‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’ Review: A Familiar Tragedy

The limited series “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” is the first of six series from executive producer Ryan Murphy set to air this month, and Murphy’s third project focused on elite athletes caught up in tabloid scandals. “American Sports Story” — don’t you dare use that acronym! — joins “American Horror Stories” and “American Crime Story” in improvising on the anthology format Murphy helped popularize. The first season of the latter focused on O.J. Simpson, while Netflix’s upcoming “Monsters” will focus on the Menendez brothers, including teen tennis star Erik.

Based on reports from the Boston Globe’s Spotlight podcast and production company Wondery, “American Sports Story” may seem limited by all of those predecessors and precedents. Created by Stuart Zicherman (“The Americans,” “The Affair”), the 10-episode season sometimes struggles to put its own stamp on a widely publicized story that sticks closely to Murphy’s longstanding themes. But the turbulent life and tragic downfall of the New England Patriots quarterback, who was convicted of murder in 2015 and committed suicide in prison two years later, requires a little embellishment to serve as a parable about the perils of societal homophobia, lack of support systems and reckless endangerment of the football industrial complex. And in taking on the role of Hernandez himself, actor Josh Rivera — a trained musical theater artist who previously starred in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and with the national theater troupe “Hamilton” — completely transforms into an actor who was fast but couldn’t escape his own demons.

“American Sports Story” is a straightforward tale. Aside from opening with Hernandez shooting his business partner Alexander Bradley (Roland Buck III) months before the murder of his future brother-in-law Odin Lloyd (J. Alex Brinson) that would effectively put Hernandez behind bars, the episodes unfold linearly through a sadly brief biography. Hernandez grew up in working-class Bristol, Connecticut, alternately encouraged and abused by his capricious father, Dennis (Vincent Laresca), who raised Aaron and his older brother, D.J. (Ean Castellanos), to pursue the football careers he’d squandered in a police bust that ended his college days. Hernandez was doomed to repeat his father’s mistakes on a much grander scale, after successful stints at the University of Florida and the Patriots insulated him from the consequences until it was too late for both himself and his victims.

The series bears some of the hallmarks of a Murphy production, such as foregrounding Hernandez’s queerness and hiring longtime collaborators like directors Paris Barclay and “Pose” creator Steven Canals. But avoids the camp, outrageous tone that is the mogul’s trademark. With its little Kardashians and media frenzy, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” carved out a space for humor alongside serious topics like racism and domestic violence. In its debut, “American Sports Story” is much more somber, effectively evoking a mounting sense of dread as Hernandez squanders chance after chance to change his life. The only source of levity is a growling Bill Belichick impression, the courtesy of veteran stage actor Norbert Leo Butz, a caricature resonating with Bon Jovi, in which winning is more important than anything else, including the well-being of the players.

Rivera lets the vulnerability shine through just enough to convey Hernandez’s charm and potential. Though coaches and scouts frown on his many tattoos, Rivera-as-Hernandez has a megawatt smile and a sweet vulnerability that convinces the audience that things could have been different. If only Dennis hadn’t died suddenly when Hernandez was a teenager. If only Florida coach Urban Meyer (Tony Yazbeck) hadn’t shielded him from legal troubles, then pushed him into the pros before he was old enough to handle the spotlight. If only Hernandez hadn’t been drafted by the Patriots, putting him back in the orbit of bad influences at home who encouraged his temper and drug use.

Both the stages of Hernandez’s decline and the larger problems it has brought to the sport are well-known. Although his crimes were extreme, Hernandez was not the only football player to suffer from CTE, a brain injury that likely impaired his decision-making and exacerbated his behavioral problems. Nor was he the only player of color from a poor background to expose himself to CTE in the name of protecting white quarterbacks like his college teammate Tim Tebow (Patrick Schwarzenegger).

While that’s engaging, when watching “American Sports Story,” that familiarity makes you wonder about the target audience. For sports fans, the Hernandez scandal unfolded a little over a decade ago, in living memory. Perhaps the show works more like a crash course for Murphy’s core audience — viewers more familiar with the stage work of Rivera, Butz and Yazbeck than with the art of big crime. Although if that’s the goal, the producer would have been better off transposing the saga into “American Crime Story” the Trojan way. (Thirteen years after “American Horror Story” debuted, the series has never been bigger or more interchangeable.)

“American Sports Story” exercises its artistic license in Hernandez’s personal relationships, particularly with other men. A rare composite character, Chris (Jake Cannavale, son of “The Watcher” star Bobby), a physical therapist at Hernandez’s agency, who becomes a rare romantic, if not sexual, interest. By scripting Odin Lloyd’s final moments, a senseless killing without rhyme or reason in Hernandez’s deteriorating mental state, the writers emphasize the player’s paranoia that anyone will find out about his closely guarded sexuality. These scenes don’t necessarily cast Hernandez in a new light, but they do underscore the plight of a man who has never come to terms with his identity or his way of life. “American Sports Story” isn’t a radical reinvention of either the subject or Murphy’s work. Instead, it’s a dramatized crash course in what athletic ability can and can’t transcend.

The first two episodes of “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” will premiere on FX on September 17 at 10:00 PM ET and will stream on Hulu the following day. The remaining episodes will air weekly on Tuesdays and stream on Wednesdays.