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[HBO] Chernobyl

Essa série ta FODA, pqp viciante demais, estou abrindo mão de assistir outras séries para ter mais tempo para essa.

Até que tenhamos como lidar em reais 100% de segurança com os perigos da radiação (99,9%.. com dizima periódica pra mim ainda não é seguro) e fazer dos resíduos nucleares algo que possa ser totalmente reciclável sem causar absolutamente nenhum dano a natureza e sem precisar de nenhuma blindagem de chumbo ou coisa do tipo, pois afinal energia nuclear é sempre dita como "limpa" como dizem seus defensores... mas os mesmos sempre se esquecem dos resíduos que em algum momento sobrarão e o que fazer com eles.:eek:

Sinto muito em discordar, mas...
lixo nuclear por muito tempo é sim e será por um longo tempo um gigantesco perigo, senão a cidade de Pripyat construída em função da usina de Chernobyl não seria hoje uma cidade-fantasma numa zona de exclusão para habitação permanente e que tende a ficar assim até segunda ordem por sabe-se lá quantos séculos o_O e a região do desastre da usina mantida sob uma forte blindagem anti-radiação, o famoso sarcófago como é conhecido, pois se for retirada volta novamente a ser o mesmo perigo de pouco mais de 30 anos atrás :tsc:.

Eu como engenheiro elétrico que já tive o prazer de visitar diversas usinas de diferentes tipos, não defendo a nuclearização pelos motivos já expostos acima, fora o enorme desperdício de dinheiro e a baixa razão custo-benefício que foi o projeto Angra, em especial Angra 3 aqui no Brasil :o?:. Sim podemos debater tranquilamente em outro tópico que eu mesmo criei.

E vale lembrar muito bem que não estamos assim tão preparados pra isso não, veja o caso de fukishima onde um tsunami causou um acidente e tiveram que evacuar toda a cidade, so esse ano que a galera teve permissão para voltar as suas casas, e ainda assim a quem diga que não é seguro, e olha, é o Japão.
Energia nuclear é uma fonte muito rica de energia, mas ta longe de ser limpa e por mais que se minimize os riscos, um acidente que seja tras consequencias pesadas, deve-se ter muito cuidado com isso.
 
Última edição:
Estou amando a mini série, a língua me incomodou também um pouco, mas me acostumei.

Estou só terminando uma lista a ser cumprida pra finalmente começar a ver, mas por mim pode até ser inglês "Joelsantanês" que não me incomoda em absolutamente nada. Eu só teria isso só com os idiomas que mais admiro e amo de verdade no mundo que são francês e italiano.
 
Quero ver mas a fila ta grande


Tenta transmitir do celular pra TV via Home (app do Google)
não funcionou... tem que ter o Chromecast também. Engraçado que do YouTube eu jogo para TV facilmente, já o Google Home não acha a TV :wall:
 
não funcionou... tem que ter o Chromecast também. Engraçado que do YouTube eu jogo para TV facilmente, já o Google Home não acha a TV :wall:
Então resta tentar outro aplicativo pra conversar com a TV... :think: (tem que pesquisar)
 
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Não entendi a crítica da língua. Qual o problema de ser em inglês? Vocês esperavam que eles falariam em russo a troco de quê? :think:
Pior ainda seria se falassem em inglês forçando um sotaque russo, o que não faz sentido. Tipo Assassin's Creed na Itália renascentista e todos falando como se fossem o Super Mario. :lol:
 
Também não vejo motivos relevantes para se reclamar da língua. É uma opção que visa aumentar o público. Não considero a minissérie menos autêntica por isso. O que é bizarro em relação a Chernobyl é o povo visitando os lugares após ver na HBO e tirando selfies sorridentes. É muita ignorância!
 
Pra mim falta justamente o episódio 5 :lol:

*****

Anyway, o negócio do idioma é facultativo (até pq se a série não é fidedigna nesse aspecto, em termos como ambientação, cenografia e derivados é absurdamente boa)

Mas, por mais que o fator "é uma minissérie americana" pese para que os diálogos sejam em inglês, acredito eu que o fator direção também foi levado em conta.

Em Lista de Schindler, li uma vez, o Spielberg cogitava fazer os diálogos em polonês e alemão mas ele não saberia dirigir de forma aprazível, pois não compreendia os idiomas.

Chernobyl poderia bem ser feita com atores e atrizes russos, ucranianos, etc., mas o trabalho de direção estaria "fragilizado" por assim dizer (sem contar que a série, nesse cenário, perderia o brilhantismo das atuações impecáveis como da Emily Watson e o Jared Harris)
 
Tá, terminei e aqui vai um pequeno review:

Depois do insucesso da última temporada do maior sucesso recente televisivo – a série de alta fantasia Game of Thrones – era de pouco se esperar que o mesmo canal recuperaria o fôlego junto ao público com uma minissérie que narra a maior tragédia nuclear da história.

E narra de forma particularmente magistral. Em termos visuais (e aqui uma ode à ambientação, cenografia e design de produção da série) retrata quase que perfeitamente a hoje cidade fantasma de Pripyat, os ambientes da usina nuclear, os gabinetes do regime soviético.

Chernobyl depois de mostrar a tragédia de forma resumida (o campo de ação basicamente é a sala de controle) no primeiro episódio, depois cresce embalada na tensão que se seguiu. E outra vez a tensão é capturada de forma magistral – na fotografia, no roteiro e, above all, nas atuações deslumbrantes de Emily Watson, Jared Harris e Stellan Skarsgård.

À medida que avança na narrativa, o espectador também é imerso e, como que encapsulado, vai à URSS de 1986 e sente a já citada tensão (mas aqui não só científica, mas política e até social). Mesmo que não querendo, quem assiste se compadece com o funeral dos bombeiros e funcionários da usina, sente a dor da mãe que perde seu bebê, se anseia no minuto a minuto da tragédia no episódio 5 e nos limpadores tirando o grafite do teto.

Em suma,
Chernobyl é um retrato fiel da tragédia. Não soa tão didático como se fosse um documentário, nem tão piegas e aberto à inventividades do enredo como se filme fosse, mas se arraiga a tensão, apoiada em quase tudo que a compõe.
 
Passando aqui para não deixar que o tópico morra, com a quota diária de propaganda voluntária. :timido:

==> Chernobyl quebra recorde de Game of Thrones no site da HBO :joinha:

==> Sem roupa, sorrindo e outros: Turistas sem noção tiram fotos reprováveis em Chernobyl após sucesso de série o_O




Mas nem todos que tiram fotos de lá são bocós:
O fotógrafo que captura a passagem do tempo na abandonada Chernobil
Há 25 anos David McMillan retrata a área da catástrofe nuclear e reinventa o conceito de natureza morta
 
Esse jornalista russo faz uma análise bem legal da série: https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1132029943297265664?s=19
E achou uma decisão acertada não colocar todo mundo falando russo ^^

Edit: venci a preguiça e dei os unrolls

Episódio 1: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1132029943297265664.html
I have just finished watching Episode 1 of Chernobyl on @HBO. My perspective is that of someone born and raised in the Soviet Union who has vivid memories of 1986, the catastrophe itself and how it was handled by the Soviet politicians and the state media...

First of all, it is almost inconceivable that a Western TV show would go to this amount of detail authentically portraying Soviet life in that era, knowing full well that its target audience (Western viewers) would never appreciate the effort or indeed even understand it...

Trust me, I try very hard to find inaccuracies, however minor. The Americans, a show with similar fetish-like obsession with authenticity, had plenty of small and big Soviet errata to be entertained with. Improperly fastened military shoulder bars, that sort of thing... Not here.

Everything, and I mean everything so far has been incredibly authentic. The typical provincial babushkas talking outside, the kitchen supplies and utensils, the white "celebratory" uniforms of school children (the tragedy occurred just before May Day), the shoes, the hair...

Even the little buckets used by Soviet citizens to take out the trash. They even found that crap somewhere! But I'm impressed by much more than the mere minutiae of Soviet everyday life. Yes, in this regard, Chernobyl is much more true to life than any Western show about Russia..

But, what is more impressive, is the characters, their actions, their thoughts, their motivation. The deep, ruthless drilling of the Soviet mind, what governed us, drove us and shackled us. Chernobyl pulls no punches and lays it all bare....

And this is really the key to its magic, for me at least. Not only is Chernobyl more realistic than any Western show/film about Russia, it's more realistic than anything Russians would have ever made about themselves, at least on this topic. I am not hyperbolizing. Not at all.

In fact, there have been several Russian films about Chernobyl, and only one, made in 1990, during final stages of Perestroika, does justice to the sheer brutality of this deplorable event. And even this one is more about a hero struggling against the odds, a melodramatic trope.

As for the more modern product, there is a film about heroic KGB agents trying to stop a CIA saboteur, for example. Modern Russian cinema, unable to unshackle itself from political expediencies and the "glory of the Motherland", could never make a drama like this one.

As an aside, I am particularly happy about the decision to have the characters speak normal British English, not mangled Russian or English with a corny "Russian" accent. Poor Matthew Rhys and Kerry Russel... Their tortured attempts to speak Russian almost ruined The Americans...

In conclusion, yes, the nit-picky Russian viewer in me was utterly satisfied. The initial "Wait a minute, why are kids going to school on a Saturday?" response quickly gave way to "Shit, that's right! We didn't switch to the 5-day week until 1989!" Pure delight, I tell ya...

But, far more importantly, the intellectual honesty in how the show treats an extremely traumatic event is more than impressive. It's important. Knowing how many fans HBO has in Russia, my hope is that it will elicit more than just knee-jerk defensive responses.

Also, my 17 year old son watched with me, and his first reaction was to immediately dive into the Google rabbit holes trying to research as much as possible about Chernobyl. I don't know about you, but to me this is as good a testimony of the shows greatness as anything

Episódio 2: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1132362644848033792.html
Since my thread on #Chernobyl went viral for some reason, I think I will review Episode 2 as I watch it, paying particular attention to details of Soviet life. If it's interesting to anyone, I mean.

And it gets me right off the bat, with the very first shot. The poem "Do you remember, Alyosha..." by Konstantin Simonov, written in 1941. Perfectly chosen, since it's about death, unthinking sacrifice for the greater good and the sheer tragedy of merely being Russian...


This mural, of course, is everything. "Peaceful atom", made in the Socialist Realism style, aggrandizing the Soviet exploration of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
After Chernobyl, Russians came up a joking rhyme: "Peaceful atom into every house we will bring on our shoes"


Bingo! I have found an inaccuracy. A very, very minor one. The pennant behind Ulana is the coat of arms of Brest, Belarus, celebrating its 970th anniversary. These pennants were a popular wall decoration. The problem is that the anniversary was in 1989... So, a tiny thing


I won't talk about the buildings much since they obviously filmed in Soviet-era houses, with all their easily recognizable features such as those weird window bars (many buildings had them as a protection against stone-throwers). The thermoses and cups are all Soviet-made.


Did they actually find an old Soviet typewriter to reproduce this report? Looks like it.


But again, the most authentic thing of all is the characters and the performances. Scherbina is a real old-guard apparatchik. Not stupid, not incompetent, as many people tended to assume, but with utterly skewed priorities.
The railing against "alarmists" (panikery) is spot on.

I will break for a bit and finish tonight. This show is gut-wrenching.

There it is, the self-sacrifice for the "great bitter land I was born to defend" mentioned in the opening poem. Gen. Pikalov was a WW II hero, 62 in 1986. He was named Hero of the Soviet Union (the country's highest honor, almost unheard of in peace time) for Chernobyl.


A rather posh hotel in Pripyat is probably Polissya, which was better than most Soviet hotels by virtue of Pripyat's being a "closed city" (it means the entire place was basically classified). Not sure if these Western-style lobby bars existed. But the glasses are surely Soviet.


"They are not letting children play outside... in Frankfurt!". So goddamn true. I remember they wouldn't let us, Soviet children, play outside, either. But that was weeks after the disaster. And it was our parents who took the measures, not the officials. The rumors spread faster

And here is another miss. April 27, which is when the evacuation started, which is also being said in Russian over the loudspeaker in this scene, was a Sunday. There wouldn't be children in school uniforms with backpacks.


That said, this is exactly how Soviet schoolchildren looked. The uniforms (except for the kid in black, as I don't remember boys' uniforms being anything other than blue), the backpacks, the bows in girls' hair. The boy in blue is carrying the exact same bag I had in 1st grade.

Most of the hospital workers are women. This is very accurate. The medical profession was one of the few (education being another) where women could advance beyond men in the USSR. I am really impressed with the showrunners' attention to this detail.


Soviet buildings all looked the same. There is an iconic comedy from the 1980s the entire premise of which is a guy getting drunk, ending up in another city but still being able to get into an apartment, because the building, the floor plan and the keys were exactly like his


The evacuation scene is voiced over by an announcer over the loudspeaker which is eerily accurate. This is exactly what they would have said, complete with Soviet jargon and bureaucratic understatements. "There is a developing unfavorable situation..." EXACTLY what they'd say!

Yes, a typical Soviet classroom. The old wooden two-seater desks specifically designed to make fidgeting difficult (there is a hinge that folds it in half so you could get in your seat, and then unfolds it, pinning you to it), party officials portraits, the ubiquitous globe...


Wow... Nothing more Soviet than communal clotheslines outside those blocky apartment buildings. Of course, whoever put those wall rugs on the line would probably have their ass beat, but those rugs are such a staple of Soviet interior design. Love this shot!


And it ends with the Suicide Squad, Ananenko, Bespalov and Baranov. The most persistent rumor was that all three of them died within a week and were buried in lead caskets. However, there are reports now that two of them are still alive, while Baranov died in 2005.


I am really intrigued at how their fate will be described in the show. But, of course, this episode ended on the same note as it began: this type of shit could only happen in Russia, where sacrificing oneself for "the Motherland" is seen as the default setting of humans. Amazing.

Episódio 3: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1132630861600444416.html
I have finished watching the 3rd episode of @HBO's #Chernobyl. The second ended on a cliffhanger, so I kept on through midnight, which, in retrospect, was a bold decision... Well, "every generation must have its sacrifice." I will review it in the thread below...

I'll do something different here and start by answering the question I get a lot: how is this series perceived in Russia. It is perceived surprisingly well, in fact. The general tone is exactly of what I said in my original thread: "It's something we should have made, but won't"

But, of course, there is grumbling, too. As @clmazin has mentioned in his podcast, Russia is a country obsessed with not being humiliated. More broadly, it's obsessed with what foreigners think of it while also being utterly convinced that no foreigner could ever "get our soul"

Still, almost all the critics were eerily silent after the first 2 episodes, awed by the accuracy and the detail. I mean, when all they can muster is pointing out that some of the Soviet-era buildings have modern plastic enclosures over the balconies in one scene, that's... crazy


Episode 3, however, finally gave some Russian viewer fodder for criticism. Specifically, there is one part of it that is creating a lot of noise, and, of course, it's these glorious dudes.


Some of the criticism is completely unwarranted. Apparently, many Russian viewers had no idea there were coal mines in Tula (they all closed in the 90s, and Tula is mostly known for its famous cookies and weapons factories). But the biggest issue was with the "coal minister"...


So, yeah, this is probably not so much an inaccuracy as intentional artistic license (as it was with placing the radioactive incident in Sweden before the evacuation of Pripyat, though it happened a day after) for dramatic effect. But the real Mikhail Shchadov wasn't like this...

The real "coal minister" was pushing 60 and had worked in coal since the age of 15. He was a former miner who had worked himself up from a mechanic's apprentice in Siberia and by 1986 he probably bled and sweated coal. He'd be more likely to match the Tula boys cuss for cuss...


So, no, the hand-wiping scene never actually happened. But, don't you kind of wish it did? It works, dramatically, extremely well. It sets us up to understand these guys and care about them. It's a much needed comic relief. And it sort of gets to the deeper truth about the miners

Because, you see, even though Minister Schadov's image takes a bit of (quite literal) smearing here, the miners - they actually existed. And they did all the amazing (and, ultimately, pointlessly heroic) things that are depicted. These guys where all that. And more. Here they are


"No, I am not tired that much", says this paragon of Russian manhood while sweating profusely, in a never-aired TV interview. He is not from Tula, but from Siberia, and he mispronounces Chernobyl, speaking with a strong Siberian intonation. They came from many parts of the USSR.


They wore "the fucking hats", they suffered horribly, and they dug the tunnel just in case the worst happened. Which it never did. The fuel never melted through to the underground waters, and their tunnel was never needed. About a quarter of them wound up contracting cancer.


"Comrades! Our goal is to ensure a daily advance of the tunnel by 13 m!" The showrunners obviously used this footage for the coal miner scenes, since it's reproduced with shocking accuracy. But, more important, once again, is the human angle here. The acting, too, is remarkable


Glukhov is written and acted superbly. He is basically every single old, grizzled Russian professional I've ever worked with. Unkempt, unpleasant, uncaring about your feelings, supremely and indifferently competent, selfless and knowing exactly whom to trust and whom not to.


Even more strikingly, the Tula miners expose the dimension that not a lot of people see in Russia: their deep mistrust and contempt of authority. Which, of course, somehow coexists with their perpetual resignation to living under oppressive regimes. Take this joke, for instance


Jokes like these were common in the USSR. Here my fave: "What is Soviet robotics? It's when you push a button and - bingo! - the log is on your shoulder!"
Or here is one that parodies the braggadocio of Soviet propaganda: "Soviet microprocessors are the biggest in the world!"


All the miners scenes are pure gold, realistic and fictional ones, precisely because they expose deep human truths about us that no other Western production has ever bothered to look into. Maybe this is why some are grumbling? We're obsessed with not being humiliated, after all..


Another scene that gets noticed in Russia. The painting by Ilya Repin depicts Ivan the Terrible shortly after he accidentally murdered his son and heir during a heated argument. Of course, this painting wouldn't have been in the Kremlin. It's been in the art museum for 100+ years


I'm gonna guess (and let @clmazin correct me if I am wrong) that it's another example of intentional artistic license, done to make a dramatic point. Ivan's sorrow, regret and unmistakeable insanity is, of course, Mother Russia itself, in the way it so often treats its children.

I am not done... Just had to break for a bit to talk to someone important

Episode 3 is also where the acting comes into its own. The relationship between Scherbina and Legasov develops to a point where it's almost a buddy-cop drama, which leaves one wondering whether it's really possible for a scientist to talk to a party bigwig like this...


Of course, @JaredHarris and Skarsgard do such a great job, we are ready to believe this all happened exactly like it. Did it really? Probably not exactly, but truth is, Scherbina was a very complicated individual. He was definitely an old-guard true believer. Not anyone's liberal

He was anti-reform, personally detested Yeltsin and would have welcomed the 1991 coup had he lived to see it. But he was also very dedicated to his job and not in it for himself. Two years later, he was in charge of handling another catastrophic event - the earthquake in Armenia

25,000 people died in Armenia in 1988, so Shcherbina had to handle two Hiroshima-like tragedies in two years. He died in 1990, at the age of 70, and most people who knew him thought that his exposure to Chernobyl radiation had greatly contributed to his demise.

As for Legasov, he was a brilliant scientist, he was apt to say careless things to wrong people, he definitely rubbed the apparatchiks the wrong way (Gorbachev personally made sure he was never rewarded for his efforts) and his priorities were morally right, and politically wrong

I won't talk much about the hospital scenes, which are harrowing and... shit, let's just go with harrowing. I am not a doctor or an expert on radiation and I have no idea how accurately they portray the effects of radiation sickness. I'll say a couple of things about what I know.


First of all, were Soviet hospitals really this squalid? Yes. Yes, they were. The Soviet Union achieved a great thing with free universal health care, but you got what you paid for. Make no mistake, it was still amazing considering where the country was before the Communists...


But I've spent a few weeks in a hospital in 1986 (it had nothing to do with Chernobyl, but I remember being super bummed about missing most of the World Cup), and I shared a room with other kids and pregnant mothers. The peeling paint, the horrible lighting, the roaches...

Let's just say, I learned very quickly to sleep perfectly still with my mouth tightly shut... Ugh, don't even get me started on Soviet hospitals!.. Also, this scene, where Lyudmila slips a bribe to the hospital worker to get into the building. Realistic? YES!


Doctors had insanely low salaries in the USSR, and bribing them was often essential and always expected. My mom once openly handed 25 rubles, a quarter of her monthly salary, to a therapist for looking into my congenital olfactory problems. His results were inconclusive.

Doctors never had any qualms accepting bribes and patients never had any issues giving them. This type of "vzyatka" wasn't even considered criminal by most people. Most of them were payments in kind. Chocolate candies and cognac were among the most common doctor "vzyatkas."

But again, this episode left me less willing to analyze the minutia of Soviet life, which are as always faithfully depicted (the cars! the uniforms! the tea spoons!), and more amazed at the deep, insightful, bordering on imposing, analysis of that very "mysterious Russian soul"


In 2004, I spent two weeks on a journalistic assignment with an old Russian photographer nicknamed Boroda (The Beard) who is basically a twin of the fictional miner Glukhov. He could drink like a battleship pump and he would only crack a smile for a person he truly cared for...

He got friendly with me, which is still one of the best compliments anyone ever paid me... Anyway, one day we went drinking in a bar in a small Czech town. The bar was full of Czech factory workers who wanted to talk to "Ruske novinari" (Russian reporters)...

I still remember the surly Boroda responding to a pat on the back from a 300lb Czech worker with an annoyed grunt, followed by, "Yes, I'm Russki. What the fuck does it mean to you? What the fuck do you know about the Russian soul? Even Gogol couldn't get it, so what's your hope?"

This is exactly how we see ourselves. This is also why we're so paranoid about Western depictions of us. We are desperate to be understood and we are desperate to be liked and respected. More than anything, we want foreigners to see through the terrible facade at the inner beauty

But we are sure nobody every could. We are sure all the portrayals are always going to be caricatures... No country anywhere screams as loudly of hating foreigners while longing so earnestly for their affection.
Anyway, Chernobyl comes closer than anyone ever could to nailing it

Chernobyl gets the beauty. It gets the ugliness. It gets the mystery. Does it get all of it? Probably not. But it does a better job than anyone and, like I said in the original thread, it does a better job than most of our own films do. This, more than anything, blows me away.

Episódio 4: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1133199099640074247.html
As promised, I will recap Episode 4 of #ChernobylHBO in the thread below. Recaps of episodes 1-3 are in the pinned thread on my feed. This one was... special. Until this morning, I didn't know it would be. Allow me to proceed in the the order I choose and see where it takes me.

Today was my step-father's 71st birthday. I was visiting him in Rochester, NY. We aren't what you'd call extremely close, but we aren't on bad terms, either. It's just... complicated. Anyway, he watches a lot of crappy Russian TV so I recommended he tries Chernobyl. He said no...

"No, I won't", he said. "Don't want to."
"Why not? It's very well made and you can get the dubbed Russian version online..."
"Because I was there, that's why. And I don't need this again."
Turns out, my step-father, then Captain Veytsman, was sent to the Exclusion Zone in 1986...


He was a part of the Likvidatsiya Posledstviy (the "elimination of consequences", as it was called in that coldblooded Soviet jargon of the time). He was stationed in Tiraspol, Moldavian SSR, an artillery commander, when he was ordered to assemble all chemical units and move out.

He was in charge of an area in the zone which included several condemned villages. They were to inspect vehicles and personnel, guard the roads, perform animal control and catch interlopers. He said looters became a big problem after a while. People raided abandoned buildings...

"They'd check us for radiation every day. They always put us down for 25 roentgen. 25 was the highest allowable level, you see. So they just entered 25 on the paperwork. Who knows how much we got."
"Jesus, why didn't you ever tell me?"
"You didn't ask"

Soviet men...

I wrote about this to @clmazin and he said it's just as well the now-retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Soviet Army Vladimir Veytsman won't be watching tonight's episode. It would hit way too close to home. It certainly would. It did for me, and I sure as hell wasn't there.


So, I will do the animal control soldiers scenes first. And - hey, here it is! The red and green flag to the left of Pavel. That's Moldavian SSR. That tent may have been occupied by one of my step-father's boys... So, yes, I am engrossed in the world of a TV drama, obviously.


Bacho is a Georgian name. The actor, who is Lebanese, actually looks like a stereotypical Georgian man: curly hair, big nose, a somewhat sultry look. But, even more impressively, he somehow SOUNDS Georgian. It's impossible to relay the colorful Georgian accent in English, but...


...he pulls it off. His character traits are stereotypically Georgian: he is passionate, he has quirky rules he is dead serious about, he presents a happy front, he drinks like a horse. The show went to the lengths of making one character look and act as a typical ethnic minority


So, no, having the actors speak British English doesn't ruin it for me. In fact, it even enhances the experience. Seeing and hearing the ethnic traits of the Northern Caucasus through that accent was surreal. Also, look at that babushka! You gonna tell me she is not Ukrainian?


The monologue she delivers sets the tone for the episode, which is stubbornness and resilience in the face of unimaginable pain. Now, would a Ukrainian village woman in 1986 speak of Stalin like this? I don't know. My own grandma did speak of the famine, but she never used...


... the term Holodomor nor would she attribute it to Stalin specifically. Still, in many areas of Ukraine people probably did just that. Many Ukrainians certainly never forgot or forgave. And, besides, that monologue, and those pictures, the Soviet history redux, are just so good

Even more importantly, the stubbornness and the unyielding strength (the traits I saw in my own grandma, who died at 98 after living a life very similar to this character's) are extremely true to life. I love it how we never actually see her get up and leave.


This goes back to the ridiculous task of excavating "the Russian soul" which this show undertakes & somehow succeeds in. The miners in Episode 3 showed that Russians could be disdainful and defiant of authority (while remaining patriotic and selfless). The babushka does the same.

So, let's talk a bit more about all of them speaking English. It doesn't bother me, but I have grown up on Soviet films about WWII where all German characters spoke perfect Russian and the viewers were simply expected to use their damn imaginations.


To me, the only things to be wary of is using the turns of phrase (like rhymes or puns) that would not be possible to pull off in Russian. The show sidesteps those mines. In fact, it goes the other way. Like the "egg basket" here. "Eggs", natch, is what Russians call testicles


On the other hand, this phrase was probably used to elicit a knowing smile from the US audience. I can't quite imagine the loyal party man Shcherbina saying this, given how proud the Soviets were of putting he first man in space, which they considered the end of the space race


Shcerbina's railing against the stupidity of the party bigwigs who put propaganda tropes ahead of the life-saving work may or may not have happened, but the underlying point is true. Propaganda and "Honor of the Motherland" has been Russia's No. 1 priority from Potemkin's time


I utterly believe the venom in Shcherbina's voice when he is forced to confront German technological superiority. This was a huge thorn in the side of many Russians ("Who won the fucking war?!"). And the reluctance to ask the West for anything is absolutely true.


But the whole point here, I believe, is once again Russia's tremendous strength, resilience and what the Brits call bloody-mindedness. Russia is a very Asiatic culture in many ways. It values the collective way more than mere human lives. This sounds brutal, and it is...


But it also allows it to survive major cataclysms and battle against impossible foes in the ways that other, happier cultures never would. Of course they'd throw "biorobots" (expendable human bodies) with goddamn shovels at the twenty Hiroshimas lying on that roof!


Americans, when involved in another foreign conflict, often talk about the brave men and women in uniform and how putting them in harm's way is a tough decision that can't be taken lightly. Russians don't think like that. If you're in uniform, being in harm's way is why you exist


Russia, as it should be abundantly clear, isn't a very happy culture at all. But it also defeated Hitler, in many ways thanks to being the way it is. It's the absolutely last choice to deliver the mankind any kind of happiness. But, sometimes, it's the only one strong enough...


A couple of notes on the small details that I tried my best to pick up. First of all, I've been intrigued at what they've all been smoking on this show. Turns out, Sochinskiye is surprisingly popular, though it wasn't the most common Soviet brand.


None of that mamby-pamby stuff for the grizzled vet Bacho, though. He smokes filterless Meteor, which has probably created an equivalent of half a Hiroshima in his lungs. Luckily, Georgian men have notoriously long life expectancy.


The vodka scenes aren't a cheap Russian stereotype. The "liquidators" were positively showered in drink. It was thought to somehow help against radiation. Russians are sometimes incredibly devoted to hack remedies. See also the milk scene in Episode 2.


And I will raise a 200mg glass to this absolutely perfect Soviet librarian. Yes, some Russian women could purse their lips for the English national team of lip-pursing.


Not only does this actual Soviet car have actual Soviet license plates, it's the plate with the correct two-letter code (KX) for the Kiev Oblast, where Pripyat is located. This is the kind of absolutely fanatical attention to detail that makes #Chernobyl a genre-redefining show


And finally... That song. "Black Raven".
Black raven, black raven,
Why do you circle over me?
You won't have your prey,
Black raven, I'm not yours!

It's a folk song often sang by Russian soldiers. And it's, of course, about resiliency, stubbornness, refusal to die.


The scene has the singer repeat this stanza over and over. The black raven is being consistently denied. The actual song ends with the stubborn soldier's succumbing to the inevitable. "I see my death is near. Black raven, I am all yours."
Russia has no happy endings.
Good night.


P.S. I am re-watching Episode 4 with my son and he had a few questions about the Soviet military, so here is an addendum with the questions he posed and my answers to them...

Q. Are these rations authentic?
A. EVERYTHING in this shot is authentic, AFAIK. The "semi-smoked sausage" was a part of dry rations (though often a hard-to-find item in Soviet stores), the "gray bread" (13 kopecks a loaf) was a staple (I miss it badly), the matchbox is real...


Even the newspaper it's all wrapped in (a normal practice) bears Russian print. They are washing it all down with outrageous amounts of vodka, but, as said before, this was actually a perk for the liquidators.
The tin cups (kruzhkas) are also true to life. 300g of booze, friends


Q. Why is Bacho so dismissive of Garo, and why is Garo basically taking it?
A. Bacho is a "senior praporshchik", the highest NCO rank possible, just under the officers. It was given to soldiers who fulfilled their conscription duties and re-enlisted under a contract.


Typical "praporshchiks" had a reputation of crooks and layabouts, but Bacho is obviously an Afghanistan vet who'd command an enormous amount of respect.
Garo is a senior sergeant, a mid-level NCO and also an Afghan tough guy. That said, they'd probably die for each other.


Q. Did they really use these rifles? This is like XIX century stuff!
A. These are hunting rifles, which is what liquidators (many of whom were civilians, after all) were armed with. Truthfully, giving Pavel an AK probably wouldn't have been a great idea, besides being an overkill


And, finally, a tidbit courtesy of my colleague @Alexey__Kovalev, regarding the now-famous "egg baskets." The soldiers had a rhyme about them, typical of Soviet Army humor: "Yesli hochesh byt otsom, yaitsa oberni svintsom."
"If you want to be a dad, better wrap your nuts in lead"

Episódio 5: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1135689238597574656.html
To revive my old hashtag, #TodaysRussianProverb, "Once you've grabbed the tug rope, don't say you ain't strong enough"... This is to say that I will indeed review tonight's Episode 5 of #ChernobylHBO with another dose of Soviet-era trivia and whatever else gets drudged up.

Let's start by saying that over the last week the state media and "patriotic" commentariat have finally gotten into gear with critical takes, calling it everything from a vicious Western attack on the memories of Soviet heroism to a mindless collection of fables and stereotypes..

The finale will probably only intensify this rhetoric, since here the Soviet bureaucracy and systemic failures really come into focus. I am not an expert on nuclear power, but I can offer my view on the "mindless stereotypes" angle. Once again, my area is authenticity of details.

The opening scene, shot on location in an ex-Soviet town with local extras, is a perfect little excursion into the 1980s USSR. A typical Soviet pool (with a ubiquitous cleaning lady), typical Soviet families, the antique stroller, the mandatory track suit tops on the males...


Enter the Patronymic! Hey, finally the traditional Russian deferential form of address makes an appearance. First name and patronymic (middle name based on the father's given name) is how you address someone formally or respectfully. Of course, it's an earful for Westerners...


But those who think that Soviets didn't just go around calling each other "Comrade this and comrade that...", well, yes, we totally did. In a formal setting, "comrade" was used quite often and, when said in Russian, it doesn't quite grate as its English equivalent.


To put it simply, in 7th grade, I absolutely wouldn't have called Yekaterina Alexeyevna "comrade chemistry teacher" (perfect as it was for that Bolshevik fossil) but, when I was first brought into a local police station (long story), "comrade militiaman" is what I definitely said

This typical Soviet "big boss" office is lovingly created by someone who's been in one. The flip calendar, the pen holder with an actual Soviet fountain pen, the blotter and, most importantly, the multiple phones (one for calls from party elites). The cubist mural is a nice touch


That will be very a very difficult task, Comrade Legasov, since there're no juries in Soviet trials. There are 3 judges. The decisions are announced by the chairman of the panel. Guess you could call it a "jury", but it's very different from the mental image English speakers get


I wish my uncle, who was a Soviet prosecutor, was alive to comment on the uniform, but as far as I can tell, the lapel insignia is for the Judiciary Counsel 2nd Grade, which was indeed the rank of the prosecutor in the Chernobyl trial. His nauseating speech is verbatim.


A note on the resemblance of the actors to the real defendants. Yeah, pretty high marks here.


Holy crap, this has escalated into a Soviet dissident kitchen conversation! All they need is a .75-liter bottle and some not-too-fresh tank tops!.. I sincerely doubt Legasov and Shcherbina would've ever voiced such anti-Soviet heresy to each other. But the point needed to be made


Shcherbina lasted another three years and was instrumental in alleviating the consequences of the horrendous Armenian earthquake of 1989. He is largely forgotten now, or mostly remembered for his uncomplimentary quotes about Yeltsin. He got no honors for Chernobyl.


Sunflower seeds, the Soviet popcorn. Our most common snack and often an addiction. Some folks ate them to suppress the need to smoke. The only food sold at most stadiums. This is just a delicious little detail. Oh, those shells everywhere you go...


This scene turns into an American courtroom drama, very effectively made. But did it actually happen? Journalists were allowed in the room only for the verdict, but I doubt that Legasov actually went there. His most damning "testimony" was in those suicide-note tapes...


Who are you? Why are you here? You do not look like Cheburashka, the lovable big-eared creature of Soviet cartoons. What land do you come from? What tales have you brought? Are you an American spy?


And what a parting shot! In this footage Legasov is filmed talking to the liquidators and telling them lies about the effects of radiation. Absolutely perfect!


The Ukrainian church hymn gives the episode its title, Vichnaya Pamyat (Eternal memory), which is also a phrase used in the Soviet Union/Russia ("vEchnaya pamyat" in Russian) to commemorate victims of disasters and heroes of wars.


The finale will surely give Russian critics more ammo in their attacks on the series, since Legasov's climactic speech is clearly artistic license, as is his meeting with the fictional Charkov in that creepy tiled room. But the scene obviously serves a clearly defined purpose...

The entire theme of the series is shouted loud and clear in every episode: it's the cost of lies. Like radiation in the human body, they accumulate and never go away until there is simply too much, and the result is fatal. This serves as a great teachable moment to any society...

But in the Soviet Union I knew, this was especially true. To me, a teenager who grew up listening to a set of unshakeable truths and then, suddenly, just as I reached physical and mental maturity, to discover that ALL of them were lies... Well, that was... exactly like this:


It's hard to agree with Gorbachev here (BTW, the infamous fool Ryzhkov referred to in the series is to the right of him in this shot). The USSR didn't collapse because of Chernobyl. It was a doomed country that was slowly dying of its own accord. But Chernobyl is a great metaphor


The very beginning of the episode exposes the vicious chain reaction of lies in Soviet life. Industrial bosses in Kiev want to report increased productivity at the end of the month. Bosses at the power plant want to report a successful test. All of them are after material rewards

...not for the "happiness of all mankind", not for advancement of Leninism. By the 1980s even the true believers weren't this blind. The Soviet system had degenerated to the point where lies build up so that a few people could enjoy precious few benefits, a purely capitalist goal

Life in the Soviet Union was an exceedingly dull affair. The most mundane, trivial tasks, like buying a new refrigerator, would turn into exhausting long-term projects that consumed your very soul. But all of it was supported by the shaky foundation of beautiful lies...

Once the truth was introduced into the society (at this very time, as it happened), it was impossible to control. Once I, an unremarkable provincial high schooler (the proof is attached), learned that SOME things said in school weren't true, I soon learned to doubt everything...

So, yeah, if any modern society comes to mind where lies seem to have taken over and exert the power over your life, it's probably good to take heed. This type of stuff rarely ends well...
But enough with editorializing. This has been an amazing, gut-wrenching ride. Finally...

I want to recap some of my favorite moments in the series...
First, the "milk scene" in Ep 2. Yes, Soviet citizens were incredibly devoted to quack remedies, and that even included doctors. You have no idea how much hatred I still feel when I remember the fucking mustard plaster!


If you don't know what it is, it's a remedy based on the belief that delivering a severe first-degree burn to an area of skin would cure common cold. It's exactly as nuts as it sounds, yet it was actually prescribed by glorious medical practitioners of the Motherland


Suction cups was another favorite. Rubbing the chest with alcohol and/or honey. Breathing over a pot of boiled potatoes (my doctor was a serious believer in this scientific breakthrough).
Also, to fight anemia, we ate candy bars made out of processed cow blood. I shit you not


I also loved the decision by the creators to not translate the poem at the beginning of Ep 2 or the song in Ep 4. The poem in particular is crucial to the theme of the episode but explaining it would've been too in your face. This approach holds through most of the series...


With only a few exceptions ("The Hero of the Soviet Union... our highest honor"), realities of the Soviet life are never specifically explained. There are no clunky dialogues designed to let the viewer know the background. We are left to immerse ourselves into this world...

We are not force-fed the details and the authenticity. It's simply there, in the background, giving the art a certain feel. You may not know what the Russian poem says, but it's unmistakably Russian, vaguely haunting, with bitter, harsh intonations. You know it's not happy stuff.

These subtleties are everything here. You might now know that the Swedish-Lebanese actor portraying Bacho is (by design or accidentally) being a pitch-perfect Georgian macho, but you know on a subconscious level he's a different kind of Soviet from, say, the Slavic innocent Pavel

And finally, and most importantly, I am in awe at how perfectly the series captured the Soviet (and, actually, Russian as well) mentality that leads to so many disasters. Quite opposite of what you may think of us ("mindless automatons following the will of the Party"), we were..

... always skeptical of rules, regulations and even orders. It's past midnight, so here is a new #TodaysRussianProverb. "The strictness of our laws is greatly compensated by the lack of necessity to follow them."
Sometimes, this is a blessing (don't we need more Tula miners?)...

... more often, it's a curse. Keep this in mind the next time you are laughing at a "Meanwhile in Russia" meme.
Thankfully, "Chernobyl" isn't a meme or a stereotype. I am deeply grateful to its creators for this piece of art.

It made the transformative event of my adolescence (I am talking of the slow collapse of the Soviet Union) somehow more real. It was immensely powerful and deeply touching. It made me process things that lay dormant for 30 yrs. I don't know of other films that had such an effect.

Oh... And that knockoff Mickey Mouse? Yes, it's actually real. And goddamn terrifying.
 
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Amei a mini série, de fato memorável.

O caso da língua é o seguinte... Eu não gostei no começo, mas depois me acostumei (principalmente por conta de um dos provérbios mais sábios: Aceita que dói menos).
Se você está contando uma estória Russa, a língua tem que ser Russo.

Se um filme é gravado no Brasil, a língua tem que ser Portuguesa. Imagina se Cidade de Deus fosse uma produção internacional e o filme fosse inteiramente em inglês? Primeiro, no Brasil não se fala inglês; segundo, autenticidade; terceiro, meu país, minha língua.
Esse é um dos motivos do porque que os Alemães não gostam de falar Inglês; 3 milhões de filmes sobre a segunda-guerra e mesmo assim ninguém sabe falar um bom dia em alemão.

Sei que estou exagerando um pouco, tem produções fantásticas que se passam, por exemplo, na França, mas a língua falada é o Inglês (Por isso que os Franceses também não gostam de falar Inglês)...

Maaaaaaaaas, é como eu disse, isso não afetou o meu julgamento final da série (que é de fato belíssima!).

(eu só gosto de línguas...)
(o tópico...)
 
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