An ex-member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints is the director of a new Hulu series, taking a bloody dive into the controversial history of the Mormon Church and stirring up the past of an otherwise tight-lipped religion. LA Times staff writer Meredith Blake wrote about “Under the Banner of Heaven” and its attention to authenticity, from costumes to sets to historical research, and joined host Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today.”

“Under the Banner of Heaven” is based on John Krakauer’s 2003 bestselling nonfiction book about a double murder that took place in a sleepy corner of Utah in 1984.

“He uses that as sort of a way in to explore the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and some of its more violent episodes throughout its past two centuries of existence,” Blake said. “It was a huge bestseller at the time, kind of controversial, at least if you were a member of the church. A lot of people didn’t like the way it portrayed the church’s history, but it did sort of kick off this period of pop culture interest in the church that we’re still sort of living through now. And now it’s been adapted into this miniseries, which reimagines that sort of a true crime mystery detective story.”

Dustin Lance Black is the showrunner of the series. Black was raised in the Mormon faith and has a personal connection to the story. Blake explained that there was extensive care taken to accurately depict the church and the events of the book.

“[Black] spent about a decade working on this project,” Blake explained. “Much of that time was devoted to researching and to reaching out to the family members involved in this case. ... He met with Brenda Lafferty, one of the victims, one of her surviving family members, and actually uncovered information about the last few weeks of her life that he’s incorporated into the series. So there’s a tremendous amount of work that went into reporting on this case, reading up on the history of the church in every kind of particular detail you can imagine. Down to the pronunciation of certain words to make sure that they got it right.”

The show addresses the history of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and warns about the dangers of fundamentalism. Blake said the showrunner wanted to make a distinction between most Mormons and the zealots who committed the show’s central crime.

The Church of Latter-Day Saints has not publicly commented on the series.

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