Television series

Under the Banner of Heaven

Name: Under the Banner of Heaven
Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery
Released: 2022
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sam Worthington, Denise Gough, Wyatt Russell

A detective's investigation into a savage Utah murder unspools a family's descent into fundamentalist extremism and challenges his own unwavering faith. Urgent, grueling, and deeply moral without being preachy. For anyone who's caught by crime stories that burrow into ideology, family pathology, and the difference between belief and justification.

TVMaze rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a slow, layered true-crime drama that keeps widening from a single crime into questions about faith, family loyalty and institutional blind spots.

Skip it if the pace is deliberate and the subject sits heavy, so if you need quick resolution or a lighter evening, it will feel like work.

What it asks of you: Seven episodes of roughly an hour each, with a patient build and a lot of sitting with unease; it rewards attention and doesn't rush to explain itself.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

MINDHUNTER2017

A meticulous procedural about two FBI agents pioneering criminal psychology. Like *Under the Banner of Heaven*, it's fascinated by the minds behind violence—what breaks people, what justifies the unjustifiable—and balances technical precision with moral weight.

But Slower than true crime television. The investigation matters less than the philosophy, which will frustrate anyone wanting a taut plot.

Sharp Objects2018

A trauma-damaged journalist returns home to investigate a murder in a small town, only to find the real pathology runs through her own family. Dark, intimate, and built on the premise that violence and faith are often inseparable.

But Profoundly grim and bleak. No lightness, minimal humor, and the editing can feel deliberately disorienting.

Godless2017

A western town run entirely by women becomes the hiding place for an outlaw fleeing a fanatical cult leader. Stunning cinematography and a genuine engagement with how ideology uses scripture to control behavior.

But Doesn't quite balance its competing tones. The revisionist western elements sometimes undercut the cult story.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Under the Banner of Heaven

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Hereditary2018

Both use family horror as a vehicle for exploring how ideology and inherited trauma justify the unjustifiable.

A family descends into horror when a mother dies and supernatural terrors emerge. Ari Aster's masterpiece shares *Banner*'s obsession with family mythology, faith as justification, and the way inherited beliefs can destroy a household. It's a grief film wearing a horror mask.

But Genuinely disturbing and aggressively bleak. Not horror in the fun sense—it's a film about suffering that is very hard to sit with.

Spotlight2015

A Boston Globe team investigates systemic sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Methodical, ensemble-driven, and fundamentally concerned with institutions that protect abusers through faith and hierarchy.

But A procedural puzzle-box rather than an emotional thriller. Some find it workmanlike.

Manhunt2017

An FBI profiler tracks Ted Kaczynski by studying his manifesto and psychology. Like *Banner*, it's fascinated by how ideology, isolation, and belief create a closed system that justifies violence.

But Occasionally slow. The Kaczynski storyline overshadows FBI office politics some viewers find tedious.

Mare of Easttown2021

Kate Winslet as a small-town detective unraveling a murder that implicates the community she polices and loves. Quieter than *Banner* but equally committed to moral complexity and the cost investigation takes on faith.

But Patient to the point of glacial. The resolution frustrates some viewers who want the ending to be more cinematically tidy.

Mystic River2003

Three childhood friends collide when a murder resurrects trauma and faith in their working-class Boston neighborhood. Clint Eastwood's masterpiece about how communities weaponize belief to justify violence and protect their own.

But Heavy, hopeless, and unforgiving. The ending offers no catharsis, only grim reckoning.

The Righteous Gemstones2019

Both use a religious family's implosion to ask whether faith and belief can ever exist without becoming a tool for power.

A family of televangelists fractures into violence and moral chaos. Danny McBride's HBO series is *Banner*'s gothic carnival mirror—darkly comic where *Banner* is grave, but equally fascinated by how religious authority, family loyalty, and money corrupt faith into a weapon.

But Tonal whiplash. It swings between hilarity and brutality, which some find grating rather than energizing.