13th September, 2019.
Yes: it’s god’s own truth.
Much as I’d love to go out, I really don’t have the cash.
Not that I’m that worried, either way.
I’m happy to stay in.
Going up Warley Hill — in either direction — really doesn’t appeal!
At least, after going into town — once — to go shopping, and then a second time for a meeting.
A third time doesn’t appeal … !
Either way … ?
Either way, something’s been appealing to me, box set wise …
~≈†≈~
Episode 2 — Please Remain Calm — opens some seven hours after the explosion.
And sees a sleepy Dr Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson) woken by an aide …
And, noticing the higher than usual raditaion, realises that something is going on … and that that something is coming from the direction of Chernobyl.
In Moscow?
In Moscow, Valery Legasov (Jared Harris) has to testify before Mikhail Gorbachov (David Dencik) and the Central Committee.
Having to explain to the General Secretary, to the frustration of Minister Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård), that the crisis is a lot worse than expected.
With the result the General Secretary orders the airforce to Chernobyl, to find out what’s going on.
With the result?
That the fire destroying the open reactor can be put out.
That the core will take a fortnight to cool off.
Pripyat, the nearby town, needs evacuating.
Oh …
And they have two days before the whole plant blows up, and destroys Pripyat and Minsk: and irradiates most of East Europe.
The only way to prevent that?
Is to drain the plant’s flooded basement.
Oh …
And they have two days before the whole plant blows up, and destroys Pripyat and Minsk: and irradiates most of East Europe.
The only way to prevent that?
Is to drain the plant’s flooded basement.
By sending at least three men activate a manual sluice gate.
The problem with that?
It’s a suicide mission …
~≈†≈~
Now …
I’m tired: it’s late …
But I have to ask myself, have I seen a another good episode: in what’s proving to be a watchable series?
Yes, I have, actually.
Every so often?
I’ll watch a film or a show that defines itself as horror, or SF, or what have you: whilst ALSO being a thriller, a police drama, or a very strange love story.
I’ll watch a film or a show that defines itself as horror, or SF, or what have you: whilst ALSO being a thriller, a police drama, or a very strange love story.
I think we can say Chernobyl isn’t the latter.
Is it a thriller?
I doubt it.
I doubt it.
Is it a love story, against a doomed background?
No.
Is it a horror story?
I’m not sure: even though it’s showing us how horrifically people can behave.
In terms of pettiness, ignoring evidence, applauding pig-headed bureaucrats?
I’d say Chernobyl is showing us not fictionalised horror.
We know vampires, zombies and werewolves are fairy stories: blood-soaked though they may be.
Chernobyl?
Is showing us the real horrors … when the lights go out …
Chernobyl, episode two?
Is showing us the real horrors: us*.
* A few months after I watched Chernobyl, I caught Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. Magda, the Natalie Dormer character makes much the same point: the only thing stopping people turning into monsters is permission. The ability to be monsters is there already
* A few months after I watched Chernobyl, I caught Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. Magda, the Natalie Dormer character makes much the same point: the only thing stopping people turning into monsters is permission. The ability to be monsters is there already
Soviet Russia, of the time? Gave people permission …
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