Waco: The Aftermath

Overall the acting and the storytelling is great. But I've read a good deal about Waco and the writing is very one sided. While the writers are painting the FBI/ATF and the authorities in general in an accurate negative light, they certainly are making the Branch Davidians look like innocent anti-heros. They are glossing over a great deal of the insanity that was taking place there.

I will be honest, if it wasn't for the actors I would have stopped watching by now. But they really do a great job. And the writing style and storytelling is very intriguing and keeps you interested. I just wish they were taking a more equal stance.

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.

Seeing reviews that this shows the Branch Davidians as "innocent anti-heroes" and that the FBI/ATF and the authorities in general are being shown negatively. Not only is this not true (the show frequently criticizes the surviving Branch Davidians, for one), but even if it were true that would only be testament to how evil the government acted. What this show does not do is what many, including the government, tried to do which is blanket label them all crazy suicidal murderers and unfairly (an unfairness that was proven in court) convict them on this basis.

I highly recommend you give this show a watch only after finishing the first series as it will provide much context that I'm not certain many people have if they never watched it/forgot important details.

I knew about Waco but never paid attention to the mind-blowing information that came to light afterward.

I thought this series did a fantastic job of explaining the views of all sides. Waco and Waco: The Aftermath should be mandatory viewing for high schoolers.

As someone else said, the self-serving rules Karesh made re. Sex could have been covered more thoroughly. Karesh made a rule against anyone else having sex, even married couples. But he was allowed to have sex and impregnate even very young girls. That situation did warrant government intervention.

As the series explained, the ATF and the FBI used competing tactics to extract the members. The results were tragic.

I thought the actors were all well cast and they did a great job. There were many facets to this story, but it was all easy to follow.

I think the show is a perfect example of how to shed light on how our government and courts really work.

Short answer would be, it's a great story. The actors were good, i believe the story was fair, and I can't wait for more shows like this one.

As someone who is neither American nor Christian, and I'm not even white! :p so i can honestly say I have no horse in this race, and yet i watched this series and the prequel twice! That's how good this is

As for the story, it was really deep, and it made me ask myself lots of questions! Questions that I perhaps wouldn't have thought of, had it not been for this show. For example, even though koresh was a false prophet, was it really OK to judge,punish and/or kill his followers, for believing his false prophecies? His prophecies about the events at waco weren't even wrong! It's just that he was lying about being the messiah,I believe. Is it wrong to lie to people about god? Yes, but then again, there were hundreds of religions throughout our history, and many of those religions are proven to be false and/or wrong! Which means there were people who lied to their followers about talking to some god, long before koresh thought of the idea! Do we treat all those believers, some of them still living among us today, and believing in their ancestor's mythologies, as cultist or terrorists? No we don't. How many of today's religions and branches of religions or ideologies, are going to be remembered as BS in tomorrow's history books? Does that mean we should prosecute the people who bought them? I believe not. So with that piece of advice, I invite you to watch/rewatch this mini series,and judge for yourself, who was right? Guns or no guns, the ATF had no rights to invade and kill all those people in their home, without any provocations.