Waco: The Aftermath

I knew about Waco but never paid attention to the mind-blowing information that came to light afterward.

I thought this series did a fantastic job of explaining the views of all sides. Waco and Waco: The Aftermath should be mandatory viewing for high schoolers.

As someone else said, the self-serving rules Karesh made re. Sex could have been covered more thoroughly. Karesh made a rule against anyone else having sex, even married couples. But he was allowed to have sex and impregnate even very young girls. That situation did warrant government intervention.

As the series explained, the ATF and the FBI used competing tactics to extract the members. The results were tragic.

I thought the actors were all well cast and they did a great job. There were many facets to this story, but it was all easy to follow.

I think the show is a perfect example of how to shed light on how our government and courts really work.

There's certain things that I like and quite a few that I don't about this production. I've never been a big fan of chronological mayhem, when the timeline is bouncing erratically all over the place just like this was. It is a trick used by many of these miniseries to help stretch a two hour movie story into 20 hours of streaming service boredom.

Although this was actually a good script if it was presented chronologically consistent, the use of Giovanni Ribisi in a main role was the huge mistake. I have commented about his acting... or should I say lack of acting ability on other productions. But this one... he was so miscast it was just annoying. His thin voice and mumbling just makes it too hard to watch.

Once again, thank VLC for the ability to watch this in a player that allows 2.0 times the speed which definitely sped up not only the time to watch it, but the story pace reducing this to what it should've been.... a two hour movie.

Well written, well acted and addictive viewing. Binge watched this over 2 days.

What I found most interesting was my pre conceived ideas about the branch Davidian's were ill informed (by incessant negative media coverage). They were a lot more sane, rational and human than I had previously thought.

A good pointo worth making is that it showed both sides of the story. It did show the deficiencies in the FBI and ATF tactics and the davidian members who were not entirely innocent themselves.

Michael Shannon (who would make a very good Frankenstein) and Giovanni Ribisi put in a good shift here. Acting is top notch.

Overall I feel like the show missed a big opportunity to build on a lot of the conspiracy aspects of the Waco incident (think Waco: Rules of Engagement documentary meets The People v. O. J. Simpson,) and turned this into a incredible court room focused drama with some flashbacks. Ultimately this is 3 stories crammed into 5 episodes. The the trial of the Branch Davidians; Gary Noesner and his uncovering of para military groups; and David Koresh's origin story.

Each story feels quite thin and vague, either not enough time to properly flesh out the characters and backstory or there just really isn't much material to explore. The Gary Noesner plotline especially feels like filler and a quick way to try and bring tension and action.

Many one dimensional characters and stories throughout and the series is rapidly switching back and forth between them. Compared to season 1 which keeps us at Mount Carmel with our characters and only slight deviations, this is why I believe only focusing on the trial would have been more entertaining and engaging. There are some shining stand out moments though.

Right off the bat I have to mention Giovanni Ribisi as the lawyer representing the Branch Davidians, in every scene he's such an interesting actor to watch but we don't spend enough time with him and to appreciate his relationship with the Branch Davidians and see it grow.

The actor playing Branch Davidian Clive Doyle is totally believable and creates a sympathetic and human character, but again, it's a shame the series jumps about so much, we just never get to stay with them.

As with other films/shows regarding sensible topics, I would like to start by saying that I'm not from the U. S., just so you know this review has no bias whatsoever. I also want to point out that I had no knowledge of what happened in Waco before watching the first part of this series (Waco - 2018), and that this is now all the "knowledge" I have about it. So I can't speak for the historical accuracy.

What I can speak about is the entertainment value of this series, which in my opinion is the whole point. I mean, if you are looking for accuracy, you better watch a documentary. And as an entertainment product this was very good. It felt gripping from start to finish, the same way the first part was. Good performances all around, good dialogues, nice pacing, and even courtroom drama.

If you enjoyed the first part you will surely enjoy this.