Waco

Trying to evenly portray the position of both sides of the siege couldn't, logically, work out 100%. When we have, on the one hand, a pragmatic state machine with ninety advisers in tents over maps and walkie-talkies and, on the other, deeply religious misfits who wait with all sincerity for intervention from above, a faith that cannot be questioned in a people who confidently and on the spur of the moment throw their wives and daughters into the frayed bed of their leader, it is obvious that it will not be easy to find a uniform formal method for such a work. The Dowdle bros go to town on this, building the entire series around the internal conflicts on both sides, from which we know from the start whose side the truth is on. The problem is that the series only plays at ambiguity, because while the problematic aspect of the Waco community occupies the series, especially in the first two episodes, by the last four, thanks to the police intervention, those two are virtually forgotten and we only watch a cavalcade of crappy decisions logically culminating in the final disaster. And then with the last shot it becomes perfectly clear who’s being presented as being in the right in the finale. As much as it's impossible to disagree with the writers on this (we're talking about the nature of the intervention, not the nature of the community), the position should have been obvious from the start and not prostituting itself to instant tension and attractions. (2019.05.25)

The series as a whole is excellent with great acting performances. I had the advantage of being completely impartial and didn’t have to worry about taking sides. If there’s anyone I hate as much as the Big Brother, it’s all kinds of religious fanatics. Although the creators tried to approach the whole affair from both points of view, it seemed to me that they treated David Koresh somewhat benevolently. After all, he wasn’t just a harmless hippie but a major scumbag. (2018.10.07)