Jimmycakes

The sets, acting, plot setup, grittiness, yeah it was all good and drew me in. However very soon my fears were coming true and Netflix just had to insert "modern" dialogue and worldviews; the women complaining about how it's a "man's world", one woman casting doubt on her religion and ridiculing her friends for it despite people back then being fanatical about religion, it felt very ham-fisted almost like the show was apologising to the audience in advance for creating characters that aren't like us today. You had men talking about how many children they wanted and then it pans to the women and their remarks insinuate that the women don't want to have children and that they're the man's property. Very on the nose, and I rolled my eyes, I wondered if this was going to be a common theme. Then in the third act all hell lets loose and I must say it has some amazing action sequences, very gory, and for me it made up for the somewhat cringy dialogue scenes.

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.

Tokyo city, the Japanese culture, the crime syndicates, the relationships between the police and the criminals and the journalists. It's all so gripping. But the show doesn't spend as much time as it should on these aspects, instead we're treated to a western woman's bizarre personal story that really has nothing to do with the show, coupled with the main protagonist a man also from the USA who aspires to be a journalist. Inbetween that we get what we actually came to see and when it happens it's great the Japanese actors are fully convincing and interesting.

I can understand them giving us a westerner to relate to, and act as our entry way in to Japanese life and crime, but instead of building on that character and growing with him and then shifting focus on to the Japanese storylines once the audience was comfortable enough, it's like the show is too scared to leave that comfort zone. The protagonist meets a western woman and because of that we're supposed to divert our attentions away from the main story and care about this woman's personal strife. No. Show me what Tokyo crime is really like.