The lone scientist hero myth is hardly unique to science, it's an abstraction that you see in all narratives that use a leader to represent a group. There are

The lone scientist hero myth is hardly unique to science, it's an abstraction that you see in all narratives that use a leader to represent a group. There are few scientific characters because the show chooses to focus on the political/systemic failure rather than the technical one. It shows us the leaders who bury their heads in the sand, the clueless residents who suffer as a result, and the liquidators who are aware of the dangers and make the sacrifice regardless. It's more a show about communism than it is about nuclear power, and I really like their take on the disaster.