'These were the things men were ordered to do'
Craig Mazin, the writer and producer of
Chernobyl, has told fans of the show the disturbing scenes in Monday's episode, which saw workers known as 'liquidators' shooting dogs, were "toned down" from what actually happened.
The miniseries, which has been on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK, is based on events which took place during the 1986 nuclear reactor failure at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Pant.
The latest episode saw a young volunteer named Pavel (played by Barry Keoghan) sign up to become a liquidator. He is then tasked with shooting dogs and other animals left behind at the exclusion site surrounding the power plant to prevent the spread of radiation contamination.
The scenes showing the hunting and killing of the animals have been a major talking point amongst viewers of the show since the episode aired, but Mazin has stressed they were nowhere near as extreme as the actual events they were based on.
"I know that was hard,"
he tweeted after the episode. "Just so there's no confusion - the story of the liquidators is real. It happened. And we actually toned it down from the full story."
"War leaves all kinds of scars,' he added. "These were the things men were ordered to do."
Following this, Mazin also assured viewers that the "hard part" was over, promising there would be no more guns and death in the remainder of the series.
https://twitter.com/clmazin/status/1133194007910076416
Chernobyl's fifth and final episode, entitled 'Vichnaya Pamyat'
, airs on June 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CysIGAf4Lqg
