Readit Newsosm3000 commented on Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023) blog.osm-ai.net/investiga... · Posted by u/osm3000
Legit question... I have not watched it. Is it actually good on it's own merits?
It’s pretty good. I loved it. I recommend it
My only problem is that the creator insists it was factually correct. First test, the tapes, are anything but correct
osm3000 commented on Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023) blog.osm-ai.net/investiga... · Posted by u/osm3000
Hey Omar! I met you briefly in Grenoble many years ago. I hope you're doing well.
I only recently watched this series and found it very entertaining. But I never expected it to be very accurate. It's definitely been dramatized for TV. I definitely didn't get an anti-nuclear sentiment from the show, I mostly think they were trying to portray a negative view of Soviet Bureaucracy.
Hey Nicolas! Very glad to hear from you :)
I honestly don't see a problem with dramatization (not my taste, but people are different I guess).
My issue is with 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
osm3000 commented on Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023) blog.osm-ai.net/investiga... · Posted by u/osm3000
Sure, but in any case you're going to cherry-pick inaccuracies, wouldn't it be fair to balance them with the "remarkably accurate recreations," according to historians[0]? Especially since it's couched as a historical drama, not a documentary.
Should we debate the accuracy of Marvel movies?
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20190610100414/https://www.cbsne...
I am not sure why you are mentioning historians here. A proper historical view/investigation is way outside of my scope.
My angle is simple: they said it was accurate, and Legasov did so and said that...and in his own words, he negated most of that.
Is Legasov a good guy? I don't know. Was he honest in what he said? I don't know...but he said what he said!
> cherry-pick inaccuracies
Feel free to go to the tapes
osm3000 commented on Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023) blog.osm-ai.net/investiga... · Posted by u/osm3000
Dyatlov'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.
I wasn't aware of that Dyatlov's interview! Thanks a lot for sharing it
osm3000 commented on Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023) blog.osm-ai.net/investiga... · Posted by u/osm3000
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!
> because Legosov isn't even the primary source for the series
I think it was explicit that the series framed the tapes as the "revelation"; the honest message of a dying man to the world to expose what actually happened
osm3000 commented on Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023) blog.osm-ai.net/investiga... · Posted by u/osm3000
The 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.
That is a very good point
My angle was: HBO series said Legasov's position was something that was by far not true
osm3000 commented on Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023) blog.osm-ai.net/investiga... · Posted by u/osm3000
M. 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
osm3000 commented on Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023) blog.osm-ai.net/investiga... · Posted by u/osm3000
At 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 details stay the same - chain of events, impact to the town, aftermath - but I am not watching the series in order to write a paper. I appreciate the articles which document the fiction vs. reality of historical dramas, but I do not share in any anger. Then again, I'm not related to anyone whose character was represented in the series.
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)
Happy to get some feedback about better ways to do this.