I have spent the past two days catching up on the series about the American football player - Aaron Hernandez.
American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez airs on FX over in the US and is available to stream on Disney Plus here in the UK. It's the first in an anthology series with this season focused on the rise and fall of Hernandez.
It's an intriguing story because Hernandez's fall was quite epic. He went from being drafted to the New England Patriots, becoming one of the team's most productive players on the offensive side of the ball, to a murderer.
I had obviously followed Hernandez from the start of his pro career and everything which transpired after it leading to his prison suicide in 2017.
As of the time of writing, five episodes have been released. We're currently around about the time when Hernandez is playing for the Pats, so the fall from grace will be covered in upcoming episodes.
So far, I have felt the acting has been superb. As has the casting. The actor who played Hernandez's head coach at Florida - Urban Meyer - was excellent. The Bill Belichick actor is also spot on. There is one little thing that might not be much, but it stood out to me - in regards to the BB character - and that is when Belichick is at the training grounds and he twirls his whistle around. I have seen a plethora of clips of Belichick at training camps over the years and he ALWAYS does that. I thought it was a nice touch to have the actor directed to do that.
Ignore any online complaints - the Rob Gronkowski actor is over the top, but so is Gronk. Perfect casting.
The scary thing about this series, for me, is that there are parts when I've felt sympathetic to Hernandez. Knowing the crimes he will eventually carry out, I cannot help but wonder how those who don't know the story will react when that part of the story plays out.
What Hernandez did was reprenhsible, but this series has humanised him in a way where we kind of understand that his destiny was always going to end up how it turned out despite the chances he was given. We know this because the last words we hear Urban Meyer's character - as the narrative segues from Hernandez's college days to his pro career - state something along the lines of 'he's going to end up in the Hall of Fame. Or prison.'
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