TV Review - Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

Aaron Hernandez was a member of the New England Patriots until he was arrested in 2013 for the murder of another football player and relative. He was then indicted on a double homicide that happened in Boston in 2012. He had two, different, murder trials. CNN did a news special about Hernandez as his first trial became a huge media event. Two years ago, the Oxygen cable network did a documentary series about him called Aaron Hernandez Uncovered (2018). Aside from that documentary, this will be one of three TV programs about Hernandez. All of those TV programs aired in the month of January and all of them within a week of each other. It's reminiscent of the multiple documentaries last January about Billy McFarland, specifically Fyre Fraud on Hulu and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened on Netflix. While both those McFarland docs had interesting aspects to them, ultimately I thought one was better than the other. It's the same case here. I can't speak to the Hernandez documentary that aired on Reelz called Aaron Hernandez's Killing Fields, but I can speak to the third called Aaron Hernandez: An ID Murder Mystery. Of these 2020 docs about the ex-NFL star whom some have compared to O. J. Simpson, Aaron Hernandez Uncovered is by far the better documentary.

Because I saw Aaron Hernandez Uncovered on Oxygen first, that could be biasing me toward it. All four programs tell the same story, so the fact that I already knew the story and most of its details probably hindered enjoyment or engagement with this series to some degree. Arguably, there are some new details in this documentary that sets it apart somewhat. Also, because there is a time difference between this doc and the one on Oxygen, this doc provides the new developments that have occurred in the time since. Yes, the Oxygen documentary is only up to date to the winter of 2018. However, in 2019, there was a turn in the outcome of events, legally and legislatively that this doc reveals. That turn of events does nothing to further our insight into the mind of Aaron Hernandez, which is the subtitle of this documentary.

In fact, I don't think that this documentary gives us any more insight into the mind of Aaron Hernandez than the Oxygen documentary at all. One would think so, but not really. Why one would think so is because this documentary possesses two things that the Oxygen documentary didn't. The first are audio recordings of Hernandez from prison. Hernandez made a series of phone calls to relatives and his girlfriend from prison that were taped. Director Geno McDermott (The Murder Tapes) was able to obtain those tapes and utilize them throughout this series as asides or thoughts that Hernandez had. Yet, with the possible exception of two moments, none of these recordings are really all that insightful.

The exceptions include an argument that he has with his mother, which speaks to his troubled childhood and things that he kept hidden. The exceptions also include a conversation that he had with his girlfriend, which speaks to a homophobia or transphobia that he had. Those exceptions of course feed into a narrative about Hernandez that he was abused and possibly sexually molested as a child. It also feeds into the narrative that he was secretly gay or bisexual, or that he had same-sex attraction that he tried to keep under wraps.

As in both docs, it is revealed in Hernandez's second trial that the Boston prosecutors tried to put forth a theory that his reason for shooting two immigrants in 2012 was because he was gay.  How they were going to put those dots together is never fully explained. The Oxygen documentary did a better job of going into how those prosecutors learned or suspected that Hernandez was gay and how the defense attorneys shut it down. Yet, it was more of an open question if Hernandez was gay or not. The suspicions about his sexuality grew stronger when Hernandez committed suicide in April 2017, a couple of days after he was outed as gay, live on a radio program.

This documentary floats the possibility that Hernandez killed himself not due to anything connected to homophobia necessarily but due to a Massachusetts law, known as abatement. Abatement could just as easily been his motive for suicide. However, McDermott doesn't spend nearly as much time developing that motive as he does the other motive. More so than the Oxygen documentary, this series spends a lot of time spinning the theory that Hernandez was gay. The Oxygen documentary didn't really spin the theory much because there wasn't corroboration.

Corroboration does exist somewhat here. That corroboration comes in the form of a high school friend of Hernandez named Dennis Sancoucie. Sancoucie is interviewed specifically for this documentary. He does a typical on camera interview and is seemingly very open about things. Sancoucie says he experimented with the football whiz and was a small piece of Hernandez's sexual activity. This implies that he and Hernandez engaged in homosexual activity. Sancoucie also speaks to the homophobia inherent in football and the culture around it, particularly when it comes to both of their fathers.

There is a wrinkle to this though. Later, it's suggested that Hernandez was molested as a child and that affected his sexuality. Other than Sancoucie, there is no other corroboration, except for a guy in prison who was believed to be a lover or possible sexual partner. The wrinkle though is that simply because a man has homosexual relations doesn't mean that he is gay or bisexual or even that he has true homosexual attraction. If one believes that a gay man having sex with a woman wouldn't mean that he is straight, then the reverse must also be true, which goes to an unfair stereotype.

Even if it were true though, the connection between his sexuality and the murders is one that can't be made and isn't made here. What this documentary does instead is talk about the homophobia that exists in and around the sport. This is mainly through the interview of Ryan O'Callaghan, another former member of the New England Patriots. O'Callaghan played for the Patriots from 2006 to 2008. Hernandez was drafted to the Patriots in 2010. O'Callaghan left the NFL in 2011, but he talked about how he did all he could to hide his homosexuality.

O'Callaghan is part of a list of over a half-dozen NFL players who have come out as gay after their careers in the league were over. With the exception of one, there has never been an openly gay man in the NFL who was an active player. The exception is Michael Sam whose career was very brief, lasting less than a season. A lot of people say Sam's brief career was due to lingering homophobia in football. Even though everyone always reportedly says the right thing and despite legal protections, there's still a fear for players to come out while in the NFL. O'Callaghan talks about a phone call from Patriots' owner Robert Kraft that was supportive, but if the support were really there, why aren't there any openly gay players in the league?

Finally, the series goes into the issue of CTE, the brain damage or deterioration due to concussions or repeated head trauma as a result of the sport. It's one thing that some might use CTE as a way of excusing Hernandez of his crimes. Plenty don't, but regardless, the brain damage that is done to tons of men because of this sport makes it rather unconscionable that anyone would engage in it.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 3 eps.

Available on Netflix.