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[nenjin]

Finished Chernobyl.

Great little miniseries. Even though you basically know what happened by the final episode,

Why, what happened?

I know you're being factious, but really in the final episode they show you just how much of an irresponsible douche the main reactor controller was on the night of the event. The show starts right after the explosion and it's unclear who was actually responsible for what. By the final episode they show that the lower-level grunt operators were taking orders from a grossly irresponsible manager....and that was compounded by the Russian's cost-effective "shut it all down" method which, when everything was going to shit because of improper procedure, caused the reactor to explode.

Basically, the Chernobyl power plant was well on its way to being an actual nuclear bomb due to gross mismanagement, and when they hit the shutdown switch to stop the reaction, it caused the reactor to explode because of the flawed soviet design and the stress the reactor was already under. Not as bad as an actual nuclear explosion, but still the worst nuclear reactor accident in human history.

If you've got any interest in nuclear catastrophes or understanding how reactors work, the show is a great watch. I feel like I learned a lot while also being entertained / horrified.

And to HBO's credit, in the epilogue of the final episode they specifically note where they combined dozens of nuclear scientists in to a single character for the sake of the story. That was my one gripe about the historical accuracy of the show and I'm glad they made it a point to note where they did things for the sake of television.

One thing that I never did understand....is why the control rods were tipped in graphite. If graphite in a Russian reactor causes an increase in reactivity, why did they tip the control rods (which slow down the reaction) in a thing that increases the reaction? So that when the control rods are only partially lowered there's still graphite at the head to maintain reactivity? I dunno.

Honestly inserting the control rods which caused the reactor to explode due to the graphite tips actually prevented the reactor from going critical. It stil blew up but it's the reason the Exclusion Zone today still looks like a forest today instead of a blasted wasteland. So I guess it was the better outcome.

[Iduno]

One thing that I never did understand....is why the control rods were tipped in graphite. If graphite in a Russian reactor causes an increase in reactivity, why did they tip the control rods (which slow down the reaction) in a thing that increases the reaction? So that when the control rods are only partially lowered there's still graphite at the head to maintain reactivity? I dunno.

Honestly inserting the control rods which caused the reactor to explode due to the graphite tips actually prevented the reactor from going critical. It still blew up but it's the reason the Exclusion Zone today still looks like a forest today instead of a blasted wasteland. So I guess it was the better outcome.

I remember hearing they were doing (unsanctioned?) experiments to increase output or something.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

So Good Omens was amazing.

RIP Terry Pratchett. All hail Neil Gaiman.

I ship Crawley + Aziraphale so hard.

[Rose]

Nah, they're "Best Friends"

[Reelya]

I know you're being factious, but really in the final episode they show you just how much of an irresponsible douche the main reactor controller was on the night of the event. The show starts right after the explosion and it's unclear who was actually responsible for what. By the final episode they show that the lower-level grunt operators were taking orders from a grossly irresponsible manager....

A number of sources say this aspect was one of the heavily dramatized parts of the show. They needed heroes and villains to make better TV. I wouldn't go making assumptions about real individuals based on a fictional TV show.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48580177

The roles of three key personalities lie at the heart of the story: Plant director Viktor) Bryukhanov, chief engineer Nikolai Fomin and deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov. And Oleksiy Breus sees their portrayal as "not a fiction, but a blatant lie".

"Their characters are distorted and misrepresented, as if they were villains. They were nothing like that."

https://www.9news.com.au/world/chernobyl-hbo-chernobyl-hbo-disaster-tv-series-russia-radiation-death-toll-true/8ebcc15c-2b48-401d-ba53-844ea4a3346f
A nuclear expert (who was involved in the clean up at Fukushima and also at Chernobyl in 1986) blasts the show for a whole range of scientific innaccuracies but also for how the depict the soviet response to the disaster. A lot of the claimed things just didn't happen.

Leukemia expert Robert Gale, from Los Angeles, went to the former Soviet Union help after the 1986 disaster.
...
He said the unborn baby of Jessie Buckleys’s character Lyudmilla Ignatenko, could not have absorbed radiation from its dying father as is claimed.
Scientist Ulana Khomyuk, played by Emily Watson, is wrong in the show, when she declares; “The radiation would have killed the mother but the baby absorbed it instead”.
“There is the dangerous representation that, because one of the victims was radioactive, his pregnant wife endangered her unborn child by entering his hospital room,” he wrote.
...
Gale, who was also called to help in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, says he also has concerns about the portrayal of Soviet authorities’ reluctance to ask for outside help after the blast. He said he was asked to travel right away with three colleagues, with an Israeli medic also allowed to go - despite the two countries having no diplomatic links.

Yeah, so it's not a substitute for watching a documentary.

[Iduno]

I've been watching the first season of cowgirl shoots people in the face Wynonna Earp.

Apparently, the Earp family is cursed to be haunted each generation by everyone Wyatt Earp killed. Only his gun can kill the revenants (superhuman demon people), and send them back to Hell until the next generation turns 23. Also, the authorities don't want everyone to know, because that would cause a panic.

So it's like Supernatural was for the first few seasons, except it's a 200-year-old cowboy criminal of the week instead of werewolves and lamias.

[Iduno]

Related to this thread, anyway.

A group of unsurprisingly misinformed geniuses decided Amazon's Good Omens (based on Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's book) is blasphemous, so they created a petition that demanded Netflix remove it from their service. That's how I found out it existed. I don't have/want/like Amazon, so now I need to find a way to watch it.

Also, The Magicians season 4 is less unpleasant to watch than the previous seasons. Mostly because this season's poorly-thought-out PSA episode was

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Alice faking a suicide attempt to learn enough to escape the Library's prison, not an actual suicide attempt. Much better than when they tried to reach rape victims by having a character raped, ditto child molestation, and I want to say substance abuse?

[Folly]

Stranger Things 3 is here!

[Yoink]

Do they really keep on getting stranger?!

[Iduno]

Do they really keep on getting stranger?!

I think it's things they stole off a stranger.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Just finished Stranger Things 3. Personally, I loved it--not scary at all (though none of them have been REALLY scary [1 made a good go at it at least]) but ultimately I think better than Stranger Things 2, and now that the shock of it all has worn off, probably fair to say on par with Season 1.

[Il Palazzo]

Disagree very strongly. I'd call it uninspired, repetitive, and very much in the same league as S2. Which is still binge-watchable, mind you. Just not particularly good.

[McTraveller]

Stranger Things - wife and I discussed it. We think the thing that was most "missing" in season 3 is the mystery. Basically there was no suspense - you could kind of tell what was going to happen from the beginning.  There was also only really a single story thread instead of a couple.  I mean there were a few sub-threads, but nothing like sub-plots.

We also started watching Dexter.  That one is quite enjoyable so far (not even done with season 1 yet).

[catacombs]

.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

New Witcher trailer today. I think a lot of people are gonna bash it, and I do get a sense of trying to fill GoT's shoes (which it absolutely SHOULD NOT DO, not the least because GoT was never THAT good), but I have to say I am behind Cavill and am definitely willing to give the show a shot.

EDIT: One of the comments suggested that Cavill should also play Drizzt Do'Urden--honestly, fucking amazing idea.