r/ChernobylTV • u/[deleted] • May 27 '19

Chernobyl - Episode 4 'The Happiness of All Mankind' - Discussion Thread

Valery and Boris attempt to find solutions to removing the radioactive debris; Ulana attempts to find out the cause of the explosion.

The Chernobyl Podcast | Part Four | HBO

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336

u/dmanww May 27 '19

Oh no, there's a "puppy scene"

195

u/Jerthy May 27 '19

Goodbye 9.7 IMDB rating....

108

u/mrstickball May 28 '19

Its got a perfect 10/10 on 1,200 votes. That's the best I've ever seen, period.

33

u/Sevenoaken May 28 '19

Ozymandias (Breaking Bad) held 10/10 from tens of thousands of votes until it got review bombed by GoT fanboys 😢

34

u/dandaman910 May 28 '19

Well no risk of that now.

8

u/Sevenoaken May 28 '19

For Chernobyl? You’re probably right, nothing is competing currently... maybe when next season of Westworld drops, I dunno

25

u/dandaman910 May 28 '19

I was more thinking there aren't any got fanboys left

5

u/Sevenoaken May 28 '19

Ah, haha good point. You’d be surprised though, still a sizeable chunk that enjoyed that last season (I have a few irl friends who defend it to the death in discussions)

2

u/Altephor1 May 29 '19

Westworld had an extremely pathetic 2nd season (after a flawless 1st), I don't know how to feel about the 3rd.

2

u/ngfdsa Jun 01 '19

Eh I think "pathetic" is a stretch. It was definitely worse, but there were some great moments. I'd call it extremely inconsistent.

13

u/nativeofvenus May 28 '19

As a former GoT fan girl, I’m rooting for Chernobyl. It’s the only thing that kept me from being completely depressed after watching season 8.

39

u/Jerthy May 28 '19

Well it has to be really bad if Chernobyl of all fucking shows keeps you from being depressed...

13

u/CunnedStunt May 28 '19

Nothing like animal genocide to cheer you up from tough GoT season.

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '19

Mizumono of Hannibal season 2 had a perfect 10 after 3000 votes. It only dropped to 9.9 once I checked and it had 10,000 votes.

2

u/Sevenoaken May 28 '19

Been meaning to watch Hannibal for ages, Mads Mikkelsen is an amazing actor

1

u/-Tell_me_about_it- Jun 20 '19

You won’t possibly regret it. If you can deal with a bit of ponderous pretension you’ll love it.

278

u/jyeatbvg May 28 '19

It'll drop to 7.5 at worst, not great, not terrible.

143

u/clmazin Craig Mazin - Writer and Creator May 28 '19

LOL.

31

u/The_DILinator May 28 '19

u/clmazin, absolutely amazing show! Stunning in every facet, and easily one of the best made things I've ever seen!

One quick question I have for you though, is whether there was a decision made intentionally to never show the Pripyat amusement park, particularly the iconic ferris wheel, for a specific reason. Or whether it just never really needed to come into play at all for the narrative, so it didn't. I was just curious, since for many people it seems, that's one of the most recognizable parts of Pripyat, so its absence almost looks intentional to me.

Thanks again for bringing us this amazing show! I can't wait to see how it all shakes out next Monday!

71

u/clmazin Craig Mazin - Writer and Creator May 28 '19

You do see it briefly in some shots, but mostly... it's become a strange distraction for a lot of pop culture representations of Pripyat. As you say, it's iconic.

But it wasn't for the people living there. It was cool (although they never got to ride it), but ultimately... we wanted to show the other stuff that people weren't familiar with.

12

u/gigantism May 28 '19

Will there be a cameo of the Elephant's Foot in EP5? Inquiring minds want to know!

4

u/The_DILinator May 28 '19

Thanks for your response! It was pretty much exactly what I was figuring (given its saturation in culture), but it's nice to have that confirmed!

And again, thanks so much for this show! I have been fascinated by the Chernobyl disaster since it happened and came to my attention as a child of 8, and it was such a surreal concept. As the years have passed, it's been something I've maintained tabs on, and as cheap horror movies and other things like that capitalized on it, always found it disappointing that there wasn't a well done, real account of the story, and its gravity. Imagine my excitement, seeing HBO was going to have a mini-series about it, and then on top of that, it being phenomenally well made! So again, thanks for all you've done here, and I feel confident that you have honored the victims of this tragedy in your telling of their story, as you indicated wanting to do in the podcast!

4

u/ZoleeHU May 28 '19

It is iconic but it wasn’t even opened, the people never used it since it was supposed to be opened just as the evacuation came to be.

1

u/The_DILinator May 28 '19

Yes, I know. I just figured there may be some shots of it in passing, since it is fairly well known part of the city. Apparently there are some, but I missed them. All the more reason to look closer upon my inevitable re-watch!

18

u/Momoneko May 28 '19

Did you anticipate "Not great not terrible" becoming an internet meme when you were writing it?

55

u/clmazin Craig Mazin - Writer and Creator May 29 '19

No, but Carolyn Stauss, who EP'd with me and Jane Featherstone, *loved* saying that. If you asked her at lunch "how's the sandwich?" she'd say "Not great, not terrible."

Should've been an early indication that the line was neurologically sticky.

25

u/Jfklikeskfc May 29 '19

I love how much you interact with this subreddit lol. It’s gonna be crazy when your career really explodes after this to look back at these and be like “damn that dude responded to my comments”

43

u/chickendrums May 29 '19

Careers don't explode, you're in shock, get him out of here.

8

u/krathil May 31 '19

I LOVE the show! Forgive me if this is rude, but when my friend first suggested the show to me after Ep 1, I looked it up on imdb and looked what you’d done before and I was... not optimistic. Yet I instantly fell in love with show and have been CRAZY impressed with your writing. I’ve since learned about your screenwriting podcast and your stellar writing reputation. Congratulations my man. Chernobyl is amazing. A true 10/10 show that’s up there in the same conversation with The Wire and Deadwood and other killer series. It must feel really good to get to create such a high quality product. You deserve all the accolades and awards coming your way. Just curious how or why you think your previous projects were met with mixed to bad reviews. You’re obviously a fantastic writer. Was it outside influence and others’ changes made to what you had created?

7

u/murrayvonmises May 28 '19

Hi, I just wanted to ask if during your research you consulted this footage? It was taken by a television crew present in Chernobyl at the time, but was only declassified and made public about a year ago.

5

u/Rezenbekk May 28 '19

Great documentary, where'd you find it?

3

u/NMW May 29 '19

Thank you for both your amazing work on this series and your wonderful engagement with the people watching it. This is just lightning in a bottle (roentgens in graphite?), and I hope that it lets you casually buy and sell any projects you like in the immediate future.

Speaking of -- is there something specific you're looking at next?

7

u/Crashed-n-Burned May 28 '19

3.6...Not great but not terrible.

3

u/Juno_Malone May 28 '19

I've been told it's the equivalent of a Breaking Bad episode

3

u/Ekshtashish May 28 '19

We need someone to bring in the wide-range Metascore over from Metacritic to know for sure

2

u/Colinski282 May 28 '19

That’s as low as the meter goes.

2

u/AWildEnglishman May 28 '19

There were no dogs in this episode. You're delusional.

1

u/CommandoDude Jun 02 '19

I give it a 3.6 out of 3.6

19

u/Crown_and_Seven May 28 '19

Thank you for the heads up. I will be FF through that. I don't do any "killing of cute domestic animals" scenes.

23

u/dmanww May 28 '19

He mentioned it in the podcast. There are also farm animals etc that are killed.

13

u/gregfromsolutions May 28 '19

Its not on screen, but it wasn’t enjoyable.

14

u/xSlappy- May 28 '19

Its off screen, you only hear gunshots.

7

u/8BitSamura1 May 28 '19

And luckily they didn’t have the dogs helping in pain too much

9

u/xSlappy- May 28 '19

Yeah, I didn't think this was as hard to watch as the radiation poisoning scenes.

3

u/The_muffinfluffin May 28 '19

I’m a nurse and did a rotation on the burn units. If the prosthetic and SFX doesn’t win an award for depicting those radiation burns, I would be surprised. The way the skin at some areas on the body was so shiny and tight due to the edema from the burns brought back so many memories.

4

u/[deleted] May 28 '19

It wasn’t that bad

13

u/verkohlt May 28 '19

There was a part after that scene that was cut for being too much.

I looked up the passage in the book they used as a source and I can only imagine how wrenching that deleted scene could be:

So it was like this. The smells—I couldn't understand where this smell was coming from in the village. Six kilometers from the reactor. The village of Masaly. It was, like, Roentgen Central. It smelled of iodine. Some kind of sourness. You had to shoot them point blank. This bitch is on the floor with her pups, she jumps right at me. I shoot her quick. The puppies lick their paws, fawning, playing around. I had to shoot them point blank. One dog—he was a little black poodle. I still feel sorry for him. We loaded a whole dump truck with them, even filled the top. We drive them over to our "cemetery." To be honest it was just a deep hole in the ground, even though you’re supposed to dig it in such a way that you can’t reach any ground water, and you're supposed to insulate it. You're supposed to find an elevated area. But of course those instructions were violated everywhere. There wasn't any insulation, and we didn't spend a lot of time looking for the right spot. If they weren’t dead, if they were just wounded, they'd start howling, crying. We're dumping them from the dump truck into the hole, and this one little poodle is trying to climb back out. No one has any bullets left. There's nothing to finish him with. Not a single bullet. We pushed him back into the hole and just buried him like that. I still feel sorry for him.

3

u/Demon997 May 28 '19

I really wish I hadn’t read that right before bed.

3

u/poland626 May 28 '19

fuckkkkk that last part.....just fuckkkkk

1

u/nitharaja May 28 '19

I should not have read this spoiler.

1

u/_realitycheck_ May 28 '19

Depressing fact. They filmed that scene, but decided not to include it.

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '19

I did too. No shame in skipping.

11

u/KABrotherhood May 28 '19

I have an app on my phone called "does the dog die?" where it tells you if a dog or other animal dies in a movie or show. It helps me avoid those things, because as much as I'd like to pride myself as a manly man...I can't handle those scenes too well.

​

I didn't like those scenes in tonight's episode but my wife and I were talking and we do acknowledge that they served a purpose. This stuff happened. It needed to be done or these animals would suffer their entire lives. These men had to suffer through doing it because it needed to be done for the better good of life in general.

​

Still...tough to watch. Very tough.

9

u/scaryaliendog May 28 '19

Rough. They could have traveled and infected more innocents.

2

u/KABrotherhood May 28 '19

As I said, for the sake of life in general. Innocents would fall under the category "life"...

3

u/scaryaliendog May 28 '19

Thanks for the mansplaining

4

u/KABrotherhood May 28 '19

I am sorry. I had to look up what mansplaining is. I did not wish to come off as condescending. I thought you were giving me a hard time, that is all. I apologize for my tone (through text)

2

u/scaryaliendog May 28 '19

Awww thanks for the apology. The episode hit me hard. I totally hear you. If I knew what was going to occur I wouldn’t have watched and I’m going to look at the site you mentioned.

3

u/KABrotherhood May 28 '19

My wife and I are going to watch it again to pick up on things we may have missed. I'm relieved they didn't show the baby of Lyudmilla...that shattered my heart too. Knowing these things actually happened is even tougher. I'm definitely looking forward to episode five with the flashbacks!

25

u/alexnedea May 28 '19

People these days man...seeing a man die in horrible pain disfigured and looking like a demon: hell yeah HBO great job

Seeing a dog get shot and die in 5 seconds: oh no i have to skip...

10

u/tsetdeeps May 28 '19

Yeah I honestly don't get it either. But as it's apparent in the comment section for a lot of people it's a big deal

3

u/KABrotherhood May 28 '19

Did I say seeing people die was enjoyable, or are you just assuming for the sake of your narrative?

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '19 edited Jan 06 '20

[deleted]

3

u/KABrotherhood May 29 '19

The short answer to your question is no, I do not have an app for that, nor do I skip those scenes. Why? I cannot really explain with a finite answer.

Much of it has to do with the fact that humans and dogs are not equal combatants (dog-on-dog death is at least a little more digestible). Also, no dog chooses to be mean or evil; they are simple creatures whose violence is borne out of self-defense and paranoia (almost inevitably caused by humans), thus giving them an innate purity. People are born flawed; animals are not.

In a sense, we’ve been conditioned to view random human deaths as merely a plot point — a cold, efficient story beat that doesn’t actually register as emotional. Perhaps that's why so many people have become immune to on-screen human deaths?

3

u/relapsze May 28 '19

lol there's an app for everything!

2

u/leebe_friik May 28 '19

At least we heard 7-8 gunshots. The way they were showing the Georgian guy's bayonet on his waist made me expect him to go full Goblin Slayer on these puppies.

1

u/yhgan May 28 '19

I was thinking they were gonna hunt some wolf... oh boy I was so wrong.

1

u/Bitch_Muchannon May 28 '19

Uh, is the puppy mechanical in any way?

1

u/TheHeroicOnion Jun 21 '19

Nothing will top the puppy "scene" in Bioshock 1. You only hear it but it's absolutely horrible how graphic it is.

1

u/eekamuse May 28 '19

Do you know when?

14

u/policeandthieves May 28 '19

About 30:00 to 32:00 is one dog killing part.

43:45 to 48:00 is another.

1

u/maebird- May 28 '19

Actual mvp thank you so much

1

u/sakura-dream May 28 '19

You're a hero

1

u/motherof16paws May 28 '19

ffwded thanks to you, comrade. No way am I watching that and so happy I'm not the only softie.

3

u/eekamuse May 28 '19

I noped out at 9 minutes when they first mentioned killing the animals. So no, you're not the only one.

(came back towards the end)

6

u/Ludachriz May 28 '19

I mean it's hardly the worst thing they've shown so far and in the context of the accident it's barely noteworthy

1

u/motherof16paws May 28 '19

Animal death hits some people very differently than human death on screen. 🤷‍♀️ I'm one of those people. Whatever. It is what it is.

1

u/Ludachriz May 28 '19

Sure i'm the same way, I guess I just didn't mind as much in this show since it's supposed to be a difficult watch and these animals were doomed the moment the reactor blew up, killing them afterwards was basically a mercy to them.

2

u/cklyce14 May 28 '19

Pretty early on for the first one, farm animal.

1

u/dmanww May 28 '19

no. Haven't watched it yet. It was mentioned in the summary of the podcast.