OT: Chernobyl Miniseries on HBO

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Moscow Times really likes it...

The Moscow Times

That's a fantastic article and affirms what most of us have said. It is like we are watching a documentary on the History Channel more than a mini series on HBO.

I did think this comment by one of the show's writers was particularly poignant.

The truth doesn't care"

"We live in a time where people seem to be re-embracing the corrosive notion that what we want to be true is more important than what is true,” Craig Mazin says of the series. "It's as if truth has become a joke. One of the most important lessons of “Chernobyl” is that the truth does not care about us. The Soviet system was soaking in this cult of narrative, and then one day the truth erupts. This is why this story is more relevant than ever."

 

[daminals76]

I've watched the first few episodes and its outstanding so far...
Very well done by HBO.

 

[BurghGuy68]

Recruits do you buy this perspective?

Forbes article

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Recruits do you buy this perspective?

Forbes article

I believe that definitely Nuclear Power has long been a Hollywood boogeyman. But I also believe this article way, way, way undersells the estimates of the Chernobyl disaster and not completely honest in how many and why people died.

I do believe that Chernobyl reflects more the poor design, poor operator training and of course the Soviet era of secrecy (really analogous to Penn State if you think about it) that caused so much more damage. And the miniseries captures this.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Chernobyl Part 4.

This may have been the most haunting and chilling episode yet. The crew assigned to go "hunting", which actually happened was so disturbing. They (the Soviets) had "conscripts" in this huge military tent camp near Priyopat who were assigned many different duties such as bulldozing crops, evacuating people, cleaning up, etc...and "hunting". What they did, is Priyopat was a city of 50,000 or more, and they just evacuated it, forced all of the people to leave and relocate. They had to leave behind their pets. Well the pets are obviously now contaminated, so crews were assigned to go out and "hunt" down these dogs and cats and bury them in a cement vault.

That was disturbing as a proud pet owner. But hey, strange times yields strange actions I guess.

What was even more disturbing, in order to start the cleanup of the site, they had to get rid of all of the nuclear reactor materials off of the roof, as it continues to emit poisonous levels of radiation. In fact, one Soviet physicist called it the "most dangerous place on earth" and they were correct. So they got robots, (remember this is 1986 so robotics weren't as advanced as they are today) to try and clear off the graphite and melted zirconium and other materials off of the roof.

The radiation was so strong, that it fried the electronics and processors that the robots used. So that was not working. So here was the solution, "bio robots". As soon as I heard the guy say that I knew what that meant. They got soldiers to go out onto the roof and shovel pieces back into the reactor area. They could only do this for 90 seconds at a time. Brilliant! The episode never extends out to whatever long term effects of these activities are, you can just assume.

Just unbelievable the lack of concern over their own people in order to preserve the air of superiority by the Soviet Way.

 

[infinitehighway42]

Chernobyl Part 4.

This may have been the most haunting and chilling episode yet. The crew assigned to go "hunting", which actually happened was so disturbing. They (the Soviets) had "conscripts" in this huge military tent camp near Priyopat who were assigned many different duties such as bulldozing crops, evacuating people, cleaning up, etc...and "hunting". What they did, is Priyopat was a city of 50,000 or more, and they just evacuated it, forced all of the people to leave and relocate. They had to leave behind their pets. Well the pets are obviously now contaminated, so crews were assigned to go out and "hunt" down these dogs and cats and bury them in a cement vault.

That was disturbing as a proud pet owner. But hey, strange times yields strange actions I guess.

What was even more disturbing, in order to start the cleanup of the site, they had to get rid of all of the nuclear reactor materials off of the roof, as it continues to emit poisonous levels of radiation. In fact, one Soviet physicist called it the "most dangerous place on earth" and they were correct. So they got robots, (remember this is 1986 so robotics weren't as advanced as they are today) to try and clear off the graphite and melted zirconium and other materials off of the roof.


The radiation was so strong, that it fried the electronics and processors that the robots used. So that was not working. So here was the solution, "bio robots". As soon as I heard the guy say that I knew what that meant. They got soldiers to go out onto the roof and shovel pieces back into the reactor area. They could only do this for 90 seconds at a time. Brilliant! The episode never extends out to whatever long term effects of these activities are, you can just assume.

Just unbelievable the lack of concern over their own people in order to preserve the air of superiority by the Soviet Way.

What's interesting is that the US had done the exact same thing to clean up the SL-1 disaster in the early '60s. The SL-1 was the only nuclear reactor disaster in the US to have killed anyone. Three operators died via very similar means as the Chernobyl disaster, basically a steam explosion. Of course, at that time, robotics weren't even an option for cleanup, so they sent in people to do cleanup for around a few minutes at a time. After that short time period in the reactor room, they hit their radiation limit and had to go home.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

What's interesting is that the US had done the exact same thing to clean up the SL-1 disaster in the early '60s. The SL-1 was the only nuclear reactor disaster in the US to have killed anyone. Three operators died via very similar means as the Chernobyl disaster, basically a steam explosion. Of course, at that time, robotics weren't even an option for cleanup, so they sent in people to do cleanup for around a few minutes at a time. After that short time period in the reactor room, they hit their radiation limit and had to go home.

What was interesting to me (not to go all Mike412 on yinz sorry Mike ) but those pieces of graphite on the roofs, I know exactly that hexagonal shape with the core for the tubes and rods (and fuel) to go into.

I wondered who's graphite that they used? I think these reactors were built in the early 70's. The company I used to work for that made graphite, well we made the original material for the "Chicago Pile" where Fermi and Oppenheimer and company developed our nuclear weapons program.

I doubt it was our graphite in the Soviet Union as graphite is ITAR protected material and this was the height of the cold war. Not blaming it on inferior graphite material, just curious who was their source? And for those who don't know, to make graphite (the kind used to build reactors not hit a 300 yard drive) you heat the carbon at temperatures around 3000 deg. C. Celsius. That is close to 6000 degrees F, which is the hottest process on earth.

 

[BPKY]

Chernobyl Part 4.

This may have been the most haunting and chilling episode yet. The crew assigned to go "hunting", which actually happened was so disturbing. They (the Soviets) had "conscripts" in this huge military tent camp near Priyopat who were assigned many different duties such as bulldozing crops, evacuating people, cleaning up, etc...and "hunting". What they did, is Priyopat was a city of 50,000 or more, and they just evacuated it, forced all of the people to leave and relocate. They had to leave behind their pets. Well the pets are obviously now contaminated, so crews were assigned to go out and "hunt" down these dogs and cats and bury them in a cement vault.

That was disturbing as a proud pet owner. But hey, strange times yields strange actions I guess.

What was even more disturbing, in order to start the cleanup of the site, they had to get rid of all of the nuclear reactor materials off of the roof, as it continues to emit poisonous levels of radiation. In fact, one Soviet physicist called it the "most dangerous place on earth" and they were correct. So they got robots, (remember this is 1986 so robotics weren't as advanced as they are today) to try and clear off the graphite and melted zirconium and other materials off of the roof.

The radiation was so strong, that it fried the electronics and processors that the robots used. So that was not working. So here was the solution, "bio robots". As soon as I heard the guy say that I knew what that meant. They got soldiers to go out onto the roof and shovel pieces back into the reactor area. They could only do this for 90 seconds at a time. Brilliant! The episode never extends out to whatever long term effects of these activities are, you can just assume.

Just unbelievable the lack of concern over their own people in order to preserve the air of superiority by the Soviet Way.

I've seen about every horror movie ever and at my old age I don't get nary a thrill anymore from scary movies. That said, this ranks among the most chilling dramas I've ever watched. Exaggerated truth is stranger than fiction. Very well directed.

What was it he kept saying? "100 times the Hiroshima bomb, hour after hour, day after day" Holy moly.

 

[BurghGuy68]

Check it out...

Highest rated IMDB show in history

Forbes article

 

[GenesPlace]

Glad I caught this thread last week and instantly set the DVR to catch up. I'm through the third episode and this has to be one of the best shows I've ever watched.

I was born weeks before Three Mile Island and heard many times how close my family was to evacuating with me. (and we lived 45 minutes away in Gettysburg) I would have been 6-7 years old at the time of Chernobyl, so as a kid I wouldn't have grasped how significant of an event it was.

The attention to detail in this show is amazing.

 

[MyNameisJoe]

Honestly, I fell asleep halfway through episode 1 - this is probably more a "me" problem than it was this show being good or not. I plan to give it another shot this weekend...hoping for better results from myself

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Check it out...

Highest rated IMDB show in history

Forbes article

Yeah just saw that. And that was before Episode 4 which I thought was just stunning. By the way, fact checking, that was all true which happened in Episode 4.

Interesting, I talked to someone who grew up in the Soviet Union and he was shocked not just at the accuracy of the events portrayed, but how the life in the Soviet Union was, down to everything, the looks, the colors, etc... And the deceit, the total lack of regard for individuals and life, for the good of the country of course. He also said, it should be required viewing for young Russians, especially those who feel for an affinity of their "Soviet past" and how life was not even close to as good as they have it today.

 

[lilspainishflea]

Chernobyl Part 4.

This may have been the most haunting and chilling episode yet. The crew assigned to go "hunting", which actually happened was so disturbing. They (the Soviets) had "conscripts" in this huge military tent camp near Priyopat who were assigned many different duties such as bulldozing crops, evacuating people, cleaning up, etc...and "hunting". What they did, is Priyopat was a city of 50,000 or more, and they just evacuated it, forced all of the people to leave and relocate. They had to leave behind their pets. Well the pets are obviously now contaminated, so crews were assigned to go out and "hunt" down these dogs and cats and bury them in a cement vault.

That was disturbing as a proud pet owner. But hey, strange times yields strange actions I guess.

What was even more disturbing, in order to start the cleanup of the site, they had to get rid of all of the nuclear reactor materials off of the roof, as it continues to emit poisonous levels of radiation. In fact, one Soviet physicist called it the "most dangerous place on earth" and they were correct. So they got robots, (remember this is 1986 so robotics weren't as advanced as they are today) to try and clear off the graphite and melted zirconium and other materials off of the roof.

The radiation was so strong, that it fried the electronics and processors that the robots used. So that was not working. So here was the solution, "bio robots". As soon as I heard the guy say that I knew what that meant. They got soldiers to go out onto the roof and shovel pieces back into the reactor area. They could only do this for 90 seconds at a time. Brilliant! The episode never extends out to whatever long term effects of these activities are, you can just assume.

Just unbelievable the lack of concern over their own people in order to preserve the air of superiority by the Soviet Way.

The 90 second scene on the roof with anonymous the Bio Robot shoveling 2 pieces of graphite off the building was one of the best tv scenes I've ever experienced.

 

[BurghGuy68]

Did you ever see this YouTube of rare footage from Chernobyl...

1986 Chernobyl

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Did you ever see this YouTube of rare footage from Chernobyl...

1986 Chernobyl

Yes, I did watch this before.

 

[McKee Place]

Recruits do you buy this perspective?

Forbes article

Good article (and nice pic of Amy Marcinkowitz within it).

Nuclear power definitely gets a bogeyman rep. Cynically, from both sides of the political spectrum.

Conservatives in the pockets of the large conventional aka fossil fuel conglomerates are lobbied to prevent the competition.

Progressives are too impatient with the progress of the kumbaya sources of energy often sold as panaceas (solar, wind, fusion, hydrogen, etc.). These aren't feasible yet on the massive scale needed. This isn't convenient to comprehend. So they look to blame someone/something for 'preventing' them. So lump nuclear power in with the other big old evil fossil fuels.

 

[Franb]

Good article (and nice pic of Amy Marcinkowitz within it).

Nuclear power definitely gets a bogeyman rep. Cynically, from both sides of the political spectrum.

Conservatives in the pockets of the large conventional aka fossil fuel conglomerates are lobbied to prevent the competition.

Progressives are too impatient with the progress of the kumbaya sources of energy often sold as panaceas (solar, wind, fusion, hydrogen, etc.). These aren't feasible yet on the massive scale needed. This isn't convenient to comprehend. So they look to blame someone/something for 'preventing' them. So lump nuclear power in with the other big old evil fossil fuels.

Opposition to nuclear power is essentially the same today as it has been for the past 40 years or so, and competition from other energy sources is not a significant part of the problem. Cost, safety, and disposal of contaminated fuel are the key issues and they have yet to be resolved. There are no panaceas, every source of energy has a downside, it is a matter of picking your poison.

 

[pitt-girl]

Honestly, I fell asleep halfway through episode 1 - this is probably more a "me" problem than it was this show being good or not. I plan to give it another shot this weekend...hoping for better results from myself

Give it a chance. The first episode was a bit slower than the rest especially trying to understand what was happening. I watched the first 4 episodes and went back and rewatched the first again. It made a ton more sense.

 

[pitt-girl]

No, it doesn't have flame breathing blue dragons, and warring of the clans, at least yet. But this is one of the more compelling TV events that I have seen. To be honest, it is absolutely one of the most frightening, horrific films you can watch. The effects of radiation as it eats away these people is just haunting.

But the whole thing, first off, no big actors to throw you off, so these might as well be the real people. Shot in like that classic "blah" that we often see with anything Soviet from that era.

As someone who once worked as a supplier to the Nuclear Industry and was in charge of some the programs, it is particularly of interest to me. Also, as someone who worked with graphite (this was the reactor matrix) it also was particularly interesting to me.

But the time.....the typical Soviet approach, the disinformation, the lack of honesty and trust, it really seems more like a documentary than a mini series. It is compelling for sure, it is also not easy to watch in some ways, it is gory (radiation sickness) and for engineering geeks it is fairly detailed.

If you are into dungeons and dragons, it may even appeal to you, because no doubt those digging under and entering the reactor area faced a hell none of us will hopefully ever see.

Anyone else watching this?

The last episode (4) was truly horrifying and I had to fast forward through some of the scenes.

What has jumped out to me is how easily the government got those people (like the miner's!!!!) to do all that crazy shit. I get they really didn't have a choice but wow, talk about beaten down. Also fascinating all the references to the "Americans" and how paranoid they were about the West finding out about the incident.

I have always had a trip to Russia on my bucket list. And I get this was a long time ago, but yeah, I'm not too keen after watching this.

 

[JD1976]

The last episode (4) was truly horrifying and I had to fast forward through some of the scenes.

What has jumped out to me is how easily the government got those people (like the miner's!!!!) to do all that crazy shit. I get they really didn't have a choice but wow, talk about beaten down. Also fascinating all the references to the "Americans" and how paranoid they were about the West finding out about the incident.

I have always had a trip to Russia on my bucket list. And I get this was a long time ago, but yeah, I'm not too keen after watching this.

The first person scene on the roof was INTENSE!

 

[McKee Place]

Opposition to nuclear power is essentially the same today as it has been for the past 40 years or so, and competition from other energy sources is not a significant part of the problem. Cost, safety, and disposal of contaminated fuel are the key issues and they have yet to be resolved. There are no panaceas, every source of energy has a downside, it is a matter of picking your poison.

I dunno. Maybe they aren't out protesting, possibly because Jane Fonda won't show up anymore. But when energy is debated I'll hear advocates of just about every thing, including drilling for more oil, for "clean coal", and even plain ole dirty coal. But i rarely (other than maybe Westinghouse employees) advocate for nuclear.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

I dunno. Maybe they aren't out protesting, possibly because Jane Fonda won't show up anymore. But when energy is debated I'll hear advocates of just about every thing, including drilling for more oil, for "clean coal", and even plain ole dirty coal. But i rarely (other than maybe Westinghouse employees) advocate for nuclear.

Aside from sloppy engineering/design/training in some lax countries which you know, happened at Chernobyl, the other drawback to nuclear energy is it gives these crazy rogue nation states/terrorist groups access to fissionable material.

 

[pitt-girl]

Aside from sloppy engineering/design/training in some lax countries which you know, happened at Chernobyl, the other drawback to nuclear energy is it gives these crazy rogue nation states/terrorist groups access to fissionable material.

I'd love to see something like this about Three Mile Island. I don't know much, but I do know they were very close to a meltdown also.

 

[infinitehighway42]

I'd love to see something like this about Three Mile Island. I don't know much, but I do know they were very close to a meltdown also.

They weren't just close, they did it. A valve failed and leaked coolant which caused the operators to make a bunch of bad decisions and shut off coolant pumps. With coolant not going through the reactor, it partially melted. The issue is that it took them a while to figure out what was actually happening and they vented some hydrogen out of the reactor so it wouldn't over pressurize, which is what also happened at Fukushima. Some operators didn't even believe the core had melted until they opened it up and found the top half missing. That being said, the reaction from the media and public was made worse because the China Syndrome was released the previous week, stoking fears of what would happen in a melt down.

 

[BurghGuy68]

Powerful final episode tonight. God bless Alexei Legasov the scientist and Craig Mazin the writer/creator of the series.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

I'd love to see something like this about Three Mile Island. I don't know much, but I do know they were very close to a meltdown also.

Three mile island did have a partial core melt down. However, comparing it to Chernobyl is like comparing apples and oranges. The Three Mike Island reactor that had the partial core melt had all the highly radioactive material contained within its containment dome as it was supposed to be. All US commercial reactors are built that way with containment. Chernobyl had no containment because as others have noted human life was cheap in the old Soviet Union so the Soviets never bothered with any containment.

The only radioactive release at Three Mile Island was the eventual, post accident, intentional release of some radioactive steam to depressurize the containment to allow internal cleanup operations to take place. A hypothetical person at the plant fence would have received a dose equivalent to a medical chest x-ray when the steam was released. However, no one was actually present at the fence line at the time of the steam release so no one even got that much of a dose.

The Three Mike Island event was over-hyped by the press to sell news copy and because a considerable portion of the public had recently seen the science fiction movie “China Syndrome” about a core melt that was supposedly going to burn its way through the center of the earth to China on the other side of the planet.

 

[MyNameisJoe]

Give it a chance. The first episode was a bit slower than the rest especially trying to understand what was happening. I watched the first 4 episodes and went back and rewatched the first again. It made a ton more sense.

This is great advice as it was exactly what I did and am on board with the rest of the group in saying this is a great show. The only thing that I'll pick on - and it's super petty, I know - why on earth do all the actors have a British accent?

 

[pitt-girl]

This is great advice as it was exactly what I did and am on board with the rest of the group in saying this is a great show. The only thing that I'll pick on - and it's super petty, I know - why on earth do all the actors have a British accent?

I read an article a while back that a movie studio did some research and found the majority of filmgoers took characters with proper British accents more seriously than characters with other accents. FWIW

 

[lilspainishflea]

This is great advice as it was exactly what I did and am on board with the rest of the group in saying this is a great show. The only thing that I'll pick on - and it's super petty, I know - why on earth do all the actors have a British accent?

This is addressed on the HBO companion podcast, which I highly recommend. The writer and director of the show believed that forcing the Eastern European accents requires the actors to overdo it and lose focus on their body/emotions since they're concentrating so hard on mimicking the "correct speech." He decided to have quality emotional resonance rather than "true" speech. The other issue is that, since the USSR was a combination of distant peoples and ethnic groups, you'd never be truly "real" anyway because each actor would have to mimic the correct accent. So the actor playing Dyatlov would have to do a Krasnoyark accent, another would be Tula, another Ukraine, etc. etc.

 

[JD1976]

This is addressed on the HBO companion podcast, which I highly recommend. The writer and director of the show believed that forcing the Eastern European accents requires the actors to overdo it and lose focus on their body/emotions since they're concentrating so hard on mimicking the "correct speech." He decided to have quality emotional resonance rather than "true" speech. The other issue is that, since the USSR was a combination of distant peoples and ethnic groups, you'd never be truly "real" anyway because each actor would have to mimic the correct accent. So the actor playing Dyatlov would have to do a Krasnoyark accent, another would be Tula, another Ukraine, etc. etc.

Honestly, the British accent thing never even entered my mind because the acting in this series is just so damn good. The guy playing Dyatlov was my favorite.

 

[McKee Place]

I read an article a while back that a movie studio did some research and found the majority of filmgoers took characters with proper British accents more seriously than characters with other accents. FWIW

You mean they'd not take it as seriously if they sounded like Pittsburgh Dad (n'at?). Yinz gotta be jaggin' me!

 

[Alan Partridge]

This is great advice as it was exactly what I did and am on board with the rest of the group in saying this is a great show. The only thing that I'll pick on - and it's super petty, I know - why on earth do all the actors have a British accent?

Stellan Skarsgård was full on Swedish accent so there was one deviation in there

My wife is Swedish and when we started watching the series she mentioned how big a scare it was in Sweden when she was a kid. Was kind of jarring during the show when the Soviets mentioned that Sweden had called them out for the radioactivity readings that they were picking up in Stockholm. The Soviets made for some lousy neighbors.

Someone could have told Sting that the Russians don’t love their children too.

 

[Franb]

That's a fantastic article and affirms what most of us have said. It is like we are watching a documentary on the History Channel more than a mini series on HBO.

I did think this comment by one of the show's writers was particularly poignant.

The truth doesn't care"

"We live in a time where people seem to be re-embracing the corrosive notion that what we want to be true is more important than what is true,” Craig Mazin says of the series. "It's as if truth has become a joke. One of the most important lessons of “Chernobyl” is that the truth does not care about us. The Soviet system was soaking in this cult of narrative, and then one day the truth erupts. This is why this story is more relevant than ever."

I have not been able to watch this series yet, since HBO is not readily available to me, but have been reading with interest all of the comments in the thread. I just came across this piece, from The New Yorker, written by a regular contributor who was born in the Soviet Union, emigrated with her family, returned to Russia for a number of years, and eventually left there as well. She has written several books about Soviet and Russian societies.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-...obyl-got-right-and-what-it-got-terribly-wrong

 

[JD1976]

I have not been able to watch this series yet, since HBO is not readily available to me, but have been reading with interest all of the comments in the thread. I just came across this piece, from The New Yorker, written by a regular contributor who was born in the Soviet Union, emigrated with her family, returned to Russia for a number of years, and eventually left there as well. She has written several books about Soviet and Russian societies.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-...obyl-got-right-and-what-it-got-terribly-wrong

You mentioned that you haven't watched the series yet so I'm very confident that once you see the series you will agree that most of the critical points made by this writer are inconsequential and highly "nit-picky". Even better is the fact that Craig Mazin (the writer and exec producer) openly admits throughout the companion podcast precisely which characters and dialogue are accurate and which are aided by dramatic license in order to keep viewer interest and move the story along. That said, the underlying story of what happened and how it happened, along with the extraordinary detailing of Soviet life in the 1980s is close to 100% accurate. I respect that the writer of this piece has a unique perspective, but there are also dozens of other Soviet-born journalists and regular citizens who have hailed this series as the best depiction of Soviet society -- and the best recounting of the horrific events surrounding the meltdown -- ever shown on Western TV.

 

[lilspainishflea]

You mentioned that you haven't watched the series yet so I'm very confident that once you see the series you will agree that most of the critical points made by this writer are inconsequential and highly "nit-picky". Even better is the fact that Craig Mazin (the writer and exec producer) openly admits throughout the companion podcast precisely which characters and dialogue are accurate and which are aided by dramatic license in order to keep viewer interest and move the story along. That said, the underlying story of what happened and how it happened, along with the extraordinary detailing of Soviet life in the 1980s is close to 100% accurate. I respect that the writer of this piece has a unique perspective, but there are also dozens of other Soviet-born journalists and regular citizens who have hailed this series as the best depiction of Soviet society -- and the best recounting of the horrific events surrounding the meltdown -- ever shown on Western TV.

I totally agree with this. We also don't watch TV for pure realism. It just doesn't work. Do we need to watch a 3 week show trial to understand what happened at Chernobyl? Do we need to see Valery Lagosov eat all his meals? Of course not.

The primary materials were followed as much as narratively possible. Mazin quoted a lot of text verbatim from contemporaneous sources. Sets were built to be identical to the real life place where it happened. For example, just Google the trial and compare the actual trial court to HBO's set. They are nearly exact. HBO absolutely nailed this show. The realism is breathtaking.

 

[MyNameisJoe]

This is addressed on the HBO companion podcast, which I highly recommend. The writer and director of the show believed that forcing the Eastern European accents requires the actors to overdo it and lose focus on their body/emotions since they're concentrating so hard on mimicking the "correct speech." He decided to have quality emotional resonance rather than "true" speech. The other issue is that, since the USSR was a combination of distant peoples and ethnic groups, you'd never be truly "real" anyway because each actor would have to mimic the correct accent. So the actor playing Dyatlov would have to do a Krasnoyark accent, another would be Tula, another Ukraine, etc. etc.

Very cool - man HBO is just so on point with most everything they do. Thanks for the info (and you too pitt-girl)

 

[Franb]

You mentioned that you haven't watched the series yet so I'm very confident that once you see the series you will agree that most of the critical points made by this writer are inconsequential and highly "nit-picky". Even better is the fact that Craig Mazin (the writer and exec producer) openly admits throughout the companion podcast precisely which characters and dialogue are accurate and which are aided by dramatic license in order to keep viewer interest and move the story along. That said, the underlying story of what happened and how it happened, along with the extraordinary detailing of Soviet life in the 1980s is close to 100% accurate. I respect that the writer of this piece has a unique perspective, but there are also dozens of other Soviet-born journalists and regular citizens who have hailed this series as the best depiction of Soviet society -- and the best recounting of the horrific events surrounding the meltdown -- ever shown on Western TV.

I think that she also agrees that this is the best description of Soviet society ever shown in the West. I have read some of her other work, and she really focuses on the more mundane aspects of power in the USSR, and now in Russia. Her point, as I read it, had more to do with the dramatic license that Mr. Mazin mentioned, and how it detracted from the reality of life in the USSR. It is easier to replicate the physical environment than the psychological landscape, which is her concern. I do agree that her points seem like nit-picking, but just thought that she provided an interesting perspective on the series. She confirms what people in this thread have said, for the most part.

As an aside, her latest book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, is a very interesting take on the transition from the USSR to Putin's Russia.