Waco

I dunno, it felt like a TV movie, which I guess it was. Still, the cast is pretty impressive. Kitsch does well in a role that can't be easy, but the whole presentation felt weighted towards painting the ATF and FBI as buffoons and making sure there were sympathetic characters on the Davidian side. To be sure, there was sympathy and buffoonery to be had on all sides, and in spades. In the end, its a talented cast raising it above the level of mediocre writing and directing.

Shannon and Kitsch are tasked with dramatizing the two sides of this standoff while the writers try and tip toe on a line of avoiding placing the blame directly on either side. It at times presents Koresh as someone who is worthy of sympathy and paint the FBI as unwilling to try and reason with these people. The truth lies somewhere in the middle and the middle ground is what allows this show to exist. Those on either side maintain their truth. We the people will never know.

This focuses on the siege and standoff, with very little by way of background, and especially focuses on the militarization of law enforcement. And goddamn does it really drive home that point. In that regard, I think it's an important series. The flip side of it is that you really don't get a great sense of the Branch Davidians and how everything came to a head, and it is very, very friendly to David Koresh.

Less Taylor Kitsch, more Michael Shannon. Kitsch is decent actually, but I just always want more Michael Shannon. Have him play both parts. Ah, screw it, just have Michael Shannon play all the parts, even the women and children. There are a lot of little things that could be done to bring this up to the next level. It's held back by focus issues, budget constraints, editing problems, and some, at times, weak scripting and direction. Cool to see so many Boardwalk Empire actors re-team.

Well worth a watch.

Beats that kindergarten Kaczynski thing I guess, but not by much. Forgoing any elaboration on the sect's history was a poor choice. Maybe it would have made the meticulously sympathetic Davidians into just too bigga suckers. Citing the limited scope and skimpy ep count as admirable restraint seems like the wrong end of the telescope. The lack of serious engagement makes it feel like a dumb '90s hostage movie bloated to six hours, with updated lip service. Which is not to say it's "wrong".

Starts a bit rough as it takes time to try and build sympathetic characters, but slowly gets more tense as it progresses. I also appreciate the restraint by not dragging this out far longer than it needed to, with six episodes being a fairly good length. Cast is great as expected, with Kitsch and Shannon as standouts. The rest are good too, even if Whigham and Culkin more or less play their usual character types. Recommended.

I loved this but it might have been because I watched it right after I finished reading a bunch of books about the FBI and the CIA being mostly malevolent forces domestically and abroad. They really are though- just as violent, arrogant, and childish as the worst municipal cop who just sits in his car all day fantasizing about killing 'criminals' but with more power and resources and directed by the most cretinous cowardly malignant lizard-like Americans (the ruling class, broadly speaking).

If Reqiuem for a Dream was a PSA against drug abuse, this is the analog for federal law enforcement's abuse of Americans' civil rights. In short, it's a highly politicized melodrama that's designed to be as cruelly devastating as possible under the veneer of detached objectivity. It's not quite objective as it seems, but given that militarization of American law enforcement is still a pressing problem almost 30 years later, the minor inaccuracies are forgivable.

I'll watch anything with michael shannon but something about this just feels kind of cheap