Friday 19 / April / 2024
What is the cost of lies?
That’s not what we’re asking. It is in fact the tagline of a new miniseries that at long last, lifts the lid on the worst nuclear disaster mankind has ever seen.
Chernobyl, a new TV miniseries co-produced by American channel HBO and British broadcaster Sky, attempts to tell the truth about the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the consequences of which are still felt to this day, saw many brave men and women die, and thousands more suffer radiation poisoning as they worked frantically and sacrificed themselves to avoid the catastrophic effects of the nuclear accident.
On 25 April, 1986, the number four reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located in the town of Pripyat in the Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union, exploded during a drill that was designed to simulate how the reactor would behave in the case of a power outage. 36 seconds after the experiment began, power levels in the reactor began skyrocketing, leading to an explosion inside the reactor, followed by a more massive explosion just a few seconds later.
Chernobyl, a show that has surpassed Game of Thrones as the best-ranked show on IMDB, is now available to watch and download online.
The Soviet government, risking political and diplomatic embarrassment, did try to cover up the extent of the damage, but as is the case with such awful actions, the truth eventually does come out. Although the exact number of casualties are still not known, some 134 servicemen and women who were among the first to respond to the rapidly escalating disaster were soon hospitalised with Acute Radiation Syndrome as a result of exposing themselves to the radioactive uranium particles that were quickly spreading due to the explosion. 28 of these died within months of the disaster, while a further 14 died of cancer within the next 10 years.
The total number of deaths due to the long-term health effects of the Chernobyl disaster range from an estimated 4,000, .
The story of Chernobyl is told from the perspective of the aid workers and rescue teams on the ground, and the unending agony and misery their families had to endure Going forward would expose many of these workers through the horrendous hell of radiation poisoning, not to mention the burning debris and the remnants of the building, which could crash down on them at any moment. Nevertheless, these brave men and women knew they had no alternative but to go forward, even if it meant many of them were fated to never see their loved ones again.
Doctors who had left their hospitals to aid on the front lines would see themselves back there not as employees, but as patients, their bodies now writhing from the agony of the unending, indescribable pain of the exposure to radiation they had to endure.
But the brave souls who were sacrificing their lives were only told to go there by the Soviet top brass in Moscow, who knew that they were sending people to certain doom, but had no option. Given the way we’ve learned about the Soviet Union’s history, it is easy to think of their leaders as cold, unfeeling individuals, but the doctors and generals who were huddled around their conference tables in the Russian capital knew they had no other option, even if the ones at the very top didn’t care about what happened on the ground. People giving their all no matter the cost was expected. After all, wasn’t the Soviet Union created for the greater good of mankind? – [email protected]
The Short and Skinny
Name: Chernobyl
Genre: Historical Drama
Produced by: Sister Pictures, The Mighty Mint and Word Games
Produced for: Sky and HBO
What it’s about: More than 30 years after the world learned of the horrors of the Chernobyl disaster, a new show finally reveals the sacrifices made by those who tried to stop the world’s worst nuclear disaster from spiralling out of control
Starring: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Emily Watson, Paul Ritter, Jessie Buckley, Mark Lewis Jones, Adan Nagaitis, Con O’Neill, Adrian Rawlins, Sam Troughton, Ralph Ineson
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, HBO.com, Sky, Hulu, various streaming sites
Number of episodes: 5
Runtime: 60 minutes
IMDB Rating: 9.7/10
