With any true crime story adapted for film or TV, we expect a certain amount of narrative license. Creators may sand off a few here and condense a timeline there to present a coherent and digestible timeline. But what gets lost in this translation? And can we still trust the story we see?

In the newest episode of Bloody FM’s Murder Made Fiction podcast, Joe and Jenn encounter this issue in the 2018 series Waco.

Created by Drew and John Erick Dowdle, this limited series begins with a sympathetic David Koresh (Taylor Kitsch) begging for mercy while a group of soldiers point guns in his face. Early episodes take us back to a burgeoning cult leader building his flock while a government agency struggles to rehabilitate its image.

But what details have been softened in this less-than-faithful retelling and are the story’s real victims getting lost in the shuffle?...