The show literally shows them clipping the cable...The problem isn't a character making mistakes, it's literal misinformation. People are going to treat things presented as facts from the established expert character as facts.
You can't blame the audience, but you can sure as hell blame the writing. The issue is that it's really not representing what happened to a startling degree (like the "megatons" garbage), but looks and feels like it is. For example...
The show seems to imply the radiation messed with the helicopter systems or pilots, leading to them getting disoriented, clipping a cable and crashing. In reality there was a helicopter crash near the core but it was months after the accident (and after months of successful drops), and they clipped a crane in broad daylight (had nothing to do with the radiation).
The problem isn't a character making mistakes, it's literal misinformation. People are going to treat things presented as facts from the established expert character as facts.
You can't blame the audience, but you can sure as hell blame the writing. The issue is that it's really not representing what happened to a startling degree (like the "megatons" garbage), but looks and feels like it is. For example...
The show seems to imply the radiation messed with the helicopter systems or pilots, leading to them getting disoriented, clipping a cable and crashing. In reality there was a helicopter crash near the core but it was months after the accident (and after months of successful drops), and they clipped a crane in broad daylight (had nothing to do with the radiation).
That said, I'd kill for a companion series that went all in on the subject and highlighted the shortcuts and halftruths in this, as a sort of educational partner series filled with interviews of survivors and facts and blueprints and science and whatnot. Always referencing the current episode and maybe even some behind-the-scenes stuff like the costumes etc, while providing the comparatively dry reality behind it all. Basically, a wiki/duckduckgo spree condensed into bite-sized videos. The podcast is cute and all, but it's just two dudes talking and there's loads and loads of stuff falling by the wayside due to the format.
So you want them to show months of successful helicopter drops? Or to not show it at all?
I just feel like this show is getting far too much scrutiny for the wrong reasons. It is not claiming to be anything but what it is.
On gaming-side it would be the equivalent of going into a DriveClub thread to post about how unrealistic the driving model is. Okay.
The word "Chernobyl" is a heart-stopper, and this series lives up to that sense of dread. What was the most important ingredient for striking the right series tone?
We all felt a need to be as clear-eyed and honest about what happened as we could be. That meant looking unblinkingly at some very hard-to-look-at things, some scary things, but to do so in a way that wasn't sensationalist. We're not interested and have never been interested in making a disaster show or a horror show or a political thriller. This was never about trying to fit into a genre. This is really about us trying to fit into the reality of what Chernobyl was. We really tried to make what was real and what really happened our beacon, and we followed that as best we could.
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You obviously used stand-in locations for Chernobyl and the nearby city of Pripyat. How important was authenticity for those details and others?
We were obsessed with authenticity. All of us … with getting every detail right, right down to shoelaces, down to watches, eyeglasses, hats, and hairstyles. That's not because we had some strange fetish for arcane accuracy. It's because we were telling a human story, and part of that is getting those details right out of respect for them. I know that there are people alive today who were in that power plant that night, [or] whose loved ones died, [or] who are walking around without a thyroid gland because of Chernobyl. The people who made this cared enough to get it right, and we really, really did.
The tendency of English language programming to attempt to sound more akin to the language they are representing by use of English with "accents" is the worst, most idiotic, silly thing and it makes no sense at all. Either get original language actors or do it in the language of the show. So the way Chernobyl does it is fine with me.
Yep the director said as much in podcast. He said they wanted the actors that they chose and tried several actors using accents and said they can go wrong real quick and be almost farcical and wanted to avoid the trope. So natural language and focusing on the story and characters was the direction from early on.Yep. I really don't get why English language movies and shows do fake accents so often when taking place in foreign countries. It's just not a thing in other languages I know of.
I much prefer the way this show handles it. Let the actors act in their original accent – the audience isn't stupid, we know it's taking place in Ukraine, we don't need actors to remind us of that by putting on fake accents.
Also, fake French accents make me cringe real bad... I assume it'd be similar for Ukrainians and therefore it's just more respectful not to do it.
Five part mini-series, only two episodes are out at the moment.
I'll too used to Netflix bingingFive part mini-series, only two episodes are out at the moment.
Being a very authentic representation in terms of aesthetics and chain of events doesn't necessarily mean 100% historical accuracy. At least for me.
But to recap the "major" liberties taken so far is
Cmiiw but that's all so far right? I can roll with this given the things they've done right (atmosphere etc).
- Immediate effects of radiation, and exaggerated claims of remaining lifespan for a few characters.
- Helicopter crash scene
- Amalgamation of various Soviet scientists into one character.
- Exaggerated dangers of the second steam explosion. Though there was an actual claim by a scientist it has been discredited since.
Yes. Read what I wrote. They basically implied the crash into the crane had something to do with the radiation around the core (all the talk of perimeters and the radio breaking up), when in reality it didn't. That implied link to radiation is what led to the above confusion.
Being a very authentic representation in terms of aesthetics and chain of events doesn't necessarily mean 100% historical accuracy. At least for me.
But to recap the "major" liberties taken so far is
Cmiiw but that's all so far right? I can roll with this given the things they've done right (atmosphere etc).
- Immediate effects of radiation, and exaggerated claims of remaining lifespan for a few characters.
- Helicopter crash scene
- Amalgamation of various Soviet scientists into one character.
- Exaggerated dangers of the second steam explosion. Though there was an actual claim by a scientist it has been discredited since.
The physical effects are exaggerated. Bloody lesions magically appearing within minutes, or the firefighter touching that debris and his hand looking like a rotten steak minutes later is really exaggerated. While radiation burn is real, In the most severe cases you dont really see burns quite like how they depict. The type of skin necrosis they show did happen to firefighters, but I've only seen a picture of comparable severity to what they show, and the picture was from 40 days after the incident. Typically stage 1 symptoms would probably be visible within hours like vomiting, but hair loss, convulsions and the outwardly visible effects come on stage 3.How unrealistic is it when dealing with radiation? Particularly the short term effects you mentioned.
The physical effects are exaggerated. Bloody lesions magically appearing within minutes, or the firefighter touching that debris and his hand looking like a rotten steak minutes later is really exaggerated. While radiation burn is real, In the most severe cases you dont really see burns quite like how they depict. The type of skin necrosis they show did happen to firefighters, but I've only seen a picture of comparable severity to what they show, and the picture was from 40 days after the incident. Typically stage 1 symptoms would probably be visible within hours like vomiting, but hair loss, convulsions and the outwardly visible effects come on stage 3.
Also remember, I don't know if we have records of anyone actually picking up graphite in their hand, so while the effects might be exaggerated, I'm not sure if we know what would happen if someone actually picked up a piece of graphite as radioactive as that piece. And if you want interesting for radiation, there are folks whose eyes supposedly changed color due to the intense radiation and who had blisters on their hearts. It does some crazy shit.That's disappointing. Radiation was cooler when I thought the effects were so immediate and apparent.
That's disappointing. Radiation was cooler when I thought the effects were so immediate and apparent.
Also remember, I don't know if we have records of anyone actually picking up graphite in their hand, so while the effects might be exaggerated, I'm not sure if we know what would happen if someone actually picked up a piece of graphite as radioactive as that piece. And if you want interesting for radiation, there are folks whose eyes supposedly changed color due to the intense radiation and who had blisters on their hearts. It does some crazy shit.
I find it scarier because it's not immediately apparent. Unlike being burned or other violent deaths, getting poisoned by fatal radiation seem more eerie because they're just as dead but they don't show it yet. If the effect is visible, both on the source and the victims, there will probably be less people dying because of radiation.
Saw the first ep last night and I don't usually get squeamish but they did a great job of portraying how horrific those injuries were. Radiation just freaks me the hell out, this is going to be a rough but fascinating watch for sure.
It did have something to do with the radiation didn't it? From what I've read many pilots threw up after doing multiple runs daily. I thought the common theory was that the pilot hit the cable due to being disoriented. The only thing off is that it showed it as the first flight.
This person should be put on w watchlist.