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| Source: Imdb |
I
would still like to talk about this mini-series re-telling the story of the
world’s most famous nuclear disaster. First of all, this was expertly made and
flawlessly acted. The story seemed very authentic and is reportedly quite close
to the truth. No wonder. I can easily see this happening. It’s in equal
measures a tale of deceit and lies leading to catastrophe, and unspeakable
human bravery and resourcefulness in the face of unbeatable odds. Once again,
it also serves to illustrate the primordial power unleashed by nuclear fissure
and I cannot believe that this method of energy generation is still in use
today. It seems very much like tampering with forces too great to really
control, like trying to tame the ocean with a fishing net.
The acting
was flawless on all parts. This had an absolutely stellar cast of great names.
Jared Harris (one of those faces you know because he is everywhere but never
remember the name) shines as Valery Legasov, delivering a genuine and touching
performance of a scientist with a strong moral compass encumbered by fears and threats from his environment, slowly growing into a quiet, powerful force in
the name of truth. At his side is Stellan Skarsgård, always a pleasure to see,
though significantly aged, as Boris Shcherbina, and the developing respect and
friendship between their two characters is very gratifying to watch. The human
aspect is further fleshed out by traumatised and disillusioned soldiers,
desperate civilians, horrifyingly realistic sufferers of radiation sickness and
rough but heroic miners.
It is
incredibly frustrating to witness the state lie and deceive its subjects to the
detriment of all, but also to see the level of denial the leaders are gleefully
basking in. This has shocking relevance for current events, though the
situation is even more dire than back in 1986: it’s not just a Soviet town and a
good part of Europe that is in danger of becoming uninhabitable through a
catastrophic chain reaction that has slipped inadvertently beyond human
control; Now, our planet, the home of every single human being, is at stake and
politicians are making the same mistake as they did with Chernobyl: they deny.
They pacify. They lie – and while our home is burning down all around us, not
nearly enough is done to put out the flames of global warming. This context
makes Chernobyl seem like a test run to see if people can cope with the truth
of a disaster of that scale, and cooperate to mitigate it. Only now, you can’t
just move to another continent. The crisis is everywhere. Ironically,
CO2-neutral power sources like nuclear power may now play a part in the solution.
But back to
the series. From the technical side, this was a flawless production. I loved
the depressing, grey Soviet colour palette. They chose incredible locations –
you could see that they were not over-using the green screen – and period
costumes, topped off with period set dressings to match. Visually, there was
absolutely nothing to complain about here. Particular kudos should go to the prosthetics department for creating decaying bodies the stuff of nightmares. I
had the dubious pleasure of taking part in an certified radiation safety course
for industrial irradiation devices etc. They taught us about all of this – about
how quickly it acts, how deadly it is, how deceptive because you can’t see or
feel it (at first). We handled sources of radiation. We learned about
protection. We watched them demonstrate what gamma ray sources do,... It was a frightening week. We each had to wear a dosimeter (luckily, mine was clean at the end
of it). This is scary stuff. Powerful, terrifying stuff, and I don’t think
humans should mess with it too much.
One last
thing: the score. Mostly, it wasn’t really music. It was more ambient noise.
Though there were a few scenes that I would have preferred not to have any
underlying sound backdrop, overall it fit extremely well with the dark,
threatening atmosphere. I don’t see anyone buying this as a CD, though.
Ok, so this
obviously gets 5/5, even though I would not watch it again.
PS: it
prompted me to look into radiation safety here in UK and I was absolutely
flabbergasted to find that there seem to be no emergency plans at all. I went
to several pharmacies to try and buy potassium iodine tablets – really, you are
supposed to stock those at home. You don’t want to have to go out and get them
once radioactive fallout from one of the many power plants around here is
already raining down on you – and the staff had no idea what I was talking
about! In my home country, everyone has these tablets even though we have
no nuclear power stations of our own! Anyway, I can only urge everyone to familiarise
themselves with emergency measures and make plans just in case. This is
something that can happen any time. Better be prepared.
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