Aaron Hernandez had all the talent in the world to be one of the all time greats in the National Football League. Hernandez was a guy that was well-liked and well-respected; no one ever thought anything bad about him. So what led to him taking innocent lives?

This documentary takes a very deep dive into the mind of Hernandez and all his internal struggles that he couldn’t handle.

Director Geno McDermott met with two writers by the names of Dan Wetzel and Kevin Armstrong back in January of 2017 because both Wetzel and Armstrong covered the Hernandez murder trial of Odin Lloyd. McDermott took a year and a half to compile all of the interviews and extra research that he made into a film. He later changed it to a mini-series after he partnered with Netflix. 

Throughout this mammoth of a show, we get detailed descriptions of his home life growing up in a football loving household that held a dark secret of his well respected father, Dennis. During this time, Hernandez had trouble coming to terms with his sexuality. Due to his small town ties and everyone knowing how homophobic his father was, he had no one to go to. McDermott does a great job at capturing his early years of life, making it look like it was normal while he also battled his first of many demons. 

In Episode Two, they talked more in-depth about the murders that he was tried for while also discussing his college football career at the University of Florida. At the school, he earned a reputation for being this entitled bad boy after an altercation where he punched a bartender when Hernandez refused to pay his tab. He learned there that he can do whatever he wants without getting in trouble with the law because of his star level status in Gainesville. 

Fast forward to 2013, he is now sitting in the courtroom on trial for the murder of semi-pro football player, Odin Lloyd and as that is happening he is getting investigated for a double murder of two immigrants outside of a Boston night club. I would like to compliment McDermott for his very suspenseful story telling where he really builds up to the next cliffhanger heading into the final episode. How he put the interviews together really allowed for the viewer to put the pieces together of how Hernandez got to this point. It was here, where I was glued to my TV and on the edge of my seat in shock of what I was hearing. 

We get to the final episode where it talks more about his trial for the murder of Lloyd, but we have got to the point where he is tried for the double murder of Daniel De Abreu and Safiro Furtado. It was here we were introduced to two more important people to really blow this thing wide open. Alexander Bradley, who was close with Hernandez, comes to testify against him and made a shocking confession. Jose Baez was Hernandez’s lawyer during this trial and he was most famous for successfully defending Casey Anthony, the woman accused of killing her two year old daughter. Baez described that this would be his toughest case due to the fact that he had already been convicted of first degree murder from the previous case. He felt that the odds were against them in this case. McDermott really closed out the show perfectly, I thought it was really well done how he sprinkled in little details that didn’t necessarily deal with the trial, but it gave us a look into other things that were going on in his life that would send him over the edge.  

Overall, this documentary had everything that I wanted to gain from watching. From his earliest moments of childhood all the way up to his death, it really gave me a very clear understanding of what went on in his brain for basically his entire life. The one flaw in this documentary is that they talked about his sexuality a little too much but it doesn’t overshadow all the other details. I recommend anyone to watch this whether they have any interest in football or not, anybody can get sucked into this very well crafted piece of film. Killer Inside: The Mind Of Aaron Hernandez gets 5/5 stars from me.