Series Review: "Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez" (2020).

"A Netflix original documentary series" comes Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez. This true crime documentary series directed by Geno McDermott. As a gifted young football athlete from Bristol, Connecticut, Aaron Hernandez had capitalized rapidly on his promise, playing for a top tier college program before being drafted into the National Football League at the age of 20. But in 2013, fresh off of a newly inked five-year, $40 million contract with the New England Patriots, Hernandez would become a household name for the most infamous murder case involving an American athlete since OJ Simpson. Hernandez's trials for the brutal killing of Odin Lloyd and two Boston-area men yielded a Pandora's box of secrets: a tumultuous and often abusive upbringing, a growing fascination with gang life, and other discoveries that painted a maelstrom of motivations behind his violent behavior. A three-part documentary series featuring exclusive courtroom footage, Hernandez's phone calls from prison, and interviews with those who knew Hernandez and Lloyd, the series meticulously examines the perfect storm of factors leading to the trial, conviction, and death of an athlete who seemingly had it all.

In January 2017, McDermott met with journalists Dan Wetzel and Kevin Armstrong, who had both covered Hernandez's trial for the murder of Odin Lloyd and were writing a book about Hernandez. They began gathering interviews and other research for the documentary. After a year and a half, McDermott originally compiled a documentary film, My Perfect World: The Aaron Hernandez Story, that was shown at the DOC NYC film festival, but decided to make it a series after partnering with Netflix. Hernandez's immediate family "very respectfully" declined to participate.

Difficult to watch, the documentary is inevitably compelling but structurally messy - a byproduct, perhaps, of stretching the material over six parts. Fascinating and informative as a procedural in terms of how high-profile cases like this unfold. Driven by a litany of talking heads from all corners of the legal and social-worker world-not to mention from Hernandez's friends, the documentary is an exposé about institutional failure. As a true journalistic effort, the documentary doesn't shy away from the messiness of the truth, especially when efforts to prevent another death like Odin Lloyd's prove not enough. It is a series that forces watchers to live a terrible but necessary moment in modern history. It's as if the desire of the documentary to entertain, to ensure that we are as spellbound as possible by yet another example of the atrocities that humans are capable of, is greater than any need to inform and educate. Made with respect and an absolute absence of sensationalism or exploitativeness. A heart-wrenching documentary that explores complex issues. It is a very difficult show to watch. But it's one of those that's a must watch, because it'll show you how the government agencies that are supposed to protect children can often fail, often for very stupid reasons. However, in the end, six episodes, lasting between an hour and an hour and ten minutes, are too little to tell the whole story.

Simon says Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez receives: