According to a '' Forbes '' article , top UCLA doctor Robert Gale who treated radiation victims in Chernobyl takes issue with the portrayal of Soviet authorities as reluctant to seek outside help . " I was immediately invited to come to Moscow and shortly thereafter to bring three colleagues , ” Gale writes . “ In my experience dealing with nuclear accidents , this is rather unusual and indicates a desire to do everything possible to help the victims — throwing politics to the wind . And whilst in Moscow , we were free to expropriate supplies and equipment from many Russian medical centers . " Gale says the accident was impossible to cover-up , as portrayed by HBO . " Anyone looking at the destroyed reactor building , mass of firefighting equipment , and personnel streaming into the reactor complex — the smoke from the fire clearly visible from Pripyat about 4 km away etc. — I can not imagine anyone would try to cover this up . It would be like standing in lower Manhattan after destruction of the Twin Towers and pretending there was no problem . " " All governments try to contain bad news of this type , " notes Gale . " I see rather little difference between the initial U.S. government reaction to the Three Mile Island ( TMI ) accident , the initial Japan government reaction to the Fukushima-Daiichi accident , and the Soviet response to Chernobyl . " Families that lived in the nearby area at the time of the disaster , have criticized the series as provocative and politically motivated , giving a different view of the events and the aftermath , as well as the way the people reacted . '' Chernobyl '' received widespread critical acclaim . On Rotten Tomatoes , it has a 96 % approval rating with an average score of 9 out of 10 , based on 76 reviews . The site 's critical consensus reads , " '' Chernobyl '' rivets with a creeping dread that never dissipates , dramatizing a national tragedy with sterling craft and an intelligent dissection of institutional rot " . On Metacritic , it has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 , based on 26 critics , indicating " universal acclaim " . On IMDb , over 300,000 users gave the show an average rating of 9.5 stars out of 10 , making it the second-highest rated TV show on the platform
Three Mile Island ( TMI ) accident
Three Mile Island accident
Chernobyl (miniseries)