If we're talking about the HBO show, then calling it a documentary is just straight up wrong in the first place.

It's a "based on real events" TV drama that never claimed to be a rigorous retelling of the catastrophe.

There are a ton of immediate differences to reality that anyone even vaguely familiar with soviet history would notice.

It was never supposed to be more than the broad strokes though. Even those were largely unknown in the West.

Oh. People from English-speaking countries don't sink you with downvotes immediately for criticizing that show anymore. Nice.

Even the broad strokes are, eh, how do you say it, eh ... worse than Tom Clancy and that's an achievement I'm not sure everyone is capable of measuring.

It's funny though how such series about "USSR" talk in fact about something American. Reminiscent of the "17 moments of spring" series which were about a Soviet spy in Berlin in the last months of WWII, but mostly explored Soviet ideology and morality issues.

It wasn't as bad as I thought: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries)#Historical_accuracy