Chernobyl

[Alistair20000]

Having failed to find time to watch the series when it came out I watched the first two episodes on the flight back home from Orlando.

As others have posted, the first episode was a bit slow but it became absolutely gripping. As Elgy says it is a surprise that lung cancer did not get them. The fags looked cheap and nasty. The approach of the party apparatchiks to the disaster was quite staggering. Well, perhaps not given the way the Soviet Union operated. The whole site complex came across as jerry-built and shoddy. Very tense and chilling.

Must now watch the rest of the series.

 

[Alistair20000]

Finally watched the last three episodes on a flight to Tampa last week.

A brilliant series and all the important points have been set out by a number of posters above.

We sometimes moan about our democracy in the UK and it certainly has its faults. However, the Soviet Union’s system highlighted all the faults and shortcomings of secret government where the interests of the party came miles before what was best for the country and indeed for the planet.

Loved the slightly dark bit of humour where the miners all rubbed their filthy hands on the minister for coal and his suit and quipped that he now looked like the minister for coal. A small strike back at the system. Goodness they were brave to carry out their work so quickly amidst all the radioactive material and in temperatures so hot one cannot contemplate them. The nude scenes were apparently not true though.

Gorbachev is reputed to have said that Chernobyl led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Not sure he was right on that as it would have come anyway. It probably sped up the process.

And all those disgusting cheap and nasty cigarettes to go with the vodka !