TV Review: Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

This was TV show #5/20 that I watched for my 20 for 2020 challenge. This documentary series was released on January 15, 2020 on Netflix. There's not really much to spoil for this show, so there won't be a spoiler section in this review.

I started watching this show because I had heard a lot of buzz about it on social media. Netflix has had a pretty good track record with true crime documentaries, so I decided to give it a try. This was probably the worst one that I've seen. It wasn't bad and it was only three episodes, so I can't say it was a huge waste of my time. I think the story just wasn't too interesting to warrant its creation. That sounds pretty bad to be judging a true story based on how sensationalist it was (or wasn't). I'm not trying to say that the victim's lives don't matter, or what happened to them wasn't awful. I just think the only reason why this story was made into a Netflix documentary is because it involved a famous athlete. I watch sports so maybe that's why I don't really see why this had to be made, since I don't care about Aaron Hernandez and hadn't even heard of him before this documentary came out. Most other true crime documentaries have a winding story, where you learn more and more until it reaches some crazy, high level conspiracy climax. Or you go back and forth between thinking they did or didn't do the crime. This was a very straightforward, obvious, sloppy situation. It doesn't take very long to tell the story, and once it's told there's no varying evidence or perspectives. Usually there's a mystery- a puzzle that needs to be solved over the course of the story, but there wasn't really any puzzle here. It was kind of all laid out there from the beginning.

Aaron Hernandez himself wasn't an interesting, complex, case study to learn about either. There weren't really too many answers about why he did what he did or his motivations behind his crimes. So in addition to the incident and evidence being pretty straightforward, Aaron himself wasn't an interesting character. With this combination, it makes me wonder why this series was made to bring Aaron Hernandez's name back in the light. Yes, it brings attention to the victims, but mostly it brings more attention and notoriety to Aaron Hernandez. This documentary didn't draw attention to some NFL cover-up conspiracy, so I don't really see the point other than making money off of Aaron Hernandez's name while also making him more famous. I had no idea who Aaron Hernandez was before this, and now I do. But at the same time, maybe it draws attention to the fact that he did do these crimes, for any sports/Aaron Hernandez fans that somehow hadn't heard about them. I don't feel like there was anything to be learned here. There's no lessons to be learned, like there usually are in true crime stories.

I think the timeline/structure of the documentary was weird too. Things weren't in chronological order and it felt so jumbled. I still don't know what they were attempting to do. The order that they showed things was all over the place. It was confusing and unnecessary. The only reason why I can think of why they did that was in an attempt to make it sound more interesting and complicated than it actually was.

There were aspects of this documentary series that I did like. I liked that they showed interviews with friends and family of the victims to show who they were as people. I thought those interviews were very moving. I also thought it was interesting seeing the juxtaposition between Aaron Hernandez and Odin Lloyd. The juxtaposition between playing football for fun (pay to play) and playing football as a job. The class differences between the two men- the ghetto versus the elite- and how football is seen and used by people from both backgrounds. There was also a very stark difference between Odin Lloyd's loving relationship with his family, and Aaron Hernandez's very rocky family relationship. I also liked some of the things that they showed from after Aaron's trial. One being Odin Lloyd's mother's mission to fix an out of date law, and her success in fighting for that change. The other was the discussion about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) that can result from football injuries.

Again, I just want to reiterate that I don't want this review to come off as insensitive to the victims. It's terrible what happened to the victims. I just want to criticize the fact, that I think this documentary was pretty unnecessary. I wouldn't recommend other people to watch this. I'd give it a 4/10. If you've watched this show, let me know your thoughts down below!