Waco and Waco: The Aftermath (**Spoilers**)

JP Liz V1

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Waco

Michael Shannon and Taylor Kitsch Starring in ?Waco? Miniseries Based on 1993 Siege

In February of 1993, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) initiated a raid of the Branch Davidians ranch in Waco Texas. Led by David Koresh, the Branch Davidians were a subset of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and had operated their organization out of Waco since 1955. The ATF suspected the group of weapons violations and soon the raid quickly escalated into a shootout and a 51 day standoff, culminating in a fire that killed almost 80 of the group?s members on April 19, 1993. Now, Weinstein Television has announced that they are developing an event series based on the harrowing tale with Michael Shannon (?Midnight Special?) and Taylor Kitsch (?Friday Night Lights?), playing lead FBI negotiator Gary Noesener and Koresh respectively.

The series will be written by brothers John Erick and Drew Dowdle, who have previously collaborated on the horror films ?Quarantine? and ?As Above, So Below,? as well the recent action film ?No Escape.? John Erick Dowdle will direct the series. It will be largely based on two biographies: ?A Place Called Waco? by Branch Davidian David Thibodeau, one of the nine survivors of the final fire, and ?Sinful Messiah,? written by the FBI negotiator Gary Noesner. It will explore the true-life events leading up to the siege and chronicle the 51-day standoff and will be told from several perspectives from both sides of the conflict. The Weinstein Company are expected to shop the series out to networks next month.

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/08/michael-shannon-taylor-kitsch-waco-miniseries-david-koresh-weinstein-television-1201721825/

Julia Garner, Melissa Benoist, John Leguizamo, Paul Sparks and Shea Whigham join the six-part event series set to air on Paramount Network, formerly known as Spike, when it relaunches in January - Source TV Line

Agent Coulson

Spike TV will be rebranded to Paramount Network in January 2018.

WACO is a brand new 6-part series from Paramount Network based on the true story that shocked the world of religious leader David Koresh’s Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in 1993. WACO features a star studded cast that includes Michael Shannon, Melissa Benoist, Taylor Kitsch, John Leguizamo. Premieres this January.

Agent Coulson

Mr E

That looks amazing. A month away though...

Agent Coulson

It's being kept for the big launch rebrand of Spike to Paramount in mid January.

The Black Oil

I've a vague memory of our religion teacher in school referencing Koresh, though this was about 20 years ago and I could have that wrong.

Good to see Michael Shannon on the small screen again. I only watched s1 of Boardwalk Empire.

Agent Coulson

It was the early 90's '93 is memory serves me right without google.


I remember it as the time 24 hour news started here with the first gulf war and this happening.


RTE would shut down at midnight and go to a CNN feed for most of the night.

S.M.B.

I remember it vividly, a lot more than the OJ chase. Remember the movie pretty well too.

I'll be interested to hear how this turns out. Wouldn't be overly confident on it being my cup of tea based on who's behind it.

The Black Oil

iirc, it was on Clinton's watch, so Janet Reno (Attorney General) likely featured in there somewhere, or the aftermath.

Given this and the Unambomber series, I wonder what next - something about the Oklahoma massacre?

Mr E

Started in the States last night.

Agent Coulson

A bit of a mixed bag opening episode introducing the main players.


The FBI & ATF were introduced by the way of The Ruby Ridge siege.

The Black Oil

I was happy enough with it. Can't compete with what it might feel were it on cable, but I think it'll build fine week-by-week. Some of dialogue's a bit obvious. Kitsch's hair is mad in the wind! Michael Shannon's caught between the bureaucrats and trigger happy guys. Even though we know how it ends, there's a bit going on about who controls information.

Did anyone else think the soundtrack was a little Friday Night Lights ish?

Agent Coulson

Episode 2 was really good I felt and is not showing the FBI/ATF in a good light at all.

Agent Coulson

I would say the ATF are not to happy with the honest portrait that is being painted here.

Agent Coulson

Taylor Kitsch is a fantastic actor.

Hande hoche!

The Black Oil wrote: »

iirc, it was on Clinton's watch, so Janet Reno (Attorney General) likely featured in there somewhere, or the aftermath.

Given this and the Unambomber series, I wonder what next - something about the Oklahoma massacre?

Jonestown comes to mind.

degrassinoel

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Taylor Kitsch is a fantastic actor.

Has he improved since Battleship?

Agent Coulson

Powerful stuff and a really tragic that it was allowed to happen.

Pinkman

Very powerful. Michael Shannon, Taylor Kitsch, Paul Sparks and the rest were fantastic in this. It's insane that this was allowed to happen. Hopefully it gets added to Netflix soon.

NinetyForNone

seemed bit a bisased imho

The Black Oil

Pretty good show that kept the storytelling fairly tight, whilst keeping a strong focus on the human element. I could see points on both sides. Even knowing the outcome it was still sad to watch.

The old maxim “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy” comes to mind.

.red.

I started watching this the other day, 2 episodes left. I was only 12/13 at the time so didn't remember the story too well.
It's pretty good, so far anyway.

JP Liz V1

It startd on UKTV’s Alibi channel on Monday July 1st at 9pm

branie2

Anyone here watching this drama series about David Koresh and the Siege at Waco, which just started on Alibi? I'm watching the first episode, which I taped, and I have to say it's very good so far.

Mr E

Mod: Threads merged.

branie2

Sorry about that. I didn't know there was a thread about this already

extra gravy

Thought this was decent. What a horrible avoidable tragedy. It was quite sympathetic towards Koresh and I'm not familiar enough with the story to know if this was an accurate portrayal or not. Are there any good documentaries about it that anyone could recommend?

branie2

I'm taping the next episode tonight

Gimme A Pound

I'm finding this bloody good.

Michael Shannon is his solid self, I'm not convinced by John Leguizamo as an ATF agent... but Taylor Kitsch is something else as Koresh. Outstanding.

First two episodes - decent but nothing remarkable if you've done a bit of research on the subject matter. Liked that they shoehorned in the Ruby Ridge standoff which occurred the year before.

This week though - upped by a few notches. The shootout is stunning. The perspective of Koresh and the cult members to the media reaction - excellently done too. It is sympathetic to Koresh - I always thought he was a hypocritical monster. More complex than that though.

Really looking forward to the next instalment now.

Gimme A Pound

NinetyForNone wrote: »

seemed bit a bisased imho

Kinda is, but all the media coverage and documentaries I've seen were extremely biased against David Koresh.

The ATF and FBI didn't know how to handle things, and made terrible decisions. Easy for me to say of course. The man was stockpiling guns to beat the band, and having sex with underage girls.

Can't remember any documentary names in particular, extra gravy. Any I just stumbled across were interesting given what an extraordinary event it was.

I remember it being in the news all right - unavoidable. But was too young to be interested or understand the ramifications.

The Black Oil

It's back on April 14, with Waco: The Aftermath on Showtime. Good trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYjXrMp_ElM

Brief_Lives

I just started watching the original 2018 show Waco, it's very good... starting episode 3. Kitsch, Leguizamo and Shannon are very good...

Agent Coulson

Waco Aftermath was overall a very enjoyable follow up the the original series and with it just being 5 episodes long it is an easy watch.

pjcb

why not call it Oklahoma City