HBO's Chernobyl
Jun. 15th, 2019 03:25 pmI haven't watched Chernobyl, but it has been fun to read about.
One of the things that makes the Chernobyl disaster so fascinating to me is the contrast between the horror of the disaster itself and the mundane. For example, it seems impossible that Chernobyl was still a functioning power plant until 2000, with many of its same staff. Meanwhile, not far away, lies an eldritch horror of the nuclear age - that is, of course, the Elephant's Foot.
r/Askhistorians has had some interesting threads about the show, including:
HBO's Chernobyl: "... We seal off the city. No one leaves. And cut the phone lines. Contain the spread of misinformation. That is how you keep the people from undermining the fruits of their own labor." Is this an accurate representation of the USSR's politicians' attitudes toward their people?
How accurate is the Chernobyl miniseries on HBO to the actual events ? Was the negligence of Human life by the Soviet State and it’s members this bad ? Was the higher-ups of the Plant as depicted in the show ?
But, back to the show. This post on Bored Panda is an interesting side-by-side comparison of shots from the show with actual footage and photographs.
Notice anything? I sure did. It looks like the show has been struck by the same disease that has desaturated most of the dramatic TV shows that are produced these days. It is such a boring choice artistically. That's how you know that it's a disaster, I suppose. The sun cannot possibly be shining; it must be gloomy and gray so that we know something is wrong.
But actually, the horror of this disaster is in large part that it was an invisible horror. Making it visible is easier than building fear through other means, but it lessens it.
Oh well.
One of the things that makes the Chernobyl disaster so fascinating to me is the contrast between the horror of the disaster itself and the mundane. For example, it seems impossible that Chernobyl was still a functioning power plant until 2000, with many of its same staff. Meanwhile, not far away, lies an eldritch horror of the nuclear age - that is, of course, the Elephant's Foot.
r/Askhistorians has had some interesting threads about the show, including:
HBO's Chernobyl: "... We seal off the city. No one leaves. And cut the phone lines. Contain the spread of misinformation. That is how you keep the people from undermining the fruits of their own labor." Is this an accurate representation of the USSR's politicians' attitudes toward their people?
How accurate is the Chernobyl miniseries on HBO to the actual events ? Was the negligence of Human life by the Soviet State and it’s members this bad ? Was the higher-ups of the Plant as depicted in the show ?
But, back to the show. This post on Bored Panda is an interesting side-by-side comparison of shots from the show with actual footage and photographs.
Notice anything? I sure did. It looks like the show has been struck by the same disease that has desaturated most of the dramatic TV shows that are produced these days. It is such a boring choice artistically. That's how you know that it's a disaster, I suppose. The sun cannot possibly be shining; it must be gloomy and gray so that we know something is wrong.
But actually, the horror of this disaster is in large part that it was an invisible horror. Making it visible is easier than building fear through other means, but it lessens it.
Oh well.
