Chernobyl 1x03 "Open Wide, O Earth" reaction & review

Thank you for the warning! I'm thinking I will just keep Sad Unicorn right on my lap for easy access >.<

Melissa Moore

Thank you so much for all the info! I'm not gonna lie, I'm grateful in a way that they toned down the gore for the show....reading about the firefighter here was heartbreaking and I'm not sure I could have dealt with anything attempting a visual of it! The firefighter's wife sounds amazing, to have stayed by her husband's side during all that, and helped other men too, and actually be able to talk about it today. You know, I had picked up on the fact that it seemed like no one could say anything against the government on this show, but I had no idea just how extreme it could be!!! I wonder how they felt about this show when it came out??? Thanks for the info about the miners too, that actually makes sense, just was not expecting the eyeful in this episode. :P And that also makes sense about the comment referencing whether or not the miners would be financially taken care of after they couldn't work anymore. It's an extremely complex and sad situation, and it's even crazier to think that it's all true!!!!!!! Thanks for the info!

Melissa Moore

Warning, for episode 4 you should have your unicorn tissue box right next to you.

4) Yes it was true that in the old days at the times of the miners Father, they opted to take off their clothes when they worked. They were very poor, and often only had one set of clothes, so could not replace them easily when ruined in those brutal working conditions. I guess they figured if their Fathers could do it, so could they to help keep cool. In terms of the miners being "looked after" I took it as them being looked after financially once they got too unwell to work.

Malcolm Wolf

3) Russia had and still has a brutal cone of silence when it comes to anything negative about the Government coming out. The KGB will imprison, torture and kill anybody who dares make the Government look bad, even if what they say is factual. This is a big part of why there was so much willful ignorance about the dangers of Chernobyl at the time. Yes many were clueless, but even those who did know better risked the KGB's wrath for embarrassing the Government if they looked in anyway accountable for what happened.

Malcolm Wolf

2) The fireman's wife had only just recently married, and was right in the honeymoon stage of their relationship. According to her book, she not only stayed and looked after him, but looked after the other several men on that floor as well. She decided to practically removed her fingernails as just touching her husband with her nails was enough to cut his skin. His organs started to break up and melt down, and would get caught in his throat. She had to use her fingers to clear his airway often. There was a point where she lifted his arm, and his flesh slid off the bone and stayed on the bed.

Malcolm Wolf

Just to fill in a few gaps and highlight a few things: 1) Believe it or not, the showrunners actually toned down the gore for the show. They initially wanted to show the interview with the guy with no face, but decided it was too disrespectful to the real person who had it happen, and decided to only showed his feet, and a brief mention of the state of him afterwards. I believe he lost his face eventually because he was forced to look directly at the core

Malcolm Wolf

2) The evacuation zone set by the party officials was 30km, but Valery knew they had detected dangerous radiation levels over 200km from their location, so yes, not nearly large enough.

Anna Kyruin

Some non-spoiler explanations for you: 1) The diver's flashlight batteries were being drained by the radiation, and so their big flashlights only lasted a short time, but they had smaller flashlights (basically emergency flashlights) that they could hand-crank by squeezing a handle to recharge them, but they would have been fighting the radiation draining those batteries the whole time also. Basically they ended up relying on their stored calories in their bodies to power the lights instead.

Anna Kyruin