‘Under the Banner of Heaven,’ Starring Andrew Garfield, Reframes a Mormon Murder Case With Care: TV Review

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticOn the most basic level, it makes sense that Hulu’s “Conversations With Friends” would try to echo what made its “Normal People” adaptation so successful. Once again enlisting director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Alice Birch, and once again starring a female actor (Alison Oliver) who resembles author Sally Rooney and a male one specifically poised to become a breakout thirst object (Joe Alwyn), “Conversations With Friends” follows the “Normal People” pattern so closely that it often feels more like a faded impression rather than its own series.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticThe barest bones of “The Essex Serpent” make up a familiar enough story, whether taking place today or, as this new limited series does, in the late nineteenth century. An ambitious and attractive woman, seeking answers about what she should do next with her life, leaves the big city for a small town, where she meets an equally attractive man and finds that everything is more complicated than it seems.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticHardly a minute goes by on “Girls5Eva” without at least three jokes sharper than some comedies manage in an entire episode. And yet, the funniest moment of the Season 2 premiere (“Album Mode”) is a series of nonsensical words sung over a single close-up on a person struggling to remain on this earthly plane.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticIf you’re already a fan of “Hacks,” chances are you’re one of two kinds of viewers. Either you’re in it for the prickly dynamic between Gen Z writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) and legendary stand-up comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), or you try to ignore Ava and instead focus on TV veteran Smart, playing the woman writing Ava’s checks with perfectly acidic disdain.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticHalfway through the final episode of “Candy,” I had to pause to answer the door. I was four and a half hours deep into Hulu’s newest “based on true events” limited series, this time about a suburban friendship that ended in horrifically fatal consequences in 1980.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticWatching “The Pentaverate” with the purpose of reviewing it gave me enormous sympathy for Wile E. Coyote trying to trap the Roadrunner while knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it would end in him getting flattened.

This is a relatively spoiler-free of Under the Banner of Heaven, based on the first five episodes.You know her. She's softly backlit underneath a billowing white sheet.

on Hulu (even though it hails from FX) and based on the nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer (“Into The Wild,”) “Under the Banner of Heaven” is set in 1984 Utah and follows Mormon family man Detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) as he investigates the murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones, “Normal People”) and her baby daughter. The grisly crime shakes up the pious small-town community where most of the cops haven’t even seen a dead body.Spoiler alert: the culprits are Brenda’s brothers-in-law, Ron (Sam Worthington, “Avatar”) and Dan Lafferty (Wyatt Russell), who murdered her for “God told me to do it” reasons.

Andrew Garfield may be taking a break from acting, but when he returns, he’ll be abiding by the same rule he has for every role he chooses.

Ripped from the headlines. Andrew Garfield is the latest star to get in the true crime game with his new series, Under the Banner of Heaven.

After soaring to new heights in 2021, Andrew Garfield’s acting career continues to peak with his latest role in the FX true-crime series “Under the Banner of Heaven”. As Jeb Pyre, the 38-year-old actor plays both dad and detective tasked with leading the investigation into a murder within a devout Mormon family.

Andrew Garfield’s acting career continues to peak with his latest role in the FX true-crime series. As Jeb Pyre, the 38-year-old actor plays both dad and detective tasked with leading the investigation into a murder within a devout Mormon family. Given how much Garfield’s fans have crushed on him over the past year, there’s no doubt that his latest role will likely earn him the moniker, “DILF,” which works two ways here: “a dad/detective I’d like to f**k.” When asked by ET’s Lauren Zima if he’s ready for such a title, the actor responds by joking, “I mean, listen I’m just trying to give the people what they want.” “As long as I’m in the business, I’m just in the business of pleasing,” he continues, before teasing, “You know, if you ask a silly question, you’re gonna get a silly answer.” While the series is far from humorous, the levity that Garfield brings to the interview is just the kind of charm audiences have come to expect from the actor, who is rounding out an incredible year of back-to-back roles in, and, with the latter earning him his second Oscar nomination., meanwhile, will likely earn the actor his first Emmy nomination for his complex turn as a man whose faith is called into question after he uncovers buried truths about the LDS religion and witnesses the violence that can come from unyielding devotion. Adapted from Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction bestseller by creator and showrunner Dustin Lance Black, the series depicts the events leading up to the 1984 murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her baby daughter as well as Pyre and Det.

Andrew Garfield is taking a step back from his acting career. "The Amazing Spider-Man" star spoke with Variety about the need to take a break from acting and "be a bit ordinary for a while".

Andrew Garfield has announced he has decided to step back from acting in a bid to be "ordinary for a while" following his reported split from girlfriend Alyssa Miller. The Spider-Man: No Way Home star and his model ex were thought to have started dating in 2021, but broke things off after just few a months due to packed work schedules. But despite their split coming as a result of gruelling work commitments, according to reports, Andrew has now decided it's time for a break from Hollywood.

Andrew Garfield has said he’s taking a break from acting.The actor, who will soon be starring in Under The Banner of Heaven and was nominated for an Oscar for Tick, Tick… Boom!, as well as reprising his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man has said he will be pausing for now.“I’m going to rest for a little bit,” Garfield told Variety in a new interview.  “I need to recalibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be and just be a bit of a person for a while.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorWelcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.”Andrew Garfield is ready to take a break. The actor has been going nonstop for the past year or so with “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” and “Tick, Tick … Boom!” Now, he can be seen in “Under the Banner of Heaven,” FX’s limited series adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s 2003 true-crime book of the same name.

FX/Hulu’s big play for Emmy glory in this incredibly crowded season is an adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s excellent 2003 book “Under the Banner of Heaven,” a historical analysis of the history of Mormonism in this country framed alongside a dissection of a brutal murder case from 1984 in the state of Utah. While the book had the context of the history of the origin of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints and how it got twisted into the mindset of the fundamentalist sect of Mormonism that pushed Ron and Dan Lafferty to commit brutal murder, the show feels at the beginning like it wants badly to be more “True Detective” and less Ken Burns, improving in the third and fourth episodes as it becomes more about a broken community than a specific murder.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticMore than 45 years after “The Man Who Fell to Earth” opened with a melancholy David Bowie crash-landing in a Kentucky lake, Showtime’s new sequel series sends Chiwetel Ejiofor spiraling into the New Mexican desert to finish what he started. The connection between the 1976 film and this 2022 show is clear from the beginning, even before Bill Nighy shows up as the older version of Bowie’s character, Thomas Newton.

Angelique Jackson It’s only been about three weeks since the end of awards season, but, on Wednesday night, Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield was back on a red carpet in Hollywood for the premiere of his new series, “Under the Banner of Heaven.”The FX project marks Garfield’s first miniseries, with the actor playing Detective Jeb Pyre, a Mormon man whose faith is shaken by an unthinkable crime. Based on the non-fiction book by Jon Krakauer, the show’s seven episodes follow the events that led to the 1984 murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her baby daughter in a Salt Lake Valley, Utah suburb.

Andrew Garfield is set to battle a much more insidious villain for his latest project. In FX's new limited series, Garfield stars as a small town detective tasked with investigating a grisly murder in his own community. Premiering later this month, is inspired by the true-crime best-seller by Jon Krakauer. The series follows a devout Mormon detective as he investigates the 1984 murder of a mother and baby daughter in his tight-knit Utah town.