Under the Banner of Heaven is the polar opposite as everything is entirely somber and sometimes bleak, from its tone down to the color palette.
And that series benefitted from the lighter tone and familial dynamics to both educate – and some would say overly titillate – about the LDS and their former practice of polygamy. Showrunner and executive producer Dustin Lance Black is well familiar with fundamental Mormonism as he was a writer/producer on HBO’s hit series, Big Love. Overall, it causes plausibility issues and pacing problems that result in too much drag in how the story unfolds. Based on the bestselling book of the same name by journalist by Jon Krakauer, the series’ biggest misstep is adding a fabricated layer to the true-crime story and religious narratives by inserting the devout Mormon Detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) as the lead on the murder case. FX on Hulu limited series Under the Banner of Heaven recognizes this, and attempts to contextualize the religion’s origins and tenents against the backdrop of two brutal Salt Lake City murders in 1984. Almost 200 years into its existence, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the LDS Church or Mormonism, remains a mainstream mystery to most who aren’t members.
