented as a "real" risk.

#7 - Pregnancy outcomes - Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and far from perfect even then. Stuff published in 2006 doesn't mean that people didn't think things in 1986.

#8 - Radiation sickness in Pripyat - yeah, that seems to be playing on fears; though I'm not going to particularly go around disbelieving the official reports that list 34 deaths but believing them when it comes to this. Probably dramatic licence.

#9 - Bridge of Death - happy to believe that this is an embelishment for dramatic purposes - a very effective embelishment for dramatic purposes.

#10 - Helicopter crash - happy to believe that this is an embelishment for dramatic purposes - a very effective embelishment for dramatic purposes.

[red snow]

A more thorough argument to what i was getting at which tyler. Completely agree especially with them not using future knowledge to fix/explain things happening at the time.

I guess the article is classic "looking for a different spin to get clicks on the show of the moment". I guess it's fair to have some counter claims to all the articles about how accurate it was. Ultimately though, there are a lot of documentaries about the disaster for those wanting the genuine article.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

The helicopter crash did happen, but it happened about 6 months later.