Netflix
David Koresh was the leader of a doomsday cult whose members believed he was the messiah and that they were destined to perish in a conflict with the U.S. government. And on April 19, 1993, following a 51-day standoff with the FBI, that prophecy came true. Setting his Mount Carmel ranch compound on fire, thereby killing dozens of his own disciples (including children), Koresh committed the unthinkable. Thus, when someone refers to this incident in Waco: American Apocalypse as a “tragedy,” it’s difficult not to view it as one explicitly brought about by the madman, who for good, ugly measure was also a pedophile, polygamist, domestic abuser, and armed insurrectionist.
Tiller Russell’s three-part Netflix docuseries Waco: American Apocalypse (March 22) is an even-handed examination of Koresh, his Branch Davidian outfit, and the fight they instigated with law enforcement. It features interviews with figures on both sides of the story’s divide, from negotiators, tactical agents, snipers, and journalists, to surviving cultists, who even today profess their innocence and victimhood at the hands of a tyrannical government. Providing a 360-degree view of those fateful months in 1993, it addresses many of the arguments that have raged over the past 30 years regarding Koresh’s villainy and culpability, his adherents’ crucial roles in stoking the conflagration, and the law enforcement mistakes that may have thwarted a peaceful outcome.
What it ultimately presents, however, is a portrait of a catastrophe that its chief player always sought, and worked tirelessly—and successfully—to make a reality.