The star-studded six-part miniseries, which features Taylor Kitsch as cult leader David Koresh alongside Michael Shannon, Rory Culkin and Andrea Riseborough, looks at how the infamous 51-day standoff took place.
Led by Koresh, a charismatic bible nerd, guitarist, singer and alleged rapist, the Christian Branch Davidians were suspected of stockpiling and modifying illegal weapons.
The show has copped criticism for its portrayal of David Koresh. Photo / Paramount
Waco attempts to look at both sides of one of the most contentious moments in US history — when the compound was destroyed after government tanks rammed the building and agents illegally fired tear gas.
The US Government said the Branch Davidians set fire to the building themselves as part of a religious mass suicide. However to this day that claim is vigorously disputed. Cult members say there was no plan for a mass suicide and the fire was triggered by government forces.
In the show, Michael Shannon, from The Shape of Water and 8 Mile, plays expert FBI negotiator Gary Noesner who was called to the siege to try and persuade followers to leave the compound peacefully.
The gripping miniseries features a star-studded cast. Photo / Paramount
However, the show portrays him as a lone wolf against the meat-head mentality of those around him who seem determined to drive the cult followers out by force.
KORESH CONTROVERSY
But it is the portrayal of Koresh and his followers which have caused a backlash against the show from some reviewers.
Mike Hale of The New York Times said some Americans would find that the show paints an "excessively, sympathetic portrait of Koresh and his followers".
Josephine Livingstone of the The New Republic wrote: "The intimate humanisation of Koresh and his followers comes across as a pure defence, a vindication of the rights of fringe groups to exist with huge stockpiles of guns without attracting the eye of law enforcement."
Other reviewers said the show makes the ATF and FBI look like "buffoons, barbarians, and jackasses" while making Koresh look like a "folk hero".
The show also looks at the US climate which led to the tragedy in Waco.
It begins by looking at the notorious Ruby Ridge standoff of August 1992, when US marshals tried to apprehend a man named Randy Weaver at his family's remote hillside cabin in northern Idaho.
Koresh believed he was a messiah. Photo / Supplied
Weaver hadn't shown up for his trial on weapons charges. However, the violent effort to arrest him turned deadly.
An initial exchange of gunfire left Weaver's 14-year-old son and a US marshal dead. Authorities then laid siege to Weaver's cabin for 11 days, in which an FBI sniper killed Weaver's wife, Vicki.
Many Americans, particularly in right wing groups, saw this event and the Waco siege the following year as attempts from the US government to disarm the public by attacking and suppressing anybody who didn't conform with deadly force.
Both events inspired terrorist Timothy McVeigh to plan a truck bombing attack in downtown Oklahoma City in 1995 which killed 168 people — making it the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in the country's history.
WHO WERE THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS?
When cult leader Koresh failed in his ambitions to become a professional musician in California, he journeyed out to Texas, where he took over a commune of the Branch Davidian church — calling himself the son of god.
His prophecy was that a great apocalyptic battle with Babylon was coming and there would be destruction, fire and deaths.
In February, 1993, exiled cult members began claiming publicly that Koresh had physically abused children in the compound and committed statutory rape by taking underage brides.
Several former cult members have accused him of having sex with girls as young as 10 and impregnating them. However, this has never been proven.
Koresh's message had spread as far as here in Australia and New Zealand. Followers jetsetted across the world to join the rock 'n' roll preacher in his cult compound.
"If you wanted to go to heaven, you had to have sex with David," she told CBS in a documentary. "I was so terrified that I started to flip out I guess."
Waco is expected to air in New Zealand on Sky's SoHo in 2019.
