Yeah, I knew that this was going to be directed by Taylor Sheridan, but then forgot about it until I was watching the second episode. (Edit - it's not Sheridan.)

For those interested in the history, here's the murder case the story focuses on: LINK This will obviously be spoilery to the show.

And here's the massacre that took place back in 1867:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_Massacre

It's David Mackenzie, not Sheridan (who wrote HorHW).

Oh, then I was all mixed up. Thanks.

Pretty good read on the adaptation process and all the work that went into researching and writing it for TV. Some spoilers.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-04-29/hulu-under-the-banner-of-heaven-mormon-church-andrew-garfield-true-story?_amp=true

Episode 3 is up. It's interesting how they're getting different characters to narrate the historical backstories to the other characters but really to the audience. On the surface, it's a historical recounting of Mormon history, but really the themes run a lot deeper and make for interesting discussions about religion in general.

Fantastic book. Certainly won't put the Mormons in a positive light.

I assume they have already put out a statement.

The church declined offers from the writer and director to provide input in the creative process, so they have no one to blame but themselves. (There's some good details about all the work they did in the adaptation process in the article I posted earlier.)

jeffk said:

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Yeah, I knew that this was going to be directed by Taylor Sheridan, but then forgot about it until I was watching the second episode. (Edit - it's not Sheridan.)

For those interested in the history, here's the murder case the story focuses on: LINK This will obviously be spoilery to the show.

And here's the massacre that took place back in 1867:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_Massacre

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Oh this is based on the mountain meadow massacre? Didn't realize that from the trailer.

Second only to the Bowling Green Massacre in US History.

The main focus of the show is the 1984 double murder, but they do flash back to show some historical events like Mountain Meadows, yeah.

This is such a well crafted story. The way they smoothly use exposition to slowly unravel both the crime itself as well as the history of the church is masterful.

They hit on the themes very well, too: the back to back scenes of Jen telling his wife that he's decided to postpone their daughter's baptism, followed by Allen confessing how he regretted having built a metaphorical cage for his wife was some nice screenwriting.

Read the book years ago and thought it was fascinating. Wife can't handle excessive violence or gore but I think she would find the story interesting. How violent is it? Trying to decide if I should watch it with her or alone.

They show lots of blood at the crime scene, but they haven't shown the actual murder or any gory corpses (at least through episode three). They do show some folks getting shot in the flashbacks, but nothing over the top violent imo.

jeffk said:

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They show lots of blood at the crime scene, but they haven't shown the actual murder or any gory corpses (at least through episode three). They do show some folks getting shot in the flashbacks, but nothing over the top violent imo.

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Thank you.

Yikes, I never knew there was such a Utah Mafia.

New episode out. You can tell they're really trying to distinguish the LDS church from the "fundies" in this show. That was a big criticism of the book (even though I thought JK was pretty straightforward in not equating the two).

Wyatt Russel is so damn convincing. I swear I've met many like him at A&M.

I didn't know he was Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn's kid until I googled him during Falcon and Winter Soldier. Also played hockey at Bama.

Really enjoying this so far

It's been years since I read the book but this series seems to have more in it than just the book as I recall anyway.

I think they have done a good job at adapting the book. The book was great but was half story and have detective novel because of the history involved. That is why I love the author. He goes back to the beginning to educate himself to get to the "tipping point".

dcAg said:

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I think they have done a good job at adapting the book. The book was great but was half story and have detective novel because of the history involved. That is why I love the author. He goes back to the beginning to educate himself to get to the "tipping point".

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I wondered how they were going to make the book work because it was part history lesson. I think they have done a good job of integrated that portion into the plotline.

I feel like even the non-fundamentalist Mormons crossed the line into caricatures in this episode.

Watched the first episode. It was good enough to hook me.

Really solid episode. Garfield and Birmingham are really killing it.

torrid said:

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I feel like even the non-fundamentalist Mormons crossed the line into caricatures in this episode.

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IDK. Talking with a few friends who grew up in SLC, they say it's been pretty accurate to their experiences there in the 1990s.

And the portrayals of the regular Mormons is pretty much spot on from my interactions and dealings with them.

There was a pretty big Mormon that used to post on the r&p board. He was pretty damn fanatical in his devotion to the authority of the church leaders and the official message. He was more than happy to "put his questions on the shelf". In his mind the meadow mountain Massacre was completely justified and righteous event (if it did occur because who knows the chruch doesn't talk about it) and the events in Nauvoo, IL began as a righteous retaliation lead by the Mayor (Joseph Smith) on a newspaper that was lying about the church led by the same Joseph Smith who then committed treason by tring to restore order by calling for a militia to install martial law were clearly the actions of a prophet of God.

I was confused by the lack of awareness of "blood atonement" since it is the reason Utah had and recently brought back the firing squad that Brother Pyre referred to. Though it seems like the church has officially backed away from the idea of blood atonement and now goes as far as calling it a "secular belief". But I would suggest that this is another in the long list of changed the church has made to make their organization more palatable to the general public (Beards required to beards prohibited, polygamy, blacks holding the priesthood, the change from "white and delightsome" to "pure and delightsome "etc)

jeffk said:

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torrid said:

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I feel like even the non-fundamentalist Mormons crossed the line into caricatures in this episode.

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IDK. Talking with a few friends who grew up in SLC, they say it's been pretty accurate to their experiences there in the 1990s.

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They still wouldn't call the police even with direct evidence of spousal abuse or child molestation?

There's documented cases where those crimes were covered up the church and it's members in order to prevent getting the authorities involved. (And this isn't unique to the LDS either, see the SBC news today or Catholic scandals in the last couple decades.)

Finale is out. Overall, I really liked the series. Felt very pertinent to recent events and discussions about other major religions.

Not sure if y'all noticed the emphasis placed on Brenda's letters in the final couple of episodes, but those were apparently some of the new documentation and evidence that the show had access to that the original book didn't. I thought it helped to recenter the events more on her instead of making her a plot point basically. The whole cast was awesome. I've mentioned Gil Birmingham and Garfield before but I also thought that Daisy Edgar-Jones was great and all the guys playing all the Lafferty boys were excellent - creepy and menacing and they sold their parts well.

My one complaint is how they made Pyre's wife threaten to leave him almost out of nowhere. Sure she takes her faith seriously, but he shows a little bit of a crisis of faith and she's ready to move out and remarry? Seemed very out of line with her character and the larger setting to me.

Damn good series

Really well done, and great look at the Mormon culture

I agree. I thought was well done. Really well done. I think it might even be more effective in showing what a ridiculous house of cards the Mormon faith is than the south park episode.

The south park episode showed how insanely stupid the history is, this showed how dangerous their history and beliefs are.

Well put...and the best part it's done Jon Krakauer...you know everything was well researched and planned...with validity