I truly enjoyed watching Chernobyl last Friday. I’d never seen the series, nor heard of the historic event, but seeing it played out on screen was intense and captivating. Some things that caught my attention were the details and technical aspects of filmography and production of a series like this, and the eerie similarities between the events in the series and today.

The directors and producers did an amazing job with the filmography. I was at the edge of my seat for most of the episode. The inferences the episode led me to make while watching scenes play out were chilling. An effect I strongly remember was the music. The music was eerie and built up suspense with each passing second. For instance, while the firefighters were putting out the fire, the music during the scene was building up and getting louder, and the faces of the firefighters were afraid and looking around.  expected something to happen, like another explosion, but the scene suddenly cut to a calmer scene inside of the power plant or to the local residents gathering outside. The short time between each scene and scene cuts were like cliffhangers and kept me wanting more. I liked how it wasn’t very linear, but cut between different storylines or points of view (the workers in the power plants, the firefighters, and the civilians). Also, I liked the pacing, especially when the civilians are gathered outside, and the camera work turns into slow motion to capture the civilians admiring the far away scene of the nuclear powerplant on fire and dancing among the radioactive debris floating down like snow, creating a kind of juxtaposition that is shocking. The special/visual effects were also amazing, it was very smooth and gradual in how once a worker went near radiation, viewers could see their faces getting redder and redder from the exposure, and it wasn’t at all choppy as if they added more makeup in between takes, but as if they were actually there.

It was also shocking to watch the events unfold, especially how little knowledge is being communicated within people in the series. From the start, the director of the plant denied internally and to the public that the core of the plant exploded. That in turn affected what the board thought the city should do, but they also voted to keep this severe, fatal, cruel explosion hidden. I was appalled when the board members voted not only not to evacuate anyone, even though they knew the dangers, but to intentionally bar everyone inside the city so news of this wouldn’t spread to other cities, and they wouldn’t be at fault. It was also scary to see how little the civilians knew about the nuclear power plant and radioactivity, and that they were observing the burning plant like they were stargazing, and dancing among debris that gave them exposure to radiation. It’s a scary thought to think that every government is hiding something, and for example now, how much do we really know about what is actually happening, and how many people’s lives we are putting at risk simply to avoid blame.