Bit of good news, those 3 legends who went into the flooded basement actually survived.

"A sobering experience" For a drinker Woah

Best lines in this show, “We need a new phone” “Now you look like the minister of coal” “These men work in the dark and see everything”

I'm Russian and I never even considered the matter of their accents. This is an English movie in English language, so if course they sound English. What is really important here, and shows the professionalism of the actors, is their ability to mimic Russian mannerism: hand gestures, phrase structures, facial expressions and other subtle elements that characterize not just Russian speakers, but Russian speakers from different backgrounds and social statuses. The actors nailed that part.

Critical Drinker: "The ad revenue for this video will go to help children." KZfaq: "silly drunk. You think we care enough about children to allow you to monetize a video?"

This series saved millions of the GOT ending trauma in getting our minds off that other disaster.

1986 Russia: Nah, it'll be fine! 2019 China: Nah, it'll be fine!

As a nuclear operator, we routinely study Chernobyl. It is heartbreaking how many mistakes and bad decisions had to pile on each other to bring that disaster into reality.

I have about 10,000 hours operating nuclear reactors, and I was seeing accident analysis videos on what went wrong there back in the late 80s, when that information was still classified. I expected to spend my entire watching experience picking it apart for technical inaccuracies, but boy howdy was I ever wrong. It was so excellently done that I was completely engrossed in the human element of the story. I knew who Anatoly Dyataov, Leonid Toptunov, and Aleksey Akimov were before I saw it, and I could pontificate for hours on the design flaws and operating mistakes that led to the disaster, but not for a second do I think I could've told the story the way HBO did. To coin a grossly inaccurate trope about radiation poisoning, I'd give this miniseries three thumbs up.

thank you for supporting the Chernobyl Children's Project

English accents: I like how some shows use the various English Dialect accents to represent the various Russian accents. Like how the miners had more of that gruff English accent. The Death of Stalin is another show that goes all out on the accents.

The final conclusion of this series is a chilling one. When a society departs from reality and silently agrees to propagate lies, reality snaps back with a vengeance.

*"The real cost of lies is measured in human suffering."* Dang. That phrase made me pause the video and think for a good minute or two. Deep stuff.

"Nah, it'll be fine." Gets me every time!

Stellan Skarsgaard has a great bit of dialogue, where he asks “You want me to go onto the world stage and humiliate a state that’s obsessed with not being humiliated?” One of the best shows I have ever watched.

This show is more of a “horror movie” than just about any modern horror movie. It’s absolutely terrifying. Knowing what’s happening but watching people live through it without knowing what’s really happening.

"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid."

"For God's sake Boris, you were the one that mattered most" hit me in the feels hard. Skaarsgard was monumental.

“ Not comfortable profiting from a tradegy like this...” You Sir, are a Gentleman and a Scholar in a ‘world’ filled with Lookatme-ers. Subbed

"And the chief engineer is all like 'Nah it'll be fine comrades' " So damn true

The scene of clearing the roof of the reactor was one of the most intense things I’ve ever seen.

"...fatal radiation dose in the matter of minutes..." A second. Literally a second in the case of those poor bastards who looked into the heart of the core. Same with the poor wanker who was ordered to check for graphite on the roof. God, that first episode was so hard to watch knowing they were being sent to their doom.

My parents, who were born and raised in Soviet Union (Soviet Ukraine and then Moldova, to be exact), found this show to be very realistic and impressive. And as russian speaker and someone who lives in ex-Soviet country, I had zero problem with actors sounding "too British". The story, the visuals, the actors play, the soundtrack and stuff had me from the first minute, so minor things like accents wasn't the matter anymore. Just have to remember that this show isn't a documentary, and it doesn't have to be, there were a lot of documentaries about that already. It's drama, and a well done one. Sorry for my bad English.

It’s great that you called out the “blame culture” mentality in “Chernobyl”. I use this example at work all the time by comparing the blame culture of “Chernobyl” to the problem-solving culture you see in “Apollo 13”. It goes to show what happens when you punish people for telling the truth or taking action in good faith.

There was no season 8 of GOT. YOU DID NOT SEE IT BECAUSE IT WAS NOT THERE!!!!

Valery Legasov : Dyatlov broke every rule we have. He pushed a reactor to the brink of destruction. He did these things believing there was a failsafe: AZ-5, a simple button to shut it all down. But in the circumstances he created, there wasn't. The shutdown system had a fatal flaw. At 1:23:40, Akimov engages AZ-5. The fully-withdrawn control rods begin moving back into the reactor. These rods are made of boron - which reduces reactivity - but not their tips. The tips are made of graphite, which accelerates reactivity. Judge Milan Kadnikov : Why? Valery Legasov : Why? For the same reason our reactors do not have containment buildings around them, like those in the West. For the same reason we don't use properly enriched fuel in our cores. For the same reason we are the only nation that builds water-cooled, graphite-moderated reactors with a positive void coefficient. Valery Legasov : It's cheaper.

For me, it was the acting. I swear, for a moment, I thought I was in the 80s, watching people from the 80s. It was so realistic and brilliantly acted by all actors.

I was in Japan during the 2011 Fukushima disaster and did disaster aid not long after in the Fukushima region. Walking through the abandoned towns and areas, while constantly checking the Geiger counter, you feel something is wrong but everything looks perfectly normal and peaceful. It's the strangest, most eery feeling I ever experienced and probably ever will. And this show felt so real, it perfectly portrayed how people will react to radiation ... with completely unawareness.

HBO: You thought GOT was a disaster? Lemme show you a real disaster."

This show was amazing. No filler, no bullshit. Just straight progression from start to finish with shocking revelation.

It's amazingly decent of you to donate all financial gains you make from this video to the Chernobyl Children Project. You, sir, are a kind person after all. Thank you!

This was by far the SCARIEST thing I have ever seen, because it was real.

"Of all the ministers - deputies - entire congregation of obedient fools - they mistakenly sent the one good man. For God's sake, Boris... You were the one who mattered most". God, what a line.

I loved the part where Spock gives his life by entering the reactor core and fixes it.

They're still worried about the "Elephant's Foot" finally breaking through into the water supply one day. That's one part they didn't mention in the series, but that would be the melted remains of Reactor #4 that oozed into the basement. After initially photographing it with a manually-pushed dolly/camera, they tried to lower a man on ropes to snap a picture of it and then hoist him back up. He still died of a lethal radiation dose a few days later.

The guy who drove the truck to measure the radiation level near the power plant was a veteran of Stalingrad and survived into old age

I was a kid living near Pryp'iat' when the forth nuclear reactor exploded. Both of my parents worked at that Nuclear Power Plant. My sister went to school in Pryp'iat' on April 26, 1986. Nobody told us nothing about the danger. Moreover, those, who wanted to leave Pryp'iat' for personal reasons weren't allowed to do so. Only after more than 36 hours after the disaster, on sunny Sunday evacuation begun. We were told that the evacuation is only a "temporally measure" and that we will come back to our homes on the next day, after they'll "clean up" Pryp'iat'. Well, more than 30 years have passed since that promise. They told us nothing about the level of radiation, neither gave us potassium iodide. My parents, who went back as so-called "liquidators" told me that even in the May of 1986 they were deceived about the radioactivity level and didn't receive potassium iodide. Most of their colleagues are dead by now. There were lie everywhere and about everything. The mini-series nailed most of that lies and show its consequences. The criminal and cowardice nature of the soviet government, the incompetence and fear of big and small "bosses" without proper education, but with big ambitions. The fear and meanness of careerists with black souls, ready to lie to the last and easily sacrifice others. Especially easily such liars are willing to sacrifice others. The conscript soldiers and reservists (which were called "partisans" by liquidators) who were sent to the roof to clear it from graphite are mostly dead by now. These "bio-robots" were sometimes misused, worked over the "safe" time, sent back more and more. Such dehumanization is terrifying. Evacuated people not only lost their homes and all their previous lives - they were doomed to diseases and "stigmatization" by society. Their lives were divided on "before" and "after" the disaster. In the May, 1986 along the roads near Pryp'at' lay a lot of shot dogs - it was heartbreaking to see, my mother recalls. She was looking for our dog among those dead bodies. Soviet atmosphere and life recreated as thoroughly as possible. Total lies, cowardice, incompetence and inhumanity of the system and its functionaries evoke memories and is as frighten as a revived corpse enchanted by necromancers from HBO. Craig Mazin has created a spiritualistic seance under the guise of the mini-series. The degree of immersion and horror is amazing. No horror film is capable of what reality is capable of. Musical accompaniment, background noises, absurdity and madness of what is happening on the screen, the doom of the performers of someone else's will, going to suffering and death. And the total lie of all and about everything. All of these shown by wonderful actors cast, with tense dramatization, perfect ambient sounds and music. Deep and haunting show, with excellent balance between staying true to the real story and keeping audience in suspense despite the fact that we all know how the story ends. Among the shortcomings, I will note the “necessary evil” of political correctness - the fictional character of Uliana Khomiuk, the whole line of which is extremely “Mary Sue-ish” and annoying. Exaggerations with the miners, the overly glorification of Legasov and Shcherbina, etc, but all these don't spoil the main idea of ​​the film. By the way, the design flaws of the reactor were indicated and specialists warned about the danger of the “koncevoy effect” and the need to modernize rods and fuel channels in reactor. Latest warning was in 1983 (all secret of course). But the NPP had to be commissioned by May 1, 1984. The soviet bosses liked to time everything for the communist celebrations. That timed. Only after the disaster did they begin to correct the shortcomings that they had been hearing about back in the 1970s (still hiding the truth). "The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all". The whole soviet system was build on lies, on denial of truth. All we are eager to believe in convenient lies rather than to accept painful truth. And sooner or later such ignorance of reality inevitably leads us to collision with it - the real world reminds about itself ruthlessly to those, who are willing to live in dreams instead of reality. But when the lies became building material for the whole political system, the manifestation of truth can became catastrophic. Truth is like radiation - it is invisible and you can easily deny its existence until you begin to vomit and die from radiation sickness or, if “lucky”, from cancer. "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" John 8:32. Or live in lies, in illusions, slaves of fear, and it will truly crush you. Everyone decide for themselves. P.S. Complains about the absence of "Russian language" are ridiculous - locals spoke Russian at best with their national accents. In small villages locals spoke Ukrainian or Belorussian or mixed both languages. Thereby one essential factor was missed in the mini-series. As liquidators joked with grim humor, in Pryp'iat' Moscow wanted to extinguish all the national minorities - in 1986 conscripts from Latvia were "thrown" to Pryp'iat', in 1987 - conscripts from Central Asia. The local population were Ukrainian with nearby Belorussians. Moscow didn't care much, because population of Russia did not suffer at all in a result of that stupid experiment conducted by the order of Moscow bosses on the reactor designed with engineering miscalculations. When it exploded, mostly Ukrainians and Belorussians suffered, with other national minorities sent there as conscripts.

Episode 1: "Puking and Dying" Episode 2: "What Do I Know? I'm Just A Nuclear Physicist" Episode 3: "We Need A Big Ass Hole" Episode 4: "Old Yeller" Episode 5: "A Tragedy of This Magnitude Must Be Somebody's Fault"

This really was storytelling at it's best. Gory, well acted and gripping, you'll want to see it more than once.

RIP Paul Ritter - a very underrated actor.

Dying by turning into a corpse one cell at a time must be the absolute worst way to go. Rest in Peace :'(

People said the same thing about the different English accents in 'The Death of Stalin'. Then it was pointed out how it was a pretty good way to represent the vastness of the Soviet Union where people obviously would have spoken with different Russian accents.

The storyline of the firefighter and his wife are absolutely heartbreaking. 2 episodes end on their behalf and the soundtrack during these scenes is absolutely brilliant and haunting.

Professor Legasov giving his testimony was alone more immersive than the actions scenes in today's superhero movies

So. Damn. Good. The scariest stories are the true ones.

Already finished it, and it was something special to watch. Thanks for reviewing it and recommending it! Good on you for the donation of revenue to those kids directly affected by it.

I was in Scotland at the Holy Loch/Dunoon sub base when Chernobyl happened. As I recall, the initial assumption was that one of the subs stationed there had a leak. Then, it was realized the contamination was coming from outside, where people walking around Dunoon were tracking contamination back into the ships. WTF? Finally, the source was announced as the USSR. So many farmers had to kill their herds and destroy their crops. And, the USN couldn’t source local food stores anymore for the ships leaving on patrol.

A great insight into the events and outcomes of a truly tragic incident. I watched the complete series while flying overseas. I was hanging on every moment due how well the show was made. It was done so well it just kept drawing you in further and further as it went along. You couldn't help but feel for the people effected by such a devastating event and with what some of them gave up to get the jobs done that need to be done.

Best Mini Show ever made hands down. This show does something real Radiation can't do. You can feel it, smell it and see it. A masterpiece That moment when we and the two engineers are looking straight into the burning open core.... Its like you're looking straight in the face of death

"The truth can get you killed" China would like to know your location.

There are moments that crystallize the true meaning of horror. For me, the worst was watching the second plane flying into the second tower in NYC on 9/11 knowing that hundreds of real people had died in front of my eyes. I remember the coverage of Chernobyl well and I recall the helicopters flying so close dropping fire retardant into the burst open reactor. I knew those men were dying too. A haunting moment. I will be watching this series but with real forboding. My tiny homage to bravery incarnate.

Watched it 3 times start to finish. When I saw Jared Harris in The Expanse I was so happy.

>That mission in CoD >No STALKER mention Bruh...

Was it human Error? Technical failure? Or something more sinister? Yes.

I was in my early 20s when this happened, I remember the "mystery" of what it was at first when the first started detecting the radioactive elements spreading into Europe, with the USSR first trying to deny & then deflect as it became more and more obvious where it was coming from before they finally admitted it.

They made a great companion podcast with the writer. They explain the ways they adapted the history for the screen and why they made the choices. They said that since this series is so obsessed with the result of lie, they wanted to be transparent as possible. Properly good.

'Chernobyl' was a masterclass in filmmaking. The acting was SUBLIME. Watched every episode twice even though I'm busy as hell. Bully to HBO for continuing to bring us great product.

Small correction: Chernobyl went prompt supercritical, not critical. Going critical itself is not bad, nuclear power plants run at (delayed) critical when at power. Critical just means that the fission reaction is self sustaining (k=1), every neutron absorbed or lost is replaced by a new one. Then you have delayed vs prompt. Delayed neutrons are important for power generation, being generated between a few milliseconds to a minute, as they're the ones that are slow enough to respond to. Prompt neutrons are generated in 10^(-14) seconds, much to quickly to deal with. Hence why power plants go delayed critical, or critical with delayed neutrons. Going prompt critical is a bad day, as when the delayed neutrons catch up you're going to see a power spike. Now on to supercritical vs critical. Supercritical means K>1, or that the fission reaction is growing. More neutrons are being made than absorbed, so power will rise. When controlled, this isn't a bad thing. Raise power, balance out, maintain delayed critical (and prompt subcritical). Chernobyl, on the other hand, went prompt supercritical. You have a huge power spike (then followed by another power jump when the delayed neutrons hit), which led to fuel damage, boiling of the moderator (water), and an over-pressurization of the reactor vessel; which then resulted in the steam explosion that shat spent fuel all over the place.

I'm an engineering student who did a fair bit of nuclear power stuff. My lecturer advised me to watch this show, because in the last episode there is the best explanation of how that type of reactor works ever. To the extent that one of his industry friends learned how a reactor works, one of the reactors he works on!

Thank you for the recommendation Drinker! 👍 I've watched several documentaries about the accident itself but it's good to see everything that came afterwards (...and is still happening).

Stayed tuned for a miniminiseries on Three Mile Island. It's a ten minute episode where no one dies after some steam gets out.

As a nuclear physicist, I was pretty damned impressed by how accurate the depictions and explanations of the causes were were

Great video man!! After hearing your donation I cried. I remember watching it unfold on tv in the 9th grade. Thanks drinker for a must watch “Drinker Recommends”!! Keep the faith and stay safe! James

This show was absolutely stunning. One of the best things I have EVER watched. I can remember when it actually happened and have always been fascinated by it.

This is a masterpiece, my HBO favorite show, after Band of Brothers I so bloody loved it and I *WON'T* watch it again

We need more LIMITED series. The best of TV & Cinema.

"The Series starts with a bang... Literally" Understatement

I knew a Ukrainian family who moved to the U.S. (Cleveland) after the Soviet Union fell. They lived outside of Kiev, not all that far from Chernobyl. One of their daughters, who was eight months old when Chernobyl occurred, eventually died of cancer at 22. I'm convinced the explosion had something to do with it.

I work for a streaming service and this show is saving HBO's ass. So many people are chatting and calling in after HBO shit the bed with GOT. They should thank their lucky stars that they've scored a hit with this excellent show.

Wow. You actually moved me to tears with that beautiful gesture at the end. I have a new found respect for you man.

I swear I have binge watched about I don’t know maybe a third or more of your videos every single video you continuously amazing shot the depth of your character so I salute you

I am an arm chair nuclear and former nuclear submarine reactor technician... and I can categorically say this series filled every one of my holes with glee and satisfaction... like a late night out navy pissup in Portsmouth... I truly loved this and dont think there could have been much more inserted withought loosing some of the audience... so thumbs up 👍 and great review

Me after GOT S8: I give up on HBO. Drinker: Chernobyl Me: Aw shit here we go again!

“It will not stop. Not in a week, a month. It will burn and spread its poison until the entire continent is dead” That whole scene was amazing. The realization that the one guy was right and this was a serious situation was down very well.

Americans be like: can't wait for second season Ucranians be like: 😶

I agree that this was probably the best miniseries I have ever watched, and it also had me gripped from the very first minute to the very last. Excellent review as always.

Writer/producer said in Chernobyl podcast (highly recommended) that they don't have Russian accents because then they wouldn't focus on acting but on maintaining the accent. It would stand in the way of their amazing performances and I, as Slavic guy who lives in country the radioactive cloud went through and so this show really touched me a lot, completely agree. Pretending to have Slavic accents sounds in 99.9999% of cases dumb.

This show made me replay all S.T.A.L.K.E.R games

Even 4 years later this was the best thing on TV in the last 10 yrs. It was a masterpiece from start to finish. Best line from the series was Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid - Valery Legasov

I love how the guy in the control room says it's a "safe design" when the Chernobyl reactors were infamous for poor technical engineering. I'll have to watch this series sometime. I've long had an interest in nuclear physics and am very interested in the history of the Chernobyl plant.

I read a few books about Chernobyl. Some are pretty well done. Worth the read. Birds falling out of the sky ... should we cancel the Parade in Kiev? Nah...it’ll be fine.

It's good of you to donate to the Chernobyl children's project, we have had Belorussian kids coming to my little Derbyshire town annually since the 90s for a few weeks to recuperate and boost their immune systems, they're always very friendly and grateful for a change of scenery, good on you.

I watched the miniseries as well and I agree it's worth watching. I remember the day it happened vividly because my father was stationed in West Germany for the US Army. I was in the 6th grade and my class had a window overlooking the recess play ground. I noticed two people with Geiger counters measuring about 6 inches to a foot off the playground grass while we were all back in class. I thought that was really weird so when school was over I rushed home, turned on the TV, and became aware of the disaster. Even in one episode they mention that it would spread as far west to Frankfurt, and we lived only 80 kms away from there. We couldn't drink milk or eat any beef for at least a month. It was strange and a bit scary while all that went on. Watching it helped educate me more about what took place there, even if it's was Hollywood-ized a bit in some scenes. Great work and funny stuff you produce.

This is 4 years too late, but you did a great thing donating the proceeds of this video to the Chernobyl Children's fund. Despite what you want everyone to believe, we know you have more than a sliver of decency in that chunk of black ice you allegedly call your heart. ^_^ You are my favorite Scottish degenerate Drinker. We need more men like you, to speak the truth in a world so awash with lies.

Who was a greater villian? The night king Or A chuck of the reactor core?

“Go ‘way naow”...what the reactor said to the roof on the fateful day in 1986. Great review btw; couldn’t agree more!

Honestly my favourite part of this series is that they chose actors, not 20-30 something models to portray the main/composite characters. They chose people who look like... regular people and had the chops to act this series as it covered the tragedy of Chernobyl #4

Was not expecting that bit at the end, glad I’m subscribed so I didn’t miss this opportunity to donate. I have mad respect for you drinker

I want to read your book.

Guys, I'm from Ukraine and this series is fucking masterpiece. It hits like a truck even tho I love drama and used to it. We love this show here.

One of the best series i've watched. It takes time to paint the ambiance, the actors are perfect in their role.

My thoughts exactly ... Subbed! PS ... (The "RBMK reactor cores don't explode - Change my mind" pic made me spit my coffee out! Laughed so hard, I spotted!) Well done! Skal, ^v^

Best scene is Jared Harris and Stellen Skarsgard during a recess in the trial, episode 5. Portraying two genuine (as in saved the entire world) real heroes as human beings who couldn’t have done it without the other. Fate was very kind.

I'm not scientist but since I was a kid, I was always aware of the 'invisible fires' that is radiation. And the first episode is something that will stick with me. We see a man forced to check on the reactor core, just to see a pit spewing more than what any human eyes could possibly see or understand, as the flames were not normal. It was as if hell itself opened up and the devil was screaming at the world for the mistakes we have made. And anyone who did look inside, even for a second, would be proof of the essence of hell and the antithesis of human life. And it's nothing that wasn't deserved... the cost of lies is measured in human suffering. With that being said.. we also witness the very definition of what a hero is and the true good in humanity. The 2 who first went into the flooded basement, knowingly killing themselves in one of the most horrific ways. And even better, the 3 who volunteered to sacrifice their life after. And the beauty is that those 3 lived. And because of them, so did millions of others. 3 men agreed to give their lives to fight hell itself and were in turned gifted life. Perhaps eternal life, because legends never die. And those men saved the world, in contrast to those who almost destroyed it. As humans, we brought hell upon ourselves, but we also fought it, and won. Of corse, not without cost.

The only big inaccuracy I saw in Chernobyl was the hospital scene showing the firemen were isolated to protect the staff from radiation. In reality they were isolated to protect them from the staff, as the radiation poisoning left them with destroyed immune systems and extremely vulnerable to infection.

EXCELLENT series! What a well-written and acted mini-series. I watched the play by play on TV.

Jared Harris is one of my favorite actors. Although I must admit I enjoy him a lot more as a villain than anything else.

this series cured my season 8 GOT trauma

The best series of the last years. Binge-watched it. I was a teenager when Chernobyl happened and watching the show gave me goose bumps.

Thanks for recommending this. I was glued to my seat from beginning to end.