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Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
21–30 of 79 posts
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#22At the end of the day, creators want an entertaining show and that usually requires intrigue, interpersonal conflict, character growth, good vs. evil, etc. Biopics/dramatizations of events often bring multiple minor characters together into a single person. I would be more bothered by the change of small details irrelevant to the narrative than I am by larger character changes. I would prefer that the mainline detail…
I would have accepted that if it wasn't for Craig Mazin (the creator of the series) insistence that he stuck to the details and the truth in the series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY0r1Ln6tkM
For the life of me I couldn't figure out what truth he is talking about (other than that Chernobyl happened, and some characters existed)
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#23The bit about "The water tanks in the reactor were full, and the uranium fuel rods were at risk of melting through the water tanks, potentially releasing a force equivalent to a multi-megaton nuclear device and devastating much of Europe with radiation." is sort of complex to judge.
It is absolutely true that that scenario was impossible and couldn't actually happen. But as far as we can tell (documented in Voices of Chernobyl) someone at a similar meeting to the one portrayed in the TV show did really say that that could happen as portrayed in the TV show. But of course the audience is going to assume that things scientists say in shows like this are accurate.
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#24It's funny that this series seems as if it is being confused as a documentary. It was a dramatic telling of a story. Creative licensing was in full effect. The first item in the "Series VS tapes: point by point" is a very common use of that creative licensing. Trying to follow multiple people in a work like this gets tiring and a bit boring. The details are kept, but it's easier to follow when those multiple people a…
It happens. The Jaws movies brought a lot of shark panic to public consciousness despite how utterly rare shark attacks are. The China Syndrome's effect on the nuclear industry given it's timing with Three Mile island.
Probably more that I'm not aware of but it's common enough phenomenon.
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#25The government response to the disaster was slow and inadequate.
It sure was they denied it actually happened for a pretty long time.
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#26It's funny that this series seems as if it is being confused as a documentary. It was a dramatic telling of a story. Creative licensing was in full effect. The first item in the "Series VS tapes: point by point" is a very common use of that creative licensing. Trying to follow multiple people in a work like this gets tiring and a bit boring. The details are kept, but it's easier to follow when those multiple people a…
Furthermore it is explicitly told on screen at the very ending of the series that the character of Ulana Khomyuk was created to represent all of these scientists.
[1]:https://youtu.be/OHrVlyU3suk?t=45
Did the author miss the ending?
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#27Dyatlov's interview from the 90s, which is still available on youtube [1], seems to fit better with the account given in the hit book "Midnight in Chernobyl" (which was the basis for the series,) than the story written for TV. To me the series just seemed like a rehash of the same movie tropes we've seen time and time again in dramatizations of the accident, compared to a true adaptation of book, which included a lot of updated analysis beyond the IAEA original report.
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#28M. Gessen wrote a much better piece about the accuracy of HBO's Chernobyl: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-hbos-cher... This piece seems a little confused, since Legasov wasn't the primary source for the show?
I've mentioned her article. I think she barely touched the topic of Chernobyl itself. Her points was about what the Soviet life was back then, and some depictions of this was incorrect.
For example (for her article)
> In Episode 2, for example, the Central Committee member Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård) threatens to have Legasov shot if he doesn’t tell him how a nuclear reactor works. There are a lot of people throughout the series who appear to act out of fear of being shot. This is inaccurate: summary executions, or even delayed executions on orders of a single apparatchik, were not a feature of Soviet life after the nineteen-thirties. By and large, Soviet people did what they were told without being threatened with guns or any punishment.
Her point was: this is not the Soviet way back then. My point is: these two people barely interacted directly, and one of them at least (Legasov) had a lot of respect for the other from the very beginning
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#29>It was about Anatoly Grishchenko, a Soviet helicopter pilot who had served in Chernobyl and, like many others, had developed cancer as a result.
If there's one thing that pissed me off about the TV series, it was its poor to non-existent storytelling surrounding the helicopter crews who ran sortie after sortie right over the burning reactor—around the clock—knowing full well the grave risks posed by the radiation.
Instead, we were shown one disjointed helicopter crash scene amidst a still-burning reactor that made them look like bumbling fools attempting something futile.
In real life, the Chernobyl incident happened on 26 April, 1986. The Mi-8 crash where it struck the crane didn't happen until October 2nd, 1986.
Aviation was instrumental in containing the disaster during its early phases. Those crews helped save an untold number of lives. Their portrayal or lack thereof in the show was massively disrespectful to their contributions.
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Between 27 April and 1 May, about 1800 helicopter flights deposit over 5,000 metric tons of sand, lead, clay, and neutron absorbing boron onto the burning reactor. It is now known that virtually none of the neutron absorbers reached the core. [0]
[0] https://www.chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/timeline...
Re: Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)
#30M. Gessen wrote a much better piece about the accuracy of HBO's Chernobyl: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-hbos-cher... This piece seems a little confused, since Legasov wasn't the primary source for the show?
I've mentioned her article. I think she barely touched the topic of Chernobyl itself. Her points was about what the Soviet life was back then, and some depictions of this was incorrect. For example (for her article) > In Episode 2, for example, the Central Committee member Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård) threatens to have Legasov shot if he doesn’t tell him how a nuclear reactor works. There are a lot of people…
Again, it's weird, because Legosov isn't even the primary source for the series, which is an explicitly fictionalized recounting of what happened. As Gessen points out, your thing about Legasov being part of a team is literally a character in the series!