WACO - The Netflix Series...WOW
I had serious reservations about this one, especially having seen the hatchet job that was "In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco."
Now I'm no fan of Koresh, I think he was a deluded sociopath and religious predator that victimized naive true believers with his knowledge of the bible and his ability to interpret it in ways that benefited him and manipulated others. Of course his victims were partially to blame having surrendered control of themselves to the point that husbands were no longer able to maintain marriages with their wives and had to surrender them to Koresh.
I also think Koresh was a pedophile who believed he was entitled to anyone in his group, "because God revealed the plan to him", including 14 year old girls. Most of us would consider that a shitty plan, especially in light of how it all turned out. But Stockholm syndrome is a real thing and if you add religion the next thing you know everyone is making kool aid.
That said, the only people worse were ATF who sought to use the daylight raid as justification for demonizing assault weapons and the "fanatics who build arsenals" and the FBI HRT which was fresh off a rescue attempt where a man's son and wife were killed by law enforcement because he refused to become a confidential informant.
This series is amazingly "fair", and maybe too fair IMO. It dramatically humanizes Koresh in a way that you understand why he has "followers" and more importantly shows nearly every blunder, misstep and deliberate action that took things from bad to worse to more horrible than one can imagine.
Two books were used as sources:
Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator by Gary Noesner - Clearly this book was the most damning because it was "one of their own" and he was there for most of the bad ideas.
A Place Called Waco by David Thibodeau & Leon Whiteson - This was basically a survivor account and lets us know "more or less" what was going on inside. Thibodeau was a recent arrival and really couldn't be considered a "true believer" as he had little understanding of religion when he met the Davidians.
I can somewhat forgive the approach to Koresh as a "human" as he had already been presented as the devil in the 1993 "hit piece" and that film's writer, Phil Penningroth, has since disowned his screenplay as pro-ATF "propaganda."
And if you've seen any of the attempts at unbiased documentaries on the subject since then, you already know how deep the rabbit holes can run.
What really sets this series apart is coherence. You are given events inside and outside in a chronological order and you get to know most of the people involved, both inside and outside including the kind of person they are, what they are hoping to achieve and why they are doing what they do.
Better than anything else I've see, it really does present the events and let the chips fall where they may.
It is interesting that it took almost 30 years for something like this to come to light, especially in such a mainstream way and on a network that typically isn't sensitive to the plight of "religious extremists with guns."
Word of warning, it can be hard to watch. But probably everyone does need to see it, if for no other reason than to remember our government is also capable of a Tienanmen Square type event from time to time.
I still remember watching the "standoff" on the nightly news about the religious kook who thought he was rock n roll Jesus and I also remember watching the assault live as it happened.
I'm surprised by some of the people who actually participated, but I guess from Hollywoods perspective the "bad guy" is the US government so probably they are ok with it. And as much as I hate to admit it, people I mostly despise like Leguizamo turned in honest portrayals.
That said, I'm standing by for wicked backlash about the tv series that promotes religious kooks who sexually abuse their children as "victims."
It's hard to be a ACLU hating, philosophically Libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, scientifically grounded, agnostic, porn admiring gun owner who believes in self determination.
Chuck, we miss ya man.
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Originally Posted by Alpha-17
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