Everything Waco Thread

Here's some vid of Melissa doing press tour for Waco...

Thanks for that, Evrafter. She is really interacting with the fans and happily talking with them, not rushing off after a squibble or 2. What a great person.

I think Mel did a fine performance. Like Sully noted, she was very effective in using facial and body expressions. One scen that sticks out is when she goes on tape and talks about her father being killed and “thank you very much.” It is virtually an exact copy of Rachel in the original tape.

While I think the miniseries lags at times, the actors all give outstanding performances. I want to just strangle the HRT commander played by Shea Wigham. In summary, I think that Mel can a part, whatever its size, and build on it. She certainly does so throughout Waco.

Argo

I think Mel did a fine performance. Like Sully noted, she was very effective in using facial and body expressions. One scen that sticks out is when she goes on tape and talks about her father being killed and “thank you very much.” It is virtually an exact copy of Rachel in the original tape.

It doesn’t surprise me at all if there’s a tape of Rachel that Melissa would be able to precisely recreate it. Someone did a mashup of the “General would you care to step outside” line from the crossover and when Christopher Reeve said it. She has the exact same facial expression and look in her eyes. I like to think this is one of many times Christopher Reeve is smiling down looking at her performance.

Looking forward to watching this. I had to double-check that my cable company actually carries this network. Since they don't carry the CW, I can't take anything for granted with them. And, yep! They do, so all is good.

I noticed that Melissa is doing a great deal of promotion this week for it. It made me wonder if, allowing her this time off to spend on promotion was a contributing factor to the delay in Supergirl. Not THE only factor, just one that, when added with other issues, made them decide it might be better to have a break in February.

Either way, I'm thankful that she works for a company that is supportive in letting her continue to spread her acting wings.

Glad you found it. I’m debating whether to start watching right away or wait for the nine week break.

I think many factors contributed to the production delay and Melissa doing all this promotion could have been one of them. Her part was originally going to be smaller so this level of promotion probably wasn’t planned when she took the part.

Paramount is ultimately owned by CBS which is a partner in CW so they’re getting something from Waco’s promotion. Nevertheless it is nice to see that the network cares about letting actors do different projects. My hope is with these good reviews producers will start to schedule filming around Supergirl’s production schedule to get Melissa in thier projects.

Ladies, any word on Melissa's performance/Rachel's story in Episodes 4 and 5?.

I thought that Melissa had more of an opportunity in Episode 5 to shine and she did very well with that opportunity. She does such a good job using facial expressions and body language to emote that, even when she has few lines in a scene, she leaves an impression on the viewer. In this episode, I liked her in the chapel scene and really felt that she, as Rachel, was starting to pull herself away from David a bit.

@Evrafter- Yes, I think that the FBI tactical agent, Mitch, was the most harmful. He screwed up Ruby Ridge and then went into Waco on a real power trip. But, yeah, the top FBI guy was an idiot, too.

As far a s marrying Rachel at 14, the age of consent at the time in Texas was 14, with parents permission, permission was given. So crazy, but legal.

Wow. Just...wow. Wonder why leaving in pajamas then.

I don't know, but according to family members he had permission from her parents.

Ew *shivers*

Can you EVEN picture one of our students at that age going through that? *shivers again*

I guess because I teach AP Human Geography and World Geography going on 28 years....and one of the things we have to do is to step outside of ourselves, our mores, our values, our perspective, our environment and look at all things in as much of an unbiased manner as we can in order to study other religions, cultures etc...that it is very easy for me to understand how this could happen when you have a group of people, that are following a book that was written in a different time period, different land, etc and basing their entire existence on it it would look very strange to us. Yet if we asked people in the Middle East, who live under Sharia Law, who follow ancient texts so closely as to live their lives to the most specific detail they would probably totally understand these people and how they live their lives. It's not really a matter of right or wrong.....if I look at it totally from my perspective, it is ALL KINDS OF WRONG. But, I don't tend to do that....it's just habit.

So though it may seem cold to some, it is a different religion, different culture, different way of life...that is pretty much how I look at it.

Now, where the deviance of it really comes in is when Koresh begins to make up new rules of their lives, and what were his motives behind that.....I look at the ATF, FBI, etc in much the same way....in their decision making were they changing the rules to suit what their motives were....I think in both cases...yes, and that is why you began to see people questioning Koresh, and questioning the ATF, FBI etc....and their actions.

Thanks for posting these. I'm looking forward to watching this when it airs, mostly because of Melissa's appearance in it

Stoked!! So apparently then, Melissa's part wasn't that big. But once the writers and producers saw how good she was, they kept giving her more and more dialogue? AWESOME sauce.

It will be interesting to see if she wins and supporting actress awards from this. For those outside of the States, Paramount has promoted the HECK out of this miniseries.

Anyone else remember when Waco happened? I remember watching it all go down on the news when I was a junior at BYU.

Yeah, I watched that exclusive 3 times to make sure I'd heard right. I was so proud of her.

Seriously tho, if you were a writer, wouldn't you want to write for this actress. I think she's a writer's dream. You don't have to write to her strengths. You write the material and she'll deliver. The great thing about her is that I don't think about any other part she's played when I'm watching her work. I'm not thinking Marley when I watch Kara. I'm not thinking Kara when I'm seeing these clips etc. She really has the potential to be a seriously great character actor and I'm thrilled for her that she's already becoming known for character work. Directors love that.

Marc Guggenheim in a recent interview was fangirling her, stating that there was nothing you can write that she can not act.

I know, I know, I have a serious crush on this girl's work.

Anyone else remember when Waco happened? I remember watching it all go down on the news when I was a junior at BYU.

I was a high school sophomore so yah I remember. There was a guy a year below me who’s mom died in the siege. She left him and his dad to join the Branch Davidians when he was young, so he didn’t really remember his mom. I didn’t know him that well and everyone at school accepted that he didn’t want to answer a lot of questions about it when it first happened. I had drama class with him my senior year and he wrote a scene about the one time he saw her after she joined. His dad was afraid his mom would kidnap him and take him to the compound.

Yeah, I watched that exclusive 3 times to make sure I'd heard right. I was so proud of her.

Seriously tho, if you were a writer, wouldn't you want to write for this actress. I think she's a writer's dream. You don't have to write to her strengths.

Writing to her strengths assumes that she has a weakness in acting and if she has any, I have yet to see them . I've never been so blindsided by an actor/actress' talent before. Most of the time, I have heard of them and they have received many positive accolades for their work beforehand so, I am not surprised when they are actually THAT good. Melissa started off pretty good in Supergirl but, she rose to impressive very quickly in Season 1.

Anyone else remember when Waco happened? I remember watching it all go down on the news when I was a junior at BYU.

I'm one of those that can't remember where I was when last week happened, lol. But, I do remember watching this on the news when it happened. It was so crazy. It will be interesting to see more behind what went on. The information we got at the time was very lean in details.

I was a sophomore so yah I remember. There was a guy a year below me who’s mom died in the siege. She left him and his dad to join the Branch Davidians when he was young, so he didn’t really remember his mom.

Wow, that's terrible. I heard that those kinds of things went on and still go on in cults but, to know someone that it happened to would really bring it closer to home.

BTS of the making of Waco



And Waco Opening Scene

While doing Waco press tour, Melissa discusses new atmosphere on set after A. Kriesberg...

Melissa will be part of the panel that join BUILD to have a conversation about the new Paramount Network miniseries, "Waco." Mon, January 22, 2018
2:30 PM – 3:00 PM EST. This event will be streamed LIVE on BUILDseries.com

Waco premiere...



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5300495/Melissa-Benoist-dazzles-pink-silk-gown-Waco-debut.html#v-8200143488276840874

However, the breakout performance of Waco could likely be that of Melissa Benoist (Supergirl) as Rachel Koresh, David's first wife and recognized matriarch of the Mount Carmel religious community. At first, Rachel seems quiet and unassuming, then you quickly learn how she carefully operates behind the scenes. In Benoist's performance, she turns Rachel into the character that most intrigues you. There is so much more going on behind her eyes and you're struck by how smart the character is, becoming not only David's wife but his confidant and advisor and one of the few women whom he respected. In recent interviews, the producers admitted Rachel's role was originally much smaller but quickly expanded it once they saw Benoist's take on the character.

Full review at Spoilertv.com

https://www.spoilertv.com/2018/01/waco-advance-preview.html

interview with Melissa about waco

Wow! Very well paced, intriguing series, thus far. Terrific acting. Koresh sure was some charismatic slime.

Melissa hasn't had too much screen time, as of yet, due to the fact that they were mainly laying down a foundation for Koresh, his best friend Steve (who's wife Koresh had a child with...after Koresh miraculously had a revelation that the men would remain celibate and HE would take on the burden of reproducing duties), Thibodo (who actually wrote the book...one of the survivors... The heavy set gentleman in all the promotion events), and the ATF agent. You CAN, though, already tell Melissa's character IS queen bee, as has been described.

I read somewhere, I think it was tvguide.com, that Waco was getting good reviews; but that the "surprise break out star here might very well be Melissa Benoist."

Waco started trending on Twitter. Read a lot of tweets saying they stumbled upon the show by accident, but couldn't stop watching. I saw a few people shocked... "Oh look!! it's Supergirl!!!"

I will say, this first episode did a really good job making you want to ummm... firmly express yourself to the tv, "What is wrong with you people?" lol They weren't forced to stay, didn't suffer from Stockholm Syndrom, and didn't appear to be socially inept. On the contrary, some were once rich, well traveled, educated (one from Harvard, another with a doctorate, etc etc).

Welp... Being I live in Utah (yes, I am Mormon. No we don't practice polygamy ), we DO have quite a few students in our school who have escaped the Warren Jeff's community located about 3.5 hours south of here. No, he's not Mormon... They're FLDS... Fundamentalist LDS.

ANYway... The students I have had who escaped, a few had been married at 13 and 14. And I have had some of the young men who had escaped, as well. ALL of them have struggled socially, emotionally, and mentally. They're struggling to adjust to "the outside world"." Though, I've noted the boys are MUCH quicker to adjust. They're usually quite behind in schooling, as well. Two of my students were on tv quite a bit when they escaped--even appearing on Dr. Phil a few years ago. One of the sisters couldn't adjust, and escaped her mother's and made her way back to the polygamist community.

I've seen similarities between the two groups. But, with how the group's been portrayed on Waco... they do seem a bit more grounded...minus, of course, Koresh. We shall see.

Well, to be clear.....I don't equate either of those groups with LDS. I have several friends who are Mormon and they are as richly spiritual as any Southern Baptist, Catholic, etc that I have ever known....I don't agree with them on everything, but I also don't agree with my SB and Catholic friends either on everything. I would probably be considered a Deist if I sat down long enough with someone to pick my spiritual brain.

I guess for me, what I'm trying to say is.....I have for so many years tried very hard to teach myself, and my students to learn about other beliefs, cultures, etc without falling into a ethnocentrism type of thinking, and so that just finds its way into how I view things, and it finds its way into how I view shows, movies, etc as well....sometimes without even realizing it, I may come off as unfeeling, and that's not it at all....I found myself wondering what these people's lives would have been like had they not all died in that fire, and without David Koresh in their lives.