Untold: The Murder of Air McNair

It's a 1 hour review of his murder, the investigation, and the outcome. They do flash back to tell the story of his playing days which is important context for those who didn't know how big he was. Don't most documentaries give the background of the person who was murdered? The investigation was not complex and there really wasn't much more to be said. They tried to throw in a little drama at the end, but I don't think there is much merit to that. If people want more information about that drama I think they were expecting a much less straight forward case. Some murders are simple and don't need 3-4 episodes to explain.

As "Untold: The Murder of Air McNair" (2024 release; 58 min.) opens, it is "July 4, 2009" and Robert Gaddy, longtime friend of Titans QB Steve McNair, calls 911 in distress upon finding 2 dead bodies at McNair's apartment in Nashville. We then go back in time to 1995 when Jeff Fisher, interim head Coach of the Houston Oilers, is named head coach period, and Steve McNair is drafted in the first round of the NFL draft by Houston. At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: of course I remembered that McNair was killed in 2009 but I didn't remember the exact circumstances of this horrible event. This documentary aims to dig into those exact circumstances. At net even an hour of running time, this felt less like an in-depth assessment of a tragic, and more like a sensational paparazzi piece. In this particular piece, it turns out that Jeff Fisher is one of the most pivotal talking heads. Bottom line: this could've been a truly interesting review of Steve McNair's life, but instead we receive something that is interested only in the sensational headlines, and not the deeper background.

"Untold: The Murder of Air McNair" recently started streaming on Netflix, and Netflix recommended it to me based on my viewing habits. If you are a fan of the NFL or a fan of true crime, I'd readily suggest you check this out, with tempered expectations, and draw your own conclusion.

The first 50%(at least) of this documentary is coach Jim Fischer's journey (along with the Houston Oilers) to Nashville Tennessee and the now Titans run to the Super Bowl following the 1999 season. Taking second fiddle but also included is Air playing for HBCU Alcorn State University - this I believe OK to be included - in build up to the homicide, but not so much of the rest.

So, eventually the producers get to the murder of McNair. And then the second decedent at the scene. And it is "revealed" the second dead person is married Air's girlfriend/mistress 18 yo Sahel 'Jenni' Kazemi and she the perpetrator of murder suicide. It takes a while to reach this point, with repetitive archival footage of newscasters getting the viewer here.

Once we get to this determination by the police,no forensic evidence is offered to back it up. The only reason presented is a few days before the deaths, Jenni is busted for DWI and is unhappy with Air's tardiness in bailing her out.

After the producers accept the conclusion of murder/suicide, they touch on two possible other scenarios, but don't follow up, and stay with what seemingly less than competent Nashville PD's version of things.

Conclusion: when the murder is finally presented, it is a very weak true crime drama.

I cannot believe they called this a documentary. I was very upset that they did not give full credence to this person in this documentary as the explanation to the murder was very convoluted and just jointed and while I understand to pronounce his amazing football career go ahead and do that but do it in an organized fashion the whole documentary made no sense. Poorly done. I love most documentaries for the store they tell even if they are not done perfectly this was not one of them. It was also frustrating that you could barely understand why anyone was just saying I don't know if it was an editing issue or watt but come on filmmakers can do better.

Talented NFL Quarterback Steve McNair becomes a superstar, and comes very close to winning the superbowl. His life is cut short however, when he is killed in 2009.

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but this wasn't a particularly good documentary, for such a big story, it's just so poorly assembled. It's almost chaotic, it jumps about from one thing to another, and the pacing is somehow frantic.

Documentaries should be factual and informative, there must be a temptation to sensationalise them, and this one is guilty of that, it's too glossy, too heavily produced. Those interviews, come on, they're like scenes from a cheesy movie.

It certainly shows that McNair had a great life, halfway through I felt like I was watching a show about a saint, in reality he was an incredibly talented young man, who enjoyed the spotlight, and probably had a lot of fun.

That ending though, come on!!!

4/10.