This looks absolutely brilliant.
A few months ago, we highly recommended the superb documentary Oklahoma City on Netflix and if you watched Barak Goodman’s film, you’ll know just how much of an influence the Waco siege had on Timothy McVeigh’s sinister motivation.
It’s highly likely that you’ve heard about the siege at Waco because the armed standoff between the Branch Davidians and the US military, the ATF and the local law enforcement agencies in Texas was one of the most violent, controversial and divisive acts of domestic violence in recent US history.
The siege began on February 28, 1993, when the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) attempted to execute a search warrant at Mount Carmel Center ranch, a property that belonged to the religious group Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.
The government believed that an extreme religious leader, David Koresh, was hoarding firearms and manufacturing drugs.
76 people including two pregnant women and over 20 children died during the siege.
In the miniseries, Friday Night Lights star Taylor Kitsch will play David Koresh, the leader of the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians, who led the standoff against the ATF.
After what became the longest gun battle in U.S. law enforcement history, the conflict ended after an FBI assault led to a fire that engulfed Mount Carmel, killing 76 men, women, and children.
What precipitated the ATF raid, and what transpired over the ensuing standoff, remains one of the most misunderstood stories in American history. Based on two biographies, A Place Called Waco, by Branch Davidian David Thibodeau, one of the nine survivors of the final fire on April 19, 1993, and Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator, written by the FBI’s Head of Crisis Negotiation Unit Gary Noesner, the six-part scripted series Waco looks incredible.
25 years after this seminal moment in American history, Waco will chronicle the true story of this event.
The superb Michael Shannon also features and he’s joined by Melissa Benoist and John Leguizamo.
The show premieres this January in the US and it looks great.
