“Waco” deserves attention A Netflix feature is giving it

While most of the shows on Netflix’s top 10 newspapers list are their own originals, sometimes something slips away. And no, it’s not The Office, which everyone is watching for a dozen times in quarantine. For the past week or so it’s been Waco.

The show originates from the Paramount Network, which is what SpikeTV became after he was killed, and has been trying to become a “prestigious” channel like FX and AMC. While you may not have heard much about it (didn’t even know it existed before this week), it has been somewhat successful. First with Yellowstone (I hope it arrives soon on Netflix), but also with this Waco miniseries.

Waco has held his first spot on Netflix since his debut, right now hiding it at number 10, and I saw it all in one session a day ago and I can report that yes, it’s worth your time.

Waco tells the real-life story of the confrontation between the ATF / FBI and David Koresh’s Davidians sect in Waco, Texas, in 1993. As you know, it didn’t end well with 76 cult members killed, including more than two dozen children, all burned when the complex burst into flames at the end of the siege.

Waco is a “both-sided” look at the story, based on two different books, one by a surviving cult member, the other by an FBI hostage negotiator who was there. And while Koresh clearly did some rude things like marrying a 14-year-old girl and fathering a child with her, the main focus of the story is the overreaction by the United States government that escalated the situation and killed everyone. Waco makes it pretty clear that tear gas inserted into the building ignited, causing the fire, while the government claims the fire was purposely started as part of a mass suicide. The story told here makes that narrative almost impossible to believe.

By far, Waco’s best asset is its cast. It’s directed by Taylor Kitsch as David Koresh, who we loved as Tim Riggins so many years ago on Friday Night Lights, but he couldn’t live his turn when John Carter as Hollywood tried and failed to make it a box office hit. But he is excellent here as Koresh and features a stacked cast.

Probably the best look on the list is the Boardwalk Empire trio of Michael Shannon, Shea Whigham, and Paul Sparks playing an FBI negotiator, an FBI unit commander, and David’s right-hand man, respectively. They all performed powerful performances in their own right, each a talented actor. Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist is excellent as David’s “main” wife, though Ozark’s Julia Garner shines in a smaller role as her sister … also David’s (minor) wife. The strange man may be a surprisingly big role for Rory Culkin as one of the only survivors of the fire. He does it well, but among so many other talents, it’s a little difficult for him to stand out.

This is a haunting, horrible, sometimes surreal show, as I imagine it was to live 50 days of this in the 90s, when everything was on television. Things are going crazy, David putting on a rock show in the middle of the siege, even terrifying, as the women and children suffocate trapped in the house by the rubble while the rubble and smoke consume them.

Waco is sympathetic to most of the cult’s members, apart from perhaps David himself, who, despite the government’s overreaction, could probably have saved everyone’s life if he wasn’t so wrapped up in his own mythology.

But the general narrative is that we should not trust the government’s event log, as we see it destroy evidence that they first shot in worship when he initially got there and they They were responsible for the fire that killed everyone, even though it was not the official narrative.

It is a powerful miniseries and a story that needed to be told. I highly recommend giving it a try, given that it’s only six episodes with no “Waco Season 2” on the way.

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