Chernobyl

The first episode somehow surpassed my expectations for what this TV Show would do with the biggest nuclear disaster ever! Without giving any spoilers besides the obvious, the cinematic quality is unbelievable! I found myself looking at many transition scenes with disbelief, a complete state of shock- that's how good the first episode of HBO's mini-series "Chernobyl" was! The writing wasn't LEGENDARY but it was great, but most importantly, consistent! Every actor did an amazing job at portraying each character and their feelings, which ultimately, led to a even greater ambience. When the episode ended, I was left with a feeling like if I was in Chernobyl! I felt like I was contaminated by radiation. Although that might sound silly, I really felt unwell after watching "Chernobyl"! That just shows how incredibly effective the first episode was on displaying the horrific events that took place in Chernobyl, and how many lives were absolutely destroyed and affected following the disaster. So far, a must-watch!

As my mother tells it, the weather was quite nice, the sky was clear without any sign of clouds in the spring of 1986. It was like any other day behind the iron curtain. Not a lot to do but not a lot to worry about either, a long day of boring work after dropping the kid off at the kindergarten, just to pick him up again at the afternoon, just like yesterday or any other day since the beginning of time. This is why she did not understand why the old lady (who she very much liked because she seemed to love children and had that neverstopping smile) told everyone at the nursery school not to let the children out to play, don't feed them the veggies and don't let them drink the milk we had for every lunch before that day. We lived in a hungarian town close to the croatian border and the life in that town was pretty simple apart from that day. We lived 900 kms from Chernobyl and we did not even know that place exists until 3 days later.

Apparently a man who did not introduce himself called most of the schools and nurseries in the country and told them the same message. A lot of teachers did not take it seriously as he did not mention any details, just the warning: do not let the children out, do not feed them any vegetables which grows overground (potatoes are fine), do not let them drink anything apart from bottled liquids.

Noone knew what it was about. Noone knew what danger we are in. I assume this is why it was such a shock. The life was simple and we were not supposed to know stuff. We were not supposed to be afraid, maybe only because the capitalist pigs over the iron curtain. But something changed that day. A faceless, nameless man risked his life and called everyone he could to warn them about Chernobyl. News like this is not easy to contain, soon everyone was talking about what could happen and why. Is it a nuclear attack? Is it the CIA? Are they looking at us from satelites? Are they bombing us?

It was the first crack on the Iron Curtain. Not Reagan's stupid monologue, not the thousands of fleeing east-germans, not the soviets economy's ridiculous debts. Entire nations realized their lives mean nothing, millions felt betrayed. A man with no name defeated the Soviet regime with a few telephone calls.

We still don't know who that man was. After 30 years and a few inquiries we have no clue who risked his life to prevent thousands of deaths and millions of illnesses. Some historians are adamant the person was executed and vanished without a trace, some say noone found him at all. All I know I have to be grateful for him. We all have to be. He saved a nation. Sure, we could survive the radioactive cloud the mild wind blew over our country but when I look at my two children who are the same age I was back then I am pretty sure I am not willing to take any risks. Would you?

Dear anonymous man who defied a violent regime to save millions: We will forever be grateful. Dear ukranian workers whose names we will never know: We will forever be grateful. The workers whose names we know: We will forever be grateful.

This show tells a story noone should forget and this is the right way to tell it. Bluntly. How the man with no name told us.

Hi. I'm from Kiev, Ukraine. I was born in 1983 and I was 2 and a half years when the Chernobyl catastrophe happened. I remember 1980s and I can tell that the authors of this film made a GREAT job to show every detail of what the world look for is in the times of Soviet union. The telephones, the clothes, the haircuts, the cracked paint on the window sills, even the door glass is similar to what I remember. There are couple of things which seemed weird to me: firefighters didn't have the red stars on their helmets, and most of the time people use the short forms of the names when they talk to each other (Vasya, not Vasiliy, Lyuda, not Lyudmila). But the most important thing that this film shows is that the soviet authoritiies lied to people about this catastrophe all the time. For example, in Kiev which is 130 km from Chernobyl, nobody knew about the high levels of radiation till the middle of May, they even held a parade on the first of May, when the level of radiation in Kiev was 100 times higher than normal (iodine131 isotope) and nobody gave us the iodine pills. Everyone who tried to tell the truth was called the provocateur and could even be fired from work. I highly recommend to watch this film. This is a tribute to all the heroes who lost their lives in a radioactive flame and saved all of us from death.

'Chernobyl' is scarier than most horror movies in that it is a dramatization of actual, real-life horror experienced by thousands of people on that fateful April 1986 morning and the years that followed. This disaster has haunted the nation, Europe, and the rest of mankind more than three decades later. And that creeping dread permeates the whole show. It's difficult to watch. But it certainly makes it a must-watch.

My husband grew up near Kyiv and his father drove one of the buses that evacuated the civilians from Pripyat. I have heard his stories of the disaster; the people's concerns, fears and sacrifices. We watch this together and he is amazed at it's authenticity. The set detail, the way the Soviet regime hierarchy functioned, the denial and secrecy surrounding the disaster. He tried (as he usually does when watching a Western production based in or about that part of the world) to find errors or inconsistencies but has not been able to - yet.

The acting is impeccable by all, the filming is top notch, the sounds used to heighten the tension versus music. The way they are able to capture that exact feeling of anxiety, horror, disgust and sadness all rolled into one is admirable.

I have completed the series and it definitely ranks as one of the best. This story has been waiting to be told and there is hands down no one better than HBO to do it. Russia has said it intends to produce its own Chernobyl program, it will be interesting to compare the two. Theirs will purportedly label the CIA as the perpetrator....