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Chernobyl

A war between expedience and truth.

Mr. Legasov is a scientist. Chernobyl happens; Legasov has to investigate.

Something uncomfortable becomes clear: Though Soviet authorities *say* they want an investigation, they don't want an actual investigation. They don't want any facts that would implicate higher-ups. They just want to blame some technicians, some (certainly-foolish) yokels who were operating the switches.

The problem is that Chernobyl had a faulty design, and there was an awareness of this faultiness for many years.

Legasov--knowing he will likely die from radiation--does the brave thing. He says that he himself--and other scientists--must take responsibility for Chernobyl, because cost-cutting led to disaster.

In Legasov's climactic speech, you may recall "Spotlight"--where people did a brave thing, despite the fact that bravery can make a reporter unpopular. (People don't like seeing a system challenged, even when the system is clearly a mess.)

It's not great that the writers actually sort of invented this story for Legasov; the real behaviors of Legasov were a bit more complex and a bit less "stirring." But: What an adventure! I was captivated for most of this series, which won at least one major award, recently, for HBO.
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