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...
I like that he specifically mentioned that the actors just speak in their regular accents (sorta). It's occasionally a little jarring, but it also allows them to put people in the roles that are up for the jobs.
And the physical resemblance for some of these actors is incredible. Ignatenko, for instance, is remarkably true to her real life counterpart. The plant manager and his deputy (Fomin?) look just like their newspaper clippings.
By ditching the accents they didn't have to focus on who can do one without embarrassing themselves. They could just hire people that could handle the part.
It really did bring the show up a notch and I'd have never thought to do it that way. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Otter:
Between the vodka and chain smoking I wonder if the radiation really make a difference in life expectancy for most of them.
Great series. HBO has some top notch talent writers.
It was the 80s. Everybody drank and smoked like that. :-) [Reply]
Wow... that was a really moving episode. The lead jock. The killing of pets from the perspective of a young teen. The biorobots. The attempted coverup. The baby. The dosimeters on the roof and the anxiety to GTFO. Wow. I'm just blown away by this miniseries. Some of the best TV at the moment. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Amnorix:
They sure are painting Dyatlov as a complete dick. Even believing he'll eat a bullet either way, he won't help the investigation at all. WTF?
In fairness, most of the primary sources appear to have no problem painting Dyatlov as a dick.
If you want to hang this around anyone's neck, he is easily the best candidate. There were several decisions he made unilaterally that continued to exacerbate issues and had any of those gone the other way, this wouldn't have happened.
Now that's not to say those design issues wouldn't have surfaced elsewhere - maybe they would have. But he was the catalyst that set the whole thing off and seemingly NEVER took responsibility for decisions he made. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
In fairness, most of the primary sources appear to have no problem painting Dyatlov as a dick.
If you want to hang this around anyone's neck, he is easily the best candidate. There were several decisions he made unilaterally that continued to exacerbate issues and had any of those gone the other way, this wouldn't have happened.
Now that's not to say those design issues wouldn't have surfaced elsewhere - maybe they would have. But he was the catalyst that set the whole thing off and seemingly NEVER took responsibility for decisions he made.
Yeah, from what I've read (wikipedia and the like -- never done a deep dive on this -- I agree. Sounds like he pushed Asimov and the others to do a serious stress test. As we've seen, that didn't go well. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Amnorix:
Yeah, from what I've read (wikipedia and the like -- never done a deep dive on this -- I agree. Sounds like he pushed Asimov and the others to do a serious stress test. As we've seen, that didn't go well.
I referenced his 'demons' earlier and it seems like the show's gonna skip over them somewhat, but someone else referenced the accident when he was working on the subs and I think ultimately that's the biggest issue here.
He simply didn't have the proper amount of fear/respect for what he was working with. So that made it all the easier for him to be foolhardy with the events in front of him - he could play fast/loose with his view of what transpired because he simply didn't recognize how dire the consequences would be if he was wrong.
Afterall, he was living proof that radiation wasn't as dangerous as they said. He was supposed to die and he didn't. With that as his mindset, he had fewer issues saving his own ass.
When you combine that level of unearned, inaccurate arrogance with a guy who's probably just an unpleasant person to begin with, it's small wonder that he's portrayed as such a dick - he probably WAS that big of a dick. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
I like that he specifically mentioned that the actors just speak in their regular accents (sorta). It's occasionally a little jarring, but it also allows them to put people in the roles that are up for the jobs.
And the physical resemblance for some of these actors is incredible. Ignatenko, for instance, is remarkably true to her real life counterpart. The plant manager and his deputy (Fomin?) look just like their newspaper clippings.
By ditching the accents they didn't have to focus on who can do one without embarrassing themselves. They could just hire people that could handle the part.
It really did bring the show up a notch and I'd have never thought to do it that way.
Valkerie was pretty sweet and it did that I think. [Reply]
