Chernobyl Episode 1 * FULL LENGTH REACTION
Added 2023-10-30 16:19:38 +0000 UTCSo it begins...
Chernobyl!!! The same creator as The Last of Us, so I feel I'm in for an amazing and insane ride
It's only 5 episodes long though, so expect a poll for the next one soon (after I ask for suggestions of course).
A very interesting start, and I also find it interesting that they made it in English, to avoid subtitles I'm assuming. Pretty neat idea.
I have a feeling that I will be frustrated a LOT with this series π
An absolutely amazing start to the series though!
For this style of reaction, you need your own copy to watch the episode. Also know there is an extension that allows you to do Picture-in-Picture in case you are interested: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/picture-in-picture-extens/hkgfoiooedgoejojocmhlaklaeopbecg?hl=en
- Vero βπΏ
Comments
The benefits of being a child and not quite understanding what is going on lol And being parents that are trying to not freak out and make things worse for the kids. Not an easy situation. I love it when they make episodes be so frustrating, it really gets us invested in what is going on. I'm sure the frustration isn't over lol
Verowak
2023-11-07 02:35:27 +0000 UTCI remember this being all over the news when I was a kid. I didnβt know quite how serious it was at the time, I guess partly due to the naivety of childhood, and possibly the media trying to keep the public calm, I donβt remember for certain. Despite this, I do remember feeling scared for the first time about something outside of my own little world, especially with words like nuclear power station explosion and radiation spreading across Europe. I donβt think Iβve ever watched a tv show or movie that made me quite so frustrated as this first episode did.
James Hadden
2023-11-06 19:57:43 +0000 UTCHaving grown up in Canada, I was never affected or really knew of anything going on in Europe during my childhood. I feel like my history classes were also not the best since I was in a small town and small school. I had no idea that the radiation could be measured 1400km away, that is just so eye opening. It makes sense to not buy food from eastern europe at the time though, it must have been an interesting thing to adapt to. I feel like Craig Mazin does a good job with story telling and keeping things accurate, so I'll want to see what else he's done. I'm really glad to hear that it's a good "true story" series and that the characters (at least Djatlov) is accurate. He seems like a... piece of work that's for sure lol And thank you for not saying more because of possible spoilers!! π₯° I completely agree that catastrophes and events should not be forgotten. It's so important that the past doesn't keep repeating itself.
Verowak
2023-10-31 18:47:12 +0000 UTCI feel like a lot of things happen in the world and it's hard to take all of it seriously at certain times of our lives if it doesn't affect us personally. I feel that currently there are world events that are going on, and I'm not keeping up with enough since I have so many things going on in life at the moment. I hope to be able to find out more about them once life gets a bit less hectic. But you're doing it now, which is a great thing!! It's also a lot easier to get more information AFTER the fact than during it (since it might be hard to discern what is true and what is not)
Verowak
2023-10-31 18:41:18 +0000 UTCThank you for another great reaction. π I'm from Germany, the part of it that was the former GDR (East Germany) and I remember this incident vaguely from my early childhood. It was a very big thing all over Europe. It happened north of Kiev (today the capital of the Ukraine) and the radiation could even be measured in Sweden and Germany, about 1400 km away. The first days we didn't hear anything, as we were part of the communist block and no one told us. We first heard of it in the West German News. Days later we were ordered to keep the windows closed (because the wind blew the radiation cloud towards central europe) and later on not to buy food from eastern european countries. There was more, but that is what I remember myself. This show is astonishingly accurate for a western production depicting something that happened in the Soviet Union. They left out some things, played some down or condensed them, exaggerated some for dramatic reasons, but added (almost) nothing. This actually is a show where the label "true story" is very deserved. ππ€ Djatlov was exactly as he is depicted here, there is original footage of his trial, where you can see it. (I won't tell more because of possible spoilers. π ) The actor portraying him does a brilliant job. They found a Powerplant of exactly the same type as Chernobyl and a city looking like Pripyat in Lithuania to film at. Valeri Legasovs tapes are real, as well as everything else. π Thank you for reacting to this not only very well done, but also really important show. Incidents like that should never be forgotten and depicting it (even if it is fictionalized) helps to remember and hopefully avoiding similar mistakes. ππ
silverarrow06
2023-10-31 15:17:26 +0000 UTCDamn their arrogance of saving face. This is both intriguing and frustrating at the same time. I'm old enough to remember the catastrophe but sadly I'm ashamed that I didn't take it seriously because it didn't affect me personally. Watching this now, finding out more information about what happened is important.
Billy Dancel
2023-10-31 05:43:04 +0000 UTCI'm not reading much of anything that explains things about the show since I don't know what will be shown in later episodes. I'll be back once I finish the show to read what I skipped
Verowak
2023-10-31 03:14:50 +0000 UTCthere are 3 concerns with radiation: Exposure, Contamination, and Irradiation. 1) Exposure: Gamma radiation acts like light or radio waves. "Exposure" is like getting a sun tan or sun burn. Too much causes damage or burns, but once you are out of the sunlight the exposure stops. 2) Contamination: is getting radioactive particles, dust, or ash in contact. This could be contamination on a person's skin, hair, clothing, etc., or could be on objects like vehicles, equipment, tools, furniture, walls, doors, floors, pavement, trees, rocks, statues, etc. Contamination is removed by washing away with water or alcohol, detergent in water helps remove the particles in the same way that it helps remove dirt. The water used in the decontamination becomes contaminated with the particles and should be contained. Wading through contaminated water is bad. Standing in it for a long time is very, very bad. Breathing or swallowing the particles results in contamination INSIDE the body, which cannot be washed away. The particles inside the body continue emitting radiation resulting in continuing exposure. Eating plants/vegetables/fruit grown in contaminated soil is bad. Eating animal products (meat, eggs, dairy, etc.) from animals that ate plants grown in contaminated soil is also bad. 3) Irradiation: Non-radioactive materials (like water, graphite, steel, or iodine) exposed to Alpha, Beta, or Neutron radiation can BECOME radioactive (like a steel needle becoming magnetic after exposure to a magnet), which means that they are now emitting radiation. They can than cause exposure and/or contamination themselves, like getting a burn from picking up a piece of something on the ground.
JAKH
2023-10-31 02:08:46 +0000 UTCSome things that were shown but not explained: "tasting metal" has 3 explanations: 1) In the fire, at high temperatures uranium, steel, aluminum, etc actually burns, resulting in uranium oxide (rusted uranium), etc. dust particles in the air, like carbon-based ash from a wood fire. Getting this on your clothing or skin is very bad. Breathing or swallowing it is fatal. 2) Exposure to high levels of gamma radiation affects the neurons, sending false signals which the brain interprets as a taste of metal 3) Exposure to high levels of gamma radiation kills the taste bud cells in the tongue. Their dying gives off chemical signals that the brain interprets as "tastes like metal" White clothing explanation: Like a white lab coat for a chemist or doctor, the white makes it easier to see any contact or stain with potentially contaminated or dangerous material. Same premise as white clothing for electronics manufacturing or meat packing workers. Red skin explanation: Gamma radiation acts on the skin like a sun burn from solar radiation. The faster the red burn emerges = the higher the exposure. Only minutes or almost instantly turning red = really, really, really bad. Vomiting explanation; Vomiting without nausea is a sign of high gamma radiation exposure caused by damage to the stomach lining. The sooner after exposure that the vomiting occurs = the higher the exposure. Faster than 4 hours = fatal dose. Less than 10 or 15 minutes = off the chart exposure. Beam of light pointed into the sky explanation: Extremely high levels of radiation flux from a large amount of exposed uranium excites the electrons in oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the air into higher orbits. When they fall back to their normal lower orbit they give off light, like something that fluoresces under a black light lamp. As you watch later episodes, just remember that however terrible you think the effects of radiation poisoning are shown to be, they toned it down for the show. The real life effects are much more horrific As you watch more episodes, keep in mind the motto of the Slavic peoples for the last 1000 years: "And Then It Got Worse" For the next episode, remember that there is a difference between roentgen and milli-roentgen. 1 milli-roentgen = 0.001 roentgen
JAKH
2023-10-31 01:55:47 +0000 UTCThe control room supervisor, Dyatlov, had transferred from military grade nuclear reactors that used high-grade, highly enriched uranium, to civilian reactors that used low grade minimally enriched uranium, but because he had a lot of years on the job, he was overconfident and never bothered to learn the detailed differences in the engineering, construction, practical functioning, and operation between the two designs that resulted from using different kinds of fuel. It is like coming from working on race car engines using 120 octane top fuel gasoline to working on a Coleman camp stove using 50 octane white gas and thinking that they are the same. He had also previously been in (and caused) an accident with a military reactor and received the highest radiation dose ever survived by anyone in the Soviet Union up to that time, which made him contemptuous of the dangers of radiation; "hey, I survived, it's not that dangerous, quit whining you wimps"
JAKH
2023-10-31 01:39:03 +0000 UTCThat it isβ¦ and overall quite accurate. That said the show does get a few things wrong that are pretty frustrating and play into misunderstandings of nuclear plants and how much risk there actually is (from a -well run- plant unlike Chernobyl). At least one of them is apparently because the scientists at the time actually presented some wildly wrong very scary info (in episode 2) but it ends up coming across as true for most watchers since itβs not corrected.
RocktSurgeon
2023-10-31 00:31:07 +0000 UTCThe lay public understanding of radiation wasβ¦ nearly none. Youβd think reactor staff would know a lot more, but yeahβ¦ like the first comment said, itβs infuriating how much incompetence is shown.
RocktSurgeon
2023-10-31 00:21:51 +0000 UTCSo overall what type of damage depends on both the dose and how fast itβs absorbed, in this case for some of reactor staff and emergency responders it was pretty extreme so they have Acute Radiation Syndrome. The first effects they show are the nausea and skin burns (like intense sun burns) to the exposed surfaces. The rest of the effects come in a few stages over time. Iβll leave the specifics of what happens to the show), but the reason for most of the mid term effects (after the burns and before increased cancer risk) is that the radiation damages kills the most quickly dividing cells fastest. That being things like skin, digestive system lining (worse nausea and problems absorbing nutrients), and bone marrow (so it damages/destroys the immune system, clotting ability, and red blood cells needed to carry oxygen).
RocktSurgeon
2023-10-31 00:19:03 +0000 UTCGet ready for an infuriating, frustrating watch. Each episode will reveal a little more about what happened. It is a really well done series.
John Thomas
2023-10-30 23:56:31 +0000 UTC
