- «I read our history. All of it. All of that "personal revelation," it seems to me that it's just... men listening to their own selfish desires and calling it God. So, they can justify... anything. » This fascinating, excellent, intellectual, thoughtful piece of art has to be a "must see" and a mandatory viewing for all religious people. All these poor souls who think there's a merciful God who nontheless permits an Holocaust of 6.000.000 innocent souls in WWII's Germany, or a genocide of a million+ in Rwanda, or a massacre of 8.372 in Srebrenica or even an earthquake with 50.000 victims in Turkey. As an atheist, I can only repeat and say again and again my opposition to this Mormons' religion's doctrine, which happens to be all religions' doctrine: - If they tell you to put your questions on the shelf, never put your questions on the shelf. This is the only way to honor the memory of this poor mother Brenda Laferty and her poor 15 months old baby, victims of the fundamentalism of some half lunatics bigots fanatics who think God told them to spill blood, in order to save some other people by killing them. As the Indian detective says "religion is allergic to the facts, because facts lead to truth".

My main issue with the show is that episodes are way too long (none are under an hour), I don't think it is justified.

Was ready to quit this after first episode but just finished the third and its starting to get better,stick with it.

Under the Banner of Heaven made me feel constantly disturbed for seven consecutive episodes and not because of the gruesome deaths (even though they don't help) but because I reached a point where the religious theme, and especially if religious organizations are the topic, I'm just overly disturbed. Every time it started showing manipulation, officials spewing lies, and the whole lovely approach to women, I was all physically tense, snorting and huffing and puffing, visibly anxious, while spectator number 2 held my hand trying to calm me down. Jesus. That being said, Andrew Garfield is great, the whole cast of actors is really effective, it's beautifully shot (even though there's a palpable step down after the first two David MacKenzie directed episodes), the detective story plot works well and the feeling of fingernails scratching on the chalkboard never goes away.

Superb mini-series. You could make a blockbuster movie with its cast no problem, it reminded me a lot of True Detective seasons 1 and 3. Besides being an excellent drama, it's also a history lesson for non-Americans like me who have heard the term "mormon" but had no idea what it actually means and how these people are. It really hits you how manipulative and filthy religion really is, of any kind, not just mormonism. Andrew Garfield is slowly becoming my favorite actor.