# Chernobyl on HBO **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606 "2019-05-07T12:35:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/181 "2019-06-09T18:46:03Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > The fact that the author of that article didn’t notice it and then used it as an example of a mistake The author made no such claim. The author said “Nor did radiation from the melted reactor contribute to the crash of a helicopter, as is strongly suggested”. _ **As is strongly suggested** _. The author is absolutely correct. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/182 "2019-06-09T18:52:23Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > The fact that you didn’t notice it doesn’t mean they didn’t show it. The fact that the author of that article didn’t notice it and then used it as an example of a mistake undermines my faith in that author’s attention to detail. That’s why I’d like to buy into that article but can’t. Hey, wait–you yourself said this: > [@](#): > > While watching that confused me too so I rewound it several times and finally ran it in slow motion. It looked to me like the pilot was incapacitated in some way (blinded?) when flying over the tower so the helicopter started listing, and then you could just barely see that the rotor hit a wire that snapped the rotor, at which point it dropped to the ground like a rock. So what you really need to say is that “just because you have to rewind and watch it several times in slow motion doesn’t mean that is wasn’t there.” That means one of two things–directorial incompetence, or they didn’t _want_ you to know what happened, but put it in there very obscurely for plausible deniability. ---
**Author:** ![Pedro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@Pedro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pedro)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/183 "2019-06-09T23:06:03Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So what you really need to say is that “just because you have to rewind and watch it several times in slow motion doesn’t mean that is wasn’t there.” That means one of two things–directorial incompetence, or they didn’t _want_ you to know what happened, but put it in there very obscurely for plausible deniability. Could be either. The problem with the helicopter scene is that Legasov warns the pilots not to fly overhead because of radiation then shouts a panicky “no, no,no, they’re too close” at the first helicopter, implying they aren’t respect the safety perimeter for radiation. With the added drama of the crackilng radio. Immediately after the helicopter is flying away from the reactor and it definitely touches a crane cable (not easy to spot). So the crash in the TV show has nothing to do with the tension being created in the _exact same scene_. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/184 "2019-06-10T07:01:59Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The author made no such claim. The author said “Nor did radiation from the melted reactor contribute to the crash of a helicopter, as is strongly suggested”. _ **As is strongly suggested** _. The author is absolutely correct. The author wrote: > [@](#): > > Nor did radiation from the melted reactor contribute to the crash of a helicopter, as is strongly suggested in “Chernobyl.” There was a helicopter crash but it took place six months later and had nothing to do with radiation. One of the helicopter’s blades hit a chain dangling from a construction crane. The construction of this paragraph makes it clear what he’s saying: The show depicted the crash as being cause by radiation, but in reality it was caused by the rotor hitting a chain. As for me rewinding, on first viewing in real-time I got the impression that the helicopter hit the chain but wasn’t sure. (ie: I was confused.) So I rewound and watched again in normal time to confirm but that wasn’t sufficient for me, since I knew I would likely comment on it in this thread and I wanted compelling evidence to back up my statements. So I rewound a third time, switched to frame by frame slow-mo and zoomed the picture in larger size and was able to see it clearly and unambiguously. That was my thought process and how I approached the details of that scene when I merely planned to post about it in this thread. (I spent about 20-30 seconds on it.) The author of the article didn’t go to even remotely that much care despite it being one of his points of evidence in a pretty long and involved blog post. He couldn’t be bothered to demonstrate as much care in his viewing as what I did just in service of a likely SDMB post. So yes, that is absolutely why I don’t have faith in that article. > [@Pedro](#): > > Could be either. The problem with the helicopter scene is that Legasov warns the pilots not to fly overhead because of radiation then shouts a panicky “no, no,no, they’re too close” at the first helicopter, implying they aren’t respect the safety perimeter for radiation. With the added drama of the crackilng radio. Immediately after the helicopter is flying away from the reactor and it definitely touches a crane cable (not easy to spot). So the crash in the TV show has nothing to do with the tension being created in the _exact same scene_. I love this analysis; excellent. If the author of the blog had conceded that the show depicted the mechanics of the crash correctly but was intentionally misleading about it, that would be fine. What the blog author did, however, was essentially the same crime the show did: Heavily implied something that wasn’t true while technically staying within the bounds of truth. Dishonest and misleading aren’t characteristics of criticisms I put a lot of stock in. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/185 "2019-06-10T18:22:16Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > The author wrote: > > The construction of this paragraph makes it clear what he’s saying: The show depicted the crash as being cause by radiation, but in reality it was caused by the rotor hitting a chain. No, the writer said “was strongly suggested.” “_Was strongly suggested_.” “_Was strongly suggested_.” “_ **Was strongly suggested** _.” And I think that assessment was 100% correct. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/186 "2019-06-10T18:25:51Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > If the author of the blog had conceded that the show depicted the mechanics of the crash correctly but was intentionally misleading about it, that would be fine. What the blog author did You use “blog” to try to minimize the author, but the article is for _Forbes_, on the _Forbes_ site. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/187 "2019-06-11T15:02:36Z")
The article strongly implies that the show didn’t show the chain causing the crash. That makes the article dishonest and misleading, or at very least sloppy and poorly researched. Either way, its credibility is undermined. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/188 "2019-06-11T15:31:19Z")
I did like it. I thought the last episode’s time jumps happened too early. I would have liked some more episodes before, seemed compressed. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/189 "2019-07-03T19:55:45Z")
I just finished this on HBO GO. Due to work and other commitments it took me about 10 days to get through the 5 episodes. Amazing series all around from the acting, the story structure, the realism of the sets, and the cinematography. A triumph indeed. Not to inflame the few debates but… _lights match_… The helicopter scene definitely seemed to me that the radiation somehow compromised the integrity of the helicopter causing the crash. Of course my brain said “Wait a minute… is that possible?” to which my brain responded “Maybe, what the f-ck do you know about being directly over top of a core meltdown anyway? Besides, that was an incredibly tense and well shot scene so fuhgeddaboutit!”. After reading the exchange here on the topic and viewing the original footage and re-watching that scene from HBO I can see now the helicopter hit the wire from the crane. I would argue the only reason that happened is the pilots were probably cooked like lobsters after flying directly over the reactor. If the one scientist just looked at it from the roof for a few seconds and had bad facial burns, I can imagine the pilots were probably in dire straights and not able to control their helicopter causing the collision. Similarly with the core burning through the concrete pad and hitting the water… I never got the impression they were saying it would cause a nuclear explosion. What I took away from it was that it would have caused a massive explosion from the conversion of the water to steam in a contained concrete space and it would _result_ in a nuclear-like explosion larger than the original which would result in all the associated deaths and devastation both from the initial explosion but more significantly the graphite and nuclear material that would be disbursed higher into the atmosphere. I did not re-watch that episode and am not interested in arguing the points, others did so just fine in this thread already. I was just one of those people who watched and never made any association they were saying it would be a nuclear explosion. MeanJoe ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/190 "2019-07-03T20:53:44Z")
The real helicopter incident happened several months into the clean-up, with no ‘radiation death-ray’ involved. But, yeah I agree with you, it’s a minor quibble when set against the overall brilliance of the show. Which is an absolute masterpiece, and everyone should watch it in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/191 "2019-07-03T21:15:16Z")
I’d recommend everyone listen to the companion podcast. I don’t think they discuss the helicopter incident specifically, but it’s a very frank discussion about writing historical dramas and where to blur the line between fact and fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/192 "2019-07-04T05:33:58Z")
I was fascinated by the way the Soviets were already exploring _WHO_ to blame while the disaster was still unfolding. I’m familiar with CYA moments, but usually you at least put the fire out first. These guys were assigning blame before the fire trucks even arrived on the scene. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/193 "2019-07-04T15:58:20Z")
Did they tell us what happened to the soldiers that cleaned up the roof in 90 second runs? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/194 "2019-07-04T18:49:57Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > The real helicopter incident happened several months into the clean-up, with no ‘radiation death-ray’ involved. But, yeah I agree with you, it’s a minor quibble when set against the overall brilliance of the show. Which is an absolute masterpiece, and everyone should watch it in my opinion. The fatal helicopter cable accident has been pretty extensively covered in the thread. The ‘radiation death-ray’ may be based on the following interview with the pilot of the first helicopter on the scene: > [@](#): > > Sergei Volodin arrives to meet me for coffee in the lobby of Kiev’s Hotel Rus wearing the full dress uniform of a colonel in the Ukrainian Air Force. This is the first time he’s ever worn it; he had to make the holes in the tunic for his medals especially for today. Gentle and avuncular, he brings newspaper cuttings, and pictures of himself and his two-man crew taken years ago by Soviet Union magazine. ‘There were rumours that we were all dead,’ he explains, ‘so they took pictures to show we were still alive.’ He speaks quickly, eager to impart as much of his story as he can; but when he stops and reaches for his tea, his hands tremble. > > Volodin began flying helicopters from the Soviet Air Force base in Kiev in 1976. It was a quiet posting: he spent the years flying bureaucrats and generals around the country in an Mi-8 helicopter specially equipped with lounge chairs, toilet and a bar. Once in a while, he’d pass the Chernobyl plant and, just out of curiosity, turn on the dosimeter that measured radiation inside the cockpit; there was never a flicker. > > On the night of 25 April 1986, Captain Volodin and his crew had the emergency rescue shift for the Kiev area. Their helicopter was the first on the scene at Chernobyl. As the government assembled an emergency commission to tackle the disaster, Volodin was instructed to fly around Pripyat with an army major on board to take dosimeter readings; they would use these to map the radioactivity around the town. They set off without protective clothing, dressed only in shirtsleeves; it was another clear, cloudless day. But as Volodin flew toward the plume of smoke and steam rising from Reactor No 4, strange-looking, viscous droplets of liquid began beading on the canopy. Below, he could see a village where people were at work in their gardens; when he looked up at the dosimeter, the reading had gone off the scale. He flicked the device through all its settings - 10, 100, 250, up to 500 roentgen per hour: ‘Above 500, the equipment - and human beings - aren’t supposed to work.’ Yet each time the needle ran off the end of the dial. Suddenly the major burst into the cockpit with his own dosimeter, screaming at Volodin, ‘You murderer! You’ve killed us all!’ > > ‘We’d taken such a high dose,’ the pilot says now, ‘he thought we were already dead.’ Later, Volodin discovered that the plume he had flown through was emitting 1,500 roentgen an hour. Having established radiation readings for the map, the pilot then flew technicians from the plant around the reactor, to assess the damage; a photographer shot pictures of the destruction through the open window of the helicopter. Afterwards, Volodin was told he and his crew had been so irradiated they could no longer fly. Hospitalised in a Kiev cardiology ward, the doctors told him to drink as much wine and vodka as he liked; they had no idea how to treat him. Volodin stayed until late May, and returned to fly in and out of the disaster site for another five months. > > Volodin retired as a pilot in 1991 to take a desk job. ‘I have a strange illness,’ he says. ‘I’m afraid of flying.’ Now 58, he has heart problems; his flight engineer is an invalid. In recognition of his work at Chernobyl, he receives a special liquidators’ pension of 26 Ukrainian Hryvna a year. He points sadly at the drinks in front of him: ‘The tea costs 35.’ ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/195 "2019-09-14T23:08:23Z")
Bumping this a bit, because I finally got to see it. I don’t subscribe to either Netflix or Sky, so I had to wait for the DVD release - and it was always something I’d have bought on DVD. Basically great TV - not on the scale of say _Tinker Tailor_/_Smiley’s People_, but still wonderfully impressive. The production values seemed astonishing and all the performances worked. Fine double act between Harris and Skarsgard in particular. And Jessie Buckley seems to have carved out the suffering “Russian” niche. The Wikipedia page seems to capture most of the obvious factual inaccuracies, A really minor one that it doesn’t is that the eyewitnesses tend to have described the smoke plume as white rather than as black. On the issue of the core melting through into the basement, the scene with Emily Watson addressing Gorbachev has her clearly describing the risk as a “thermal” explosion. So not a nuclear one and hence I found that part accurate. But she then indeed goes on to suggest a 30 megatons explosion. Nope - put me in the dubious camp on that. Possibly nasty, certainly. Where I felt it went off the rails was with the final episode, pretty much in general, though I was OK with most of the stuff in the control room. Otherwise, all just too fictionalised. And they shouldn’t have skipped over Legasov in Vienna in the way they did. That made the massive impression at the time. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606/196 "2019-11-08T18:54:49Z")
I just watched this, and agree it was _ **tremendous: very powerful and emotional, but also educational** _. (Though not exactly “entertainment.”) During the text at the very end, Gorbachev is quoted as saying that Chernobyl might have been the reason for the end of the Soviet Union. (Financial cost? Emotional cost? Showing their sense of greatness to be sham? All three?) > [@bonzer](#): > > … Basically great TV - not on the scale of say _Tinker Tailor_/_Smiley’s People_, but still wonderfully impressive. > > … But she then indeed goes on to suggest a 30 megatons explosion. Nope - put me in the dubious camp on that. I also rank _Smiley’s People_ #1, but _Chernobyl_ belongs somewhere on a Very Best Mini-series List. I wonder if the “30 megaton” claim was a misspoken version of “The _fallout_ from the possible explosion would match the _fallout_ from a 30-megaton bomb.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chernobyl-on-hbo/833606.md?page=9)