Bex Peterson Editor-in-Chief kek kK ans of so-called “prestige TV” who might have cancelled their HBO subscription after the controversial Game of Thrones finale will be missing out if HBO’s historical drama Chernobyl is any indication of the continuing quality of their programming. The five-part miniseries was a joint production effort by HBO and Sky UK, airing between May 6 and June 3 and currently available through the streaming service Crave. Written by, of all people, the writer of The Hangover sequels Craig Mazin, the story follows the efforts of real- life figures Valery Legasov (Jared Harris) and Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgard) as they attempt to contain the effects of a nuclear reactor explosion near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR. What follows is a series that is one-part political thriller, one-part disaster horror, and one-part historical drama . The showrunners have made no bones about the aspects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster that were altered or dramatized for the purpose of a television adaptation. In fact, HBO released a five-part companion podcast series appropriately titled The Chernobyl Podcast available for listening on many platforms—including YouTube— which painstakingly examines each episode to divide fact from fiction. “The last thing I ever wanted to say to people was, ‘Now that you've watched this, you know the truth. No, you don't,” said Mazin in an interview with Vox. “You know some of the truth, and you know some of the stuff that’s been dramatized.” One example of this alteration of the facts to build a compelling narrative is the fictional character of Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson), a brilliant and doggedly Have an idea for a story? M arts@theotherpress.ca | — > ‘Chernobyk TV show.review |e 150K ate aa ae determined nuclear physicist who aids and advises Legasov throughout the series. Khomyuk is essentially metaphorical, meant to represent the efforts of a massive group of scientists who worked alongside Legasov throughout the containment and investigation process. A rotating cast of names and faces is far harder to track than a single character carefully constructed over five hours of television, after all. As a drama series in and of itself, Chernobyl shines in its ability to balance tone and genre, never veering too far in the grimdark direction while also not shying away from the more horrifying aspects of the disaster. While there’s plenty of body horror with regards to the terrifying effects of radiation sickness, the camera knows when to cut away and pull back. In episode four, “The Happiness of All Mankind,” were forced to follow the efforts of drafted “liquidators,” clean-up crews with the unhappy task of hunting irradiated animals—mostly abandoned pets—in the containment zone. It’s a concept that could have easily drifted into the category of impossible to watch for animal lovers, but the directors and editors managed to do a lot with implication rather than graphic depictions of dogs and cats being gunned down. If the series has a flaw, it’s where the balance between fact and fiction sometimes impacts the pacing and, despite my praise in the previous paragraph, tone. The series attempts to give a kind of global view of the Chernobyl disaster, from explosion to trial. This unavoidably leaves us with a front-loaded plot structure, with arguably the most exciting incident occurring in the first episode, resulting in a kind of four-hour denouement. The series Finally hype for music again » The fads of the past versus the hits of today Jerrison Oracion Senior Columnist I the history of music, there have been some songs with memorable lines and hooks that have gotten everyone excited and inspired people. This summer we have had a few films that show why we like music. In May we had the Elton John biopic Rocketman, which gives us a look at life when you are famous and shows why everyone appreciated John’s music. In June the Danny Boyle comedy Yesterday was released, which is about a man who one day discovers he is only person who remembers the Beatles. On August 14 the film Blinded by the Light will be released, telling the story of a boy from England being inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen and beginning a revolution of 1980s rock music in his neighbourhood. The film also tackles how international music influences people, which I can relate to because I ama fan of J-Pop and K-Pop. In the case of Yesterday, the film presents the history of the Beatles in the present day. During the era of Beatlemania in the 60s, everyone was talking about their music, girls were chasing the members of the band when they were seen, and their songs were number one on the music charts. As the decades went by, there have also been other musicians to get everyone hyped with songs that have appealed to mass Promotional image for ‘Blinded by the Light’ audiences, or sillier songs that have been memorable years down the line. However, in the past year I feel like there has not been much music able to get everyone excited, not from mainstream US airwaves at least. Most of the songs released sound like city night music, they are not fun to listen to, and some of them are gimmicky—maybe because there is not a lot of hype for them and artists and producers are running out of song ideas. I barely listen to the radio. I listen to Canadian music, J-Pop, and K-Pop more than US music. One song that seemed to be a potential summer hit this year, the Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber song “T Don’t Care,” is good but it does not have anything that would wow me. In my opinion, the summer song this year so far is the Hinatazaka46 song “Doremisolasido” because it has the sound of the season. I think this track could get attention in North America because the choreography in the music video of the song looks similar to the Harlem Shake. Another summer ¢ Why so many Spider-Men? e Physical media is still invaluable ¢ Details of the Marvel Universe ..and more fe) oo ae, ES > > 2 ° iS SI cy a oO Ph io) & ce aD o £ o i 2 = ° = 9 2 oa keeps the drama going with the political thriller angle, as well as the inspired choice to save the events leading up to the explosion for the finale. The sort of odd couple buddy-cop vibe between Harris and Skarsgard is wildly enjoyable to watch, but Harris as the truth-seeking scientist fighting a corrupt state does once or twice veer slightly more towards the Hollywood melodrama in the courtroom scenes than one might expect or necessarily desire. Overall, Chernobyl is a quality case study of how to skate that line between fact and enjoyable television, made even more enjoyable by its full accountability as a work of fact-informed fiction rather than a docudrama. It’s best enjoyed with a few research tabs open to answer the inevitable “did that really happen?” questions you'll be asking yourself throughout—as well as a bottle of iodine pills at hand, just in case. tune that I would recommend is the Nogizaka46 song “Sing Out!” because it is very cheerful, it gets everyone together, and it even has a bit of gospel. However, some exciting music that was released in the past few months does suggest that North American music is picking up again. For example, there’s the phenomenal American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish. The Jonas Brothers are making music again and one of the hit singles from their recent album Happiness Comes, “Sucker,” actually sounds great. Also, K-Pop is finally becoming more mainstream in North America with groups like BTS (who performed on Saturday Night Live two months ago and I’d compare their performance to when the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show), Twice, BlackPink, and IZ*ONE (who will be performing at KCON in New York City on July 6). After a year of music that did not wow me, it seems like the industry is finally picking up again.