American Sports Story

Everyone knows that producer Ryan Murphy always does the best work and keeps it real with his series with real life things. And this is another winner for "FX", as the first season of his "American Sports Story" which focuses on the rise and fall of New England Patriots TE Aaron Hernandez. The episodes follow his life as a teen and upbringing in Bristol, CT to the University of Florida as a gator to his drafting into the NFL as a Patriot. The time frame focused on is mid 2000's to 2010's as the series feels real as it relies on interviews, transcripts, and documents, with calls and reporting by the Boston Globe even as Murphy makes it real showing Aaron's drug use, possible bi sexual life, and painful CTE. And actor Josh Rivera really gets into the mind of the character as it was interesting seeing a sports figure challenged battling personal and private demons.

This is a subject that was done to very close detail on many true crime documentaries. It really was unlike anything we've seen before. You had a super star New England Patriot no less at the pinnacle of sports. He was moonlighting as a double murderer and criminal. So of course this is going to be done over and over. One of the reviewers wasn't totally wrong about the Ryan Murphy take. He usually show horns homosexuality into his work, but to be fair there were a lot of accusations about him being gay or bi sexual. It has a part to play in the story, especially him being this macho football player in NFL. So leaving that apart I think the actor does a good job at playing him. The story follows the facts for most part and then of course there is Hollywood stuff in the story. That goes for everything pretty much. Certain things are necessary for the sake of a full series and not everything is absolutely as it was. We will never get the whole story about who this monster was, but by now I think we have a good enough idea. Not since OJ has their been something like it, and Aaron Hernandez was actually convicted and doing these things while actively playing on Tom Brady led Patriot Super Bowl teams. I mean the story is incredible and made for tv. Basically a serial killer by night that we are watching and glorifying every Sunday in what is like religion in this country in the NFL. Anybody complaining on here that it puts Aaron in a bad light is totally missing the point or some kind of family member or something. Guy was a total monster who executed his friend in cold blood and left his body like garbage. Let's remember who the real victims were here. I don't care how bad his upbringing in Bristol was it doesn't excuse what he did. The angle that somehow if his sexuality could have freed him that he wouldn't have been a murderer is also a bit ridiculous to be kind. In the end it is a decent series but like I said you can get much more facts in any one of the 3-4 documentaries that Netflix or Oxygen channel did on him. This is typical Ryan Murphy style show and not a doc. So that is the major difference. It's not the worst thing I ever saw. If you never saw the Netflix doc or OXYGEN one then skip the show and just warm.

After having seen the entire season, Josh's performance was, to say the very least, both remarkable and outstanding. No amount of training or acting classes makes this happen. This is raw talent. Gene Hackman's portrayal as Sam Cayhall in The Chamber was always my number one most favorite performance. Josh's performance is on par which is a tough call as Josh was unknown to me prior to his performance in American Sports Story. To say that I would recommend this series to anyone goes without saying. His extraordinary ability to "become" Aaron is truly brilliant. Josh portrays the torture, the pain and the ecstasy exquisitely. A true artist in every sense of the word. I have a feeling we are going to see a great deal more of Josh and that he will be an inspiration to others.

Do yourself a favor, watch this series. You'll be glad you did. I think Aaron would be too.

Hats off to you Josh. It's very rare we are lucky enough to be exposed to your level of genius.

I was pleasantly surprised I didn't think that this would be as good as it was. My heart bleeds for Aaron after watching this he was a terribly tortured soul. Prior to this I thought that he was just an arrogant jerk. Being molested as a kid really set his tragic life on the path that it went down. Not to say that he was totally innocent and as a man he had choices but choose the wrong paths. It is so sad that such a talented guy ended up like he did. Family was definitely dysfunctional and his dad was crazy. His poor brother was full of envy I just hope that he found his self obviously it was not a football career.

American Sports Story is another scripted anthology series from Ryan Murphy that focuses on sports figures this time. This first season is about the tragic life of Aaron Hernandez and his rise and fall from being an NFL star. It does a good job making you feel empathy for Hernandez for all that he had to go through growing up but it doesn't make you feel any sympathy because he still made his choices. It doesn't take any of the guilt away from Hernandez but shows how the people in his life influenced the man he became. The show also does a good job showing the story from different perspectives of the man Hernandez was. The best part of the show is Josh Rivera portrayal of Aaron Hernandez. He does such a great job. He even looks like him except for being a few inches shorter. I'm looking forward to future seasons from this show.