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Chernobyl, Squid Game, Nosferatu, and (maybe) leaving social media
For someone who’s never had the patience to watch famous shows like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones, I’ve crammed an unusual amount of cinematic entertainment into the last ten days.
In the last two days, I watched Chernobyl, a 2019 miniseries produced by HBO, and thought it was of the highest quality. “Enjoyed” doesn’t feel like the right word when talking about Chernobyl, but I definitely appreciated it. I remember very well the final decade of the Soviet Union — I was six when the disaster happened in 1986. The sights and ambiance of the Soviet state were recreated with incredible precision. The show reminded me of my ex-country: its tragedies, its good people, not-so-good ones, and the regime built on lies and fear.
The previous week I watched Squid Game, a very different type of entertainment. My oldest couple of sons walked around saying how the show is ‘ass,’ referring to its fleeting nature, but I was fine watching it with another part of my family. Not everything has to be deep.
Finally, Nosferatu. We went to see it because I appreciate the 1922 version — yes, the 1922 version. I’m not sure I’ve ever watched the whole original movie, but I’ve seen many scenes and was fascinated by how, over a century ago, they were able to create such ominous visuals and characters. The…
