The Violence of Faith..

Under the Banner of Heaven is an American true-crime drama miniseries created by Dustin Lance Black, adapted from Jon Krakauer’s 2003 investigative book of the same name. The series dramatizes the real-life 1984 murders committed by brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, whose violent acts against their sister-in-law and her young daughter emerged from a self-styled theology of prophetic revelation and religious extremism.

Premiering on April 28, 2022, via FX on Hulu, the miniseries stars Andrew Garfield and Gil Birmingham as detectives navigating the intersection of faith, violence, and institutional secrecy within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The narrative interweaves the procedural structure of a murder investigation with historical flashbacks to the Church’s nineteenth-century foundations, creating a dual timeline that examines how religious orthodoxy can evolve — and fracture — into radicalism.

Critical reception was largely positive, with reviewers singling out the performances of Garfield and Wyatt Russell for their depth and restraint. However, the series also provoked renewed debate over its portrayal of Mormonism and historical accuracy. Relatives of the victims, as well as law enforcement figures associated with the case, publicly noted the show’s departures from documented fact, reigniting questions about the ethical boundaries of dramatizing real-world trauma and faith-based violence.

Krakauer’s 2003 book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, approached the Lafferty case as both a journalistic inquiry and a sociological study of religious fundamentalism within the broader history of the LDS Church. Through detailed reportage, Krakauer situated the murders within a continuum of dissent and revelationism that had characterized Mormon splinter movements since the late nineteenth century. His analysis foregrounded questions of authority, prophecy, and institutional control, presenting the Laffertys not as aberrations but as products of a recurring tension between orthodoxy and zealotry in American religion.

In adapting this work for television, Dustin Lance Black necessarily transformed Krakauer’s polyphonic narrative into a more linear, character-driven framework. The series employs the fictional detective Jeb Pyre (played by Andrew Garfield) as a narrative conduit — an invented protagonist whose personal crisis of faith mirrors the viewer’s own confrontation with the moral ambiguities of belief. This device reframes Krakauer’s historical argument into a psychological study of religious doubt and institutional complicity. While the book operates as a documentary exposé, the series translates its inquiries into a dramatized exploration of faith unraveling under the weight of historical violence.

However, this shift from investigative nonfiction to serialized drama also introduces interpretive risks. By embedding the story in the conventions of noir and spiritual crisis, the adaptation blurs the line between cultural critique and moral allegory. The result is a series that is less about the Laffertys themselves than about the broader structures — religious, patriarchal, and ideological — that made their extremism legible. In doing so, Under the Banner of Heaven extends Krakauer’s thesis beyond its journalistic origins, turning the question of “violent faith” into a meditation on the fragility of belief systems when confronted with power, gender, and revelation.

Under the Banner of Heaven is the Featured Television Blog of the month for October, for its theme of Faith, State & Performance — when belief and power decide what “truth” looks like, you can expect a detailed critique of the series where we look at the Utah v. Lafferty, there is also a recommendation that includes a look at what the series got right and what it dramatized. There is also a detailed review of Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. For the interview, Andrew Garfield talks with Good Morning America about the series. There is also a Top Ten List, and for Under the Banner of Heaven, My Top Ten Religious Series. Last but not least, the Featured Television Blog of the month includes an Official Trailer for the featured series!

You can watch the Official Trailer for Under the Banner of Heaven Below:

Under the Banner of Heaven is available now with a subscription to Hulu…