Boris going from having absolutely no idea how nuclear reactors work to confidently explaining the workings of an entire scale model of a nuclear power plant (without even looking at it, that's how sure of himself he was!) is such fantastic character development. And him and Valery getting one last chance to sit down and just be honest with each other about how much respect has been built up between them... Wonderful stuff.

For God's sake Boris. You were the one who mattered the most

Boris actually handled another huge disaster before his death. There was a massive earthquake in the Caucasus somewhere and he organized the rescue and cleanup efforts. There's a statue of him in one of the cities down there.

Legasov was posthumously awarded the title of 'Hero of the Russian Federation', Russia's highest title, in 1996.

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS SERIES WAS CREATED BY THE GUY WHO WROTE THE SCARY MOVIE SEQUELS AND THE HANGOVER SEQUELS. THIS IS A REAL STEP UP IN HIS CAREER. GREAT JOB!

Putting the explosion aside, Dyatlov is a real criminal. Remember first episode when He came out of the room and crossed a corridor to go call his bosses ? He looked by the window, and could see graphite on the floor. Which means he DID know the core had exploded but was in a pure denial.

"That is how an RBMK reactor explodes... lies."

Can I just say how much I love Calvin’s face when he is watching all of the scientific explanations. So much

33000 megawatts is just the final reading they got, data models show the power spiked much higher, possibly as high as 300,000 megawatts.

A common complaint about the show is it made things sound more dire or more dangerous or more deadly than it actually was. I think that misses the point. Yes, the divers lived, yes the whole of Europe wasn't rendered radioactive, yes the core didn't melt into the groundwater and poison the waters of Europe... but they THOUGHT it could happen. That was POSSIBLE. That was the worst case scenario but it was still a scenario. It COULD have happened. They didn't know how lucky and blessed they were things didn't end up as bad as possible till after. The show captured the fear and terror of in the moment everyone knowing what COULD happen with this disaster. Yes it gave the show more drama, but still. Hindsight is 20/20, we know the dangers weren't as bad as they thought, but they didn't know that then

What an incredible show. Really shows what TV can be when the writers actually care about the show theyre making.

"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is payed." Chills every time.

You mentioned how Dyatlov died while in hard labor. He actually only served 3 of the 10 years of punishment and died at home. Until his last day he denied being responsible for the explosion

The part where Dyatlov says "there is no rule" was not a violation. 700 was the number Dyatlov picked himself - he prepared the test programme and as the writer of the test programme he could change this number, if wanted. Also, they technically did not violate any of the existing rules that night. All they did was in terms of the instruction manual. The young operators knew something was wrong, as they actually learned nuclear physics in university unlike him, but were too young, morally weak and inexperienced to oppose Dyatlov.

I am sad you guys skipped; "That is how a RMBK reactor explodes....LIES." Legasovs entire speech was amazing. Loooove Calvins reactions.

Thank you for this awesome reaction series. As a Russian it is really nice seeing people from abroad getting educated about this disaster. And of course a huge bow to HBO for making this series. Every “homemade” ones we had before is just jokes. Only a handful of documentaries actually show and portray the true horror and consequences of this disaster on people

This show did a great job of not only telling us what happened, but insuring that we understood how and why. Great reaction series boys, it’s been one of my favourites.

I've noticed on a lot of these reactions. People often comment on that German robot failing. They will say something like "them Germans!" or "d*** Germans!" But, if you pay attention you would know the failure of the robot was not the Germans fault. The Russians gave them a lower radiation level than was accurate. So, the Germans gave them a robot based on the amount of radiation that the Russians told them..... which was a lie. If you remember Boris getting pissed and smashing the phone. He was pissed because they told the Germans a false reading of the radiation. Maybe when I hear the German bashing.... it is sarcasm?

The last sensor reading was 33.000 MWt, the reactor went much higher than that.

Dyatlov's perspective in real life was summed up when he said, "I will not say that I am guilty, but I cannot say that I'm not." While he certainly bears responsibility for much of what happened that night inside the control room of Reactor 4, he can perhaps be forgiven - in part - because he did it believing that there was a way out. This is one of those terrible points in history where there is adequate blame to go around in many directions.

I think even with some inaccuracies here and there, this show is something that people should see. I was amazed at how little I knew about Chernobyl until I saw this series. It made me research the event further. I wish you guys kept a little bit more of the epilogue in for KZfaq but I understand there is a copyright thing.

Anatoly Dyatlov: Gold Level Award Winner for Worst Boss Ever, with his breakout hit: "3.6 roentgen not great but not terrible."

I love how the guys love Boris during this episode, how they have come around on their opinion of him. Very different from the character at the beginning of the show, who is somewhat obstructive but realizes that Legasov knows his stuff and backs him. Awesome combo of acting by Papa Skärsgard, writing, character development. Chernobyl is going to sweep the categories it is nominated for in awards. Deservedly so.

Actually most calculations by scientists suggest that the power went beyond 300.000 Megawatts in a matter of a few seconds. And many even suggest that this was actually a real nuclear explosion, similar to a small nuclear bomb (as shorty mentioned by Legasov in the series), as a consequence of an uncontrolled reaction that went critical instantly. Something that was not only thought impossible by Soviet scientists at the time, but by the worldwide scientific community as well. That is probably why they refused to believe this fact in the first couple of hours. Scott Manly does a pretty good job at explaining the whole process of the accident in depth on his channel.

The rods coming in spiked the energy but the lack of water caused fuel channels to rupture, which then jammed the control rods in place, partially inserted, so the boron never made it in to bring down the energy. This is what happened in the original reactor that the USSR covered up, but only in a much smaller scale. That time they had not retracted all of the rods, just some, so there wasn't a Chernobyl sized disaster as the rods that were still inside were able to stop the spike.

Boris played Erik Selvig in The Avengers! What?! I didn't see that at all. That's very well good on his part, not being able to see him from other movies he played his part so well. And he had some of the best character development than some get in an entire series. He was great.

The trial was in March 1987, eleven months after Chernobyl. Legasov's suicide was thirteen months after this, or exactly two years after Chernobyl.

Last time I saw Calvin make that face in the thumbnail was when Honest Trailers described the live-action Dragon Ball movie as “the biggest insult to Japanese culture since Hiroshima”. Is it a coincidence that both times have something to do with nuclear energy? ...probably.

The wife of the fireman did have a son, but it required a lot of bone marrow transplant from her family and surgery to stabilize her body...must not have been easy...

Hey guys, never though of watching "mindhunter"? one of my favorite serie so far. Brilliant screenplay, clever dialogue, good acting

i always get chills when they say/show how the 350kg steel caps started jumping. Pure terror

Ep 2: This fuckin' guy... Ep 5: God, I Love Boris

The Podcasts are really interesting, I enjoyed all of them.

Great reactions, I'm glad you guys liked it. A couple things: 1. The people who watched from the bridge did not "all die" like the show's epilogue credits suggest. Most of them didn't get enough of a dosage to have serious problems, while some got mild Acute Radiation Sickness. 2. Do not mistake the surprising parts of the epilogue credits (like how Lyudmilla Ignatenko still managed to have a healthy child) to mean that the disaster wasn't as bad as it seems. There are thousands to hundreds of thousands of cases across Europe of cancer, primarily thyroid, that can be directly traced back to the radiation released from Chernobyl.

Two series you should denifitely react to: Dark and The Terror. Finger lickin' good series I might add.

To shock you all even more they didn’t put it in the show but when Dyatlov was asked later in life if he accepted any responsibility or felt any remorse at all all he said was quote “I can’t say it was my fault but I can’t say it wasn’t.” And that right there tells you what you need to know about both Soviet and present day Russian accountability.

Would love to see you react to "Dark". It's really one of the best written shows I've seen in a long time. Some truely well made time-travelling mind-fu*kery. It's not that known but definitely worth watching! Season 1 trailer: /watch?v=rrwycJ08PSA

Excellent series and great reaction! Really loved watching the full length reaction and rewatching the series!

Did y'all notice the actor who played Roose Bolton (Game of Thrones) as one of the speakers during the hearing?

Would have been fun to get Eric onboard for the discussion as he's already seen the show (right?).

Show and reaction where great, I hope you guys can catch up with some Black Mirror

It's funny that the guy who created and wrote this series also wrote Hangover parts 2 and 3, Scary Movie 3 and 4, and he wrote and directed superhero movie.

What an amazing series. Loved following the reactions!

After resurching into the real Dyatlov, and I feel he was painted as a villain, which in reality he was not, just a man, who has flaws, dealt with radiation before, which he believed lead to his sons death from lukeima,leukemia, so now he feels that he has something to prove and he wants to try to control it.

One of the best Series that have "MUST" to be seen

I had a friend who’s mother was in one of the first expeditions to Chernobyl/Pripyat after the accident. She later found out she was pregnant with his older sister, who then was born with a serious bone condition, he said that multiple times in her life she had to spend up to a year in hospitals, motionless, because her bones would crumble. My friend is almost ten years younger than his sister and doesn’t have such a serious condition, but if he pulls his shoulders backwards his sternum kinda pops out and he can push it back into his chest applying pressure with both hands. Weird stuff. He was born in 96 in Kiev.

Fun fact: The third diver who passed away recently (Baranov) died from heart disease, non-radiation related.

Thank you for your reaction and discussion of "Chernobyl" series!

" _Soviet Union_ attitude - WE'RE NOT WRONG"... Shane... Really? Is it really that exclusive to them?

was crazy when it was like the whole thing went back in time and seeing things from earlier as a last episode

"This is all slow motion" Thanks Calvin lol

An important point overlooked in the show, is how far away the control room is actually from the reactor. Not to mention the majority of the explosion was forced upwards rather than sideways, this probably made their feeling of the explosion and the denial it was the core to be a feed pump tank only. It's also worth remembering how "amazing" and young nuclear energy was, it was truly hard to believe something on this scale could happen. Without it, how we perceive meltdowns would be limited to 3 mile island and fukushima, steam explosions from coolant. I highly recommend watching scott manlys video on how chernobyl melted down if you want details. You can hear and probably understand why they said zenon pit in the script here, and why time was such a critical factor. /watch?v=q3d3rzFTrLg

the podcast is great to listen to! It explains the series even more and gets deeper in the history!

They needed the graphite on the control rods to accelerate the reaction because they used only partially enriched uranium to keep costs down. There are two explainer videos on KZfaq that came out recently to help explain it in a little bit more detail.

the scene where Lyudmila is looking at Vasily holding the baby kills me. the life she was envisioning that she never got to have. that scene and the final scene between Boris and Legasov are heavy ones in this episode I think. Boris saying 'it's beautiful'. there's nothing like the appreciation one gets for the little things in life after receiving a terminal diagnosis. it's such a heavy feeling.

I watched these solely for Calvin's reactions.

I was kinda disappointed that you guys cut off Legasov's final part of his speech. The words he said was so powerful, probably one of the best speeches ever, and is still relevant to the political scene we have now.

Fantastic series

One of my favorite series of all time

So.....a sub set of you guys picked up on the excellent Chernobyl , but , man, are you guys gonna ever check out The Expanse?

Boris is the best

In the book Midnight in Chernobyl, I believe states Toptunov was only on the job for 2 months. I think the show writers changed it, because it was so damned unbelievable that he would be senior operater.

Truly a great series that not only showed the injustice at Chernobyl, but celebrated the heroism of those who risked their lives trying to minimize as much of the damage as possible. Also fun fact: the third diver who passed away: Baranov actually died from heart disease. Non-radiation related. Amazing how those three were in the worst environment yet manage to not only arguably saved the world but got to continue to live their lives.

please react to dark

Late comment, but some recent computer models of the reaction believed it actually might have went super-critical and became an actual real nuclear detonation that spiked at 330,000Mw, not just 10 times the reaction but 100 times.

Amazing! Thank you!

Great reaction guys, You should watch this with Rick and Erick too.

There are still a handfull of operational RBMK reactors.

If you want to read any books about it I suggest Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich and Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham which came out in 2019. Apparently, the writer of the show said he wish he had it when making the show because it would have cut his research down considerably.

Taking notes - what a respectful attitude! I guess, the subject deserves it.

Calvin's reaction at 10:36 is such a mood

Good show i hope they make a season 2

There is a Plaque if i recall near Chernobyl. I don't know the whole dedication, but i do know it states "To those who saved the world" and damn right in my opinion.

I was 1 year old when this happened, 400 kilometers away! O_o

Since even the investigating scientists initially couldn't understand why the reactor blew up, because it was said to be an 'impossible' event, Dyatlov probably believed the same and could not accept that it had happened, and also didn't want to believe it had happened because of the enormity of the catastrophe if it had happened. Dyatlov during the test was prepared to gamble everything on the basis that there was a shut down button that could be used if necessary. When things went wrong he didn't understand why, but he couldn't being himself to admit that because he had always told the others 'I know what I'm doing' and was ready to blame any problems on their 'incompetence'.

10/10 perfection

The true hero in this whole shenanigans was Boris =(

The 3 divers were actually shielded by the water

Fomin was an apriarick (party man) and had only taken a correspondence course on nuclear engineering to get his job as supervisor of Plant 4. His was a party appointment.

Damn I'd love to have that scale model of the plant.

Great reaction...if you want great writing watch Hannibal...loved to see y'all reactions to his shenanigans!

Ahhhh I was waiting for the soviet unchanged death toll!

Im so glad you reacted to Chernobyl, is easily one of the best series I've ever seen. Btw, you should really check out Money Heist, or "La casa de papel". Is a spanish show on netflix, I really recomend it.

Guys, you have to see ''Dark'' !

The operators put the reactor in a mode in which it exploded from the introduction of emergency protection. They are definitely to blame for the fact that the reactor was in this mode, but there is a huge "but" - this mode was not prohibited by the Regulations of those years. Even about the effect of the control rods, the operators simply did not reported neither in the regulations or in the instructions anywhere. They were sure that the reactor was safe, and could not think otherwise. Are they to blame for the fact that the reactor behaved in such modes? I guess not. No one expected this from the reactor. The staff didn't even know, and if they had, they wouldn't have put the device into such modes. Perhaps if the scientific management of the industry reacted in time and reported such dangerous aspects of RBMK's work to operators, such an accident would not have happened. The reactor with defects fell into the hands of people who did not know about these defects. The staff of the NPP quite to itself legally and logically tried to operate allegedly safe reactor, allowing certain excesses. The result is known to all of us and is very sad.

You should watch Dark guys, you'll love it

Could someone please explane what does black rings mean?) I was always wonder)

@23:38 Re: you guys talking about Dyatlov dying before he finished serving time - Dyatlov served only 3 years out of 10. He was released pretty early. He never served time till his death.

You guys pretty much got it bang on, in pretty much every factor in the disaster being it’s cause. Bottom of the line, it was caused by the Soviet system as one whole entity of the way it worked and the people who worked for it, cutting costs, protecting itself etc. I do honestly think it’s wrong, however much I despise his short temper, to solely blame Dyatlov. As stated by Legasov during the series, he reacted the way he did in the face of the truth because he was told by higher ups that RBMKs were flawless, alongside his own personal desire for promotion in his field. Every factor behind the disaster was equally as responsible as another, and as if existing as a bleak monument to the institutionalised lie, the spell of desolation will be cast over Chernobyl and will remain for 20,000 years. What an incredible series.

I still pray God for u guys reacting to Mr. Robot

Deservedly nominated for 19 emmy's the entire court scene is some of the best written dialogue ive seen in a very long time the final epilogue talking about the real life people got me teary eyed with that music and just reading about how much they all suffered to think that the firefighters clothing is still there untouched for 33 years just heartbreaking "in memory of those who suffered and sacrificed"

Good reaction 👍

Never noticed the guy was pythagoras from Atlantis.

You guys should watch Chernobyl 3828 on youtube it's Ukrainian documentary film. Very good mini doc!

The staff was not aware of the "design features" of the reactor. They knew and were confident that doing the right thing. Dyatlov conducted tests, thinking that the reactor is serviceable, and AZ-5 will work. The staff also messed up a bit, but if the reactor was serviceable, these mistakes would not lead to an explosion. They did not commit any violations of the regulatory documents in force at that time. Subsequently made changes, making many of those erroneous actions direct prohibitions. But to say that the staff broke the rules, which at that time did not exist. Well, it's probably wrong.

If the series was accurate on this part, then I believe that Diatlov fully and utterly believe the reactor can't possibly explode. He was about to go to the roof himself, without any prompting or pressure from others and he knew enough to know this was a death sentence if the reactor was breached... and he wanted to go anyway and would have done so if he hadn't collapsed. I also think it's worth keeping in mind that the "flashbacks" in this episode go off the testimony of people and thus are subjective and biased. There is no objective recording of the events within the plant as far as I know. I wouldn't be surprised if they - intentionally or subconsciously - told things slightly different to put extra blame on who they thought was responsible for their painful deathes. Not to mention that at least some of the questioned workers weren't even fully lucent anymore due to the damage of their bodies and the pain. That's not to say that I think of Diatlov as innocent and nice... I don't think that at all. But I really can't believe he was as bad as these flashbacks portrayed him. I think that was most likely overdramatizing on the showrunner's part on top of a rather fuzzy image based on biased testimony by dying people. What I liked the most of this series is the speech that goes something like this: "If you only hear lies, you'll lose sight of the truth and then you can rely only on stories. But the truth incurs a debt and sooner or later it will be payed." It's a stark reminder that reality will not concede to lies and even if you manage to completely wipe out the knowledge of the truth... it will still be there. And the consequences will still happen, whether anyone knows the truth or not.

Isn't it great when you get a well written show? I wish a lot of success to all the talented people that made this show. A lot of people were surely affected by this tragedy. It's heartbreaking to see how your government will leave you out to dry or threaten your safety and the safety of your family for greed, politics or just plain incompetence.

Nice job guys! The disparity of the estimated death toll resulting from the incident can be explained by the fact that the government didn't keep any records. Any official record of attributed deaths would have made the Soviet government culpable and responsible. So, why keep records, when the responsibility for the catastrophe was already placed onto the three men who were on trial. The heroism of those that were ordered, conscripted or volunteered in response can not be over stated. Bless them all. Thanks for the post...TC

Hoping in vain that they will do a life on mars uk reaction

You boys gotta check out the REAL Diatlov"s (?spelling) tell all interview before he died (he lived for a while after the accident).... its on KZfaq.... very enlightening.. you kind of get the sense of dramatic effect used in the mini series.... its pretty interesting... plus did you know the other guy they put in jail.. Diatlov's supervisor the balding guy.... he only served half his jail sentence then went back and resumed his position at Chernobyl.. he also has tell all interviews online from the 90's... pretty freak'n fascinating deep dive