How to Craft the Perfect Political Drama | Chernobyl

if there's anything left to watch on HBO after Game of Thrones I would highly recommend you watch Chernobyl so don't cancel your subscription just yet spoilers for the miniseries ahead Chernobyl has garnered much attention and critical praise in the past couple months as of today it's ranked to number one on IMDb's top 250 TV shows so as far as IM DB users are concerned it is better than any show you have ever watched and for a pretty good reason Chernobyl has crafted a nearly perfect political drama let's dissect it the set up what I find interesting about the show is that you can read about Chernobyl and know exactly what happened but knowing this doesn't detract from the appeal of the series it doesn't relieve you of tension because you know the ending in fact it is very much the opposite why Craig Mazin the creator of Chernobyl was interviewed by / film calm about the main message of the show and it's not that nuclear power is dangerous it's rather that lying and ignoring facts comes with a deadly cost it's the lies in the show that become more prominent and dangerous when we know what is actually true Femina and broken-off aren't sending Sitnikov to check on the core they're sending him to his death Dyatlov isn't calling the fire brigade to put out a simple roof fire he's blasting them with lethal doses of radiation characters continuously undermined the threats lying to each other and themselves and it creates a brilliant cocktail of frustration problems a roof listen to simmer to say 3.6 rongkhun but that's as high as the meat 23.6 well great or terrible the is glowing the Cherenkov effect completely normal phenomenon it's the lies that create the best tension the escalation and then the lies get worse first the accident is well under control and worse the central commitee have ordered a detachment of military police to prepare how large it was attachment between 2001 and worst we seal off the city no one leaves and cut the phone lines it escalates and stretches the tension raising the stakes it speaks to the theme that lying is costly because each lie increases the amount of danger that the characters are in and although the lies make the situation worse we have to understand that they are a result of a deeper systemic issue posing a much more difficult challenge for our characters to solve the characters operate in a system where Authority is never questioned and where people with authority are always believed to be making the best decisions in the best interest of the state a key mauve and Topton offer for instance continually repeat the phrase we did everything right because they listened to Authority not because it is necessarily fact truth comes from familiarity and consistency the more they repeat it the more that we realize they actually believed they did everything right we see that lies are ingrained so much that speaking out of turn questioning Authority and exposing truths will always be regarded as wrong and this is what Chernobyl does great as a political drama because the lies that have escalated had handcuffed Lacasse off between what he can do to save the people and what the state tells him he can do he is caught in a struggle between fighting the immediate threat containing the nuclear power plant please the file of what you do their own eyes is giving off fairly twice the radiation released by the bomb in Hiroshima and fighting the conspiracy the misinformation the politics the mystery of why it all happened I'm telling the spread of misinformation two problems both need to be solved both at odds with one another at least exactly prypiat is three kilometres away I've been told not to is it or is it not define recharger between the two problems it's not the danger the radiation the stress that takes its toll on the gas off it's the law is oh good at this bars align ultimately it's the lies that have an act to escalate and manifest into far worse disaster in the moment it becomes too late final takeaways Chernobyl was meant to be a highly authentic recreation of real-life events but does that mean it can't be critical as it's purely a reflection no of course not because it captures perspective we follow certain characters and see a worldview it fixes our perspective on what should be good or bad the gas off Camile can Urbina are the clear heroes in this show we are shown their struggles their self-sacrifice and their pursuit of the truth these are the characters we sympathize with Chernobyl is also a very pertinent piece of media one that tells us not just that lying is wrong but weaves and themes about the dangers of authoritarianism suppression of criticism and arrogance it also highlights the need for organizational and business leaders to not just act as a merely delegate errs but to listen to their teams and actually do frontline work for themselves something Dyatlov should have done sooner I'll go up to the vent block roof from there you can look right down it's a reactor building for I'll see you with my own my own Iseman and most importantly the show emphasizes the criticality of assessing the information we have been told not just to not lie but to know when we're being lied to especially today when information is so accessible and connectedness dominates every single aspect of our lives we are engrossed by digital media and how easily it is to disseminate information that it's taken for granted on one hand it's a fundamental requirement for individuals to be able to express opinions form ideas and challenge leaders it's a vital part of democracy it's in part what ensures power is balanced and not one individual can have complete authority accessibility empowers more people but it doesn't come without challenge readership interests relevance and sensationalism are all issues in digital and traditional media sometimes the important stories are not the most interesting or timely media can be manipulative and straight up wrong and now sources of media are easily of concern the rise of prominence of fake news in recent years shows how easily it is to create disseminate and influence based on misinformation as individuals more so than ever it's our responsibility to critically assess the information we've been given and where it is coming from because we have seen what the cost of lies can be thank you hey everyone this video was actually very hard to write I had so many ideas running through my head Chernobyl is just so good I hope this video didn't seem like it was jumping all over the place also a lot of you are new subscribers coming from my peaky blinders video so for that I want to give you all a big thank you I'm attempting to write a season two three and four analysis when I'm done the series don't know when that will be yet but it will come cheers guys

Channel: WE Watch

Views: 4,225

Rating: 4.9861593 out of 5

Keywords: How to Craft the Perfect Political Drama | Chernobyl, chernobyl, hbo, miniseries, craig mazin, jared harris, stellan skarsgård, emily watson, video essay, writing a tv show, writing a perfect story, valery legasov, boris shcherbina, ulana khomyuk, anatoly dyatlov, disaster drama, chernobyl nuclear power plant, april 1986, jared harris chernobyl, chernobyl writing, we watch, chernobyl hbo, chernobyl analysis, chernobyl video essay, chernobyl hbo reaction

Id: cq0RKB7Awws

Length: 8min 6sec (486 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2019