Netflix's revelatory docuseries on Aaron Hernandez is a cautionary tale

It would be an understatement to say that executive producers Angus Wall and Geno McDermott had a lot ground to cover when focusing on Aaron Hernandez as the subject of Netflix's latest deep dive docuseries, Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez.

Hernandez was not only a football prodigy drafted at age 20 into the New England Patriots, where he played until 2012, he was also a convicted murderer by the time of his own death by suicide in 2017.

In particular, the docuseries details Hernandez's convictions, childhood, NFL career, various stints in prison, his psyche, sexuality, and the effects football had on his body. However, despite the complicated, intense, and fatal outcomes of Hernandez's story, Killer Inside moves carefully and comprehensively when exploring the motives behind his actions. More than that, Netflix uses Hernandez's life story as a cautionary tale and seemingly as a call for change.

Hernandez's struggles are treated with a lot of care thanks to the baseline understanding by Wall and McDermott that the tight end's experiences throughout his football career -- namely his internal conflict surrounding his sexuality and the chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as a result of his head injuries -- were not unique to him.

In this way, Killer Inside is empathetic to those in situations similar to Hernandez's, less so to Hernandez himself. His life is not used as an excuse or worthy explanation throughout the docuseries for why he was violent and, ultimately, very dangerous.

To broaden the scope of Hernandez's story, queer football players, such as Ryan O'Callaghan, who played on the Patriots alongside Hernandez, and Hernandez's high school teammate Dennis SanSoucie, who has stated the pair were romantically involved, offer insight on how difficult it is to both accept their sexuality and be open about it with others in homophobic, hyper-masculine settings.

Dennis SanSoucie, who played quarterback on Hernandez's high school football team. Credit: netflix

In addition, Hernandez's chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease resulting from continued head injury, is given greater context by other medical cases like those of Mike Webster and Junior Seau's. Hernandez's affected neurological state, though it resulted in harm to others, wasn't an isolated incident. Such a view on Hernandez's story is incredibly open-minded and repurposes it for the greater good.

Importantly, Killer Inside is constructed in a way that acknowledges that Hernandez's story has been sensationalized enough. The docuseries is free of true crime gimmicks, twists, and turns, and Wall and McDermott set the tone immediately by addressing Hernandez's convictions upfront. Although the viewer better understands Hernandez, they aren't tricked into sympathizing with him.

Hernandez at one of his many trials in the years before his death. Credit: netflix

As is mentioned in Killer Inside, Hernandez murdered Odin Lloyd, the boyfriend of his fiancée's sister. At the time of Hernandez's trial, the NFL player's celebrity status and notoriety tended to outweigh the tragedy of Lloyd's death. To further mend that unfortunate, sensational discrepancy, Lloyd and the other individuals Hernandez murdered, are specifically focused on and celebrated in the docuseries -- which is a service to all those who lost loved ones because of Hernandez's behavior.

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez is now available to stream on Netflix.

If you want to talk to someone or are experiencing suicidal thoughts, text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. For international resources, this list is a good place to start.