15 Best Netflix Originals Of 2020 So Far - Ranked
3. The Trials Of Gabriel Fernandez
This is horrendous. There is simply no other word to describe the details that this series depicts.
Gabriel Fernandez was tortured and murdered by his mother and her boyfriend. He was 8 years old. This mini-series looks to explain how this was allowed to happen when, in the course of six months, he was repeatedly brought to hospital and the child protection services were called to the home on multiple occasions.
The series shows the trials, plural. Isauro Aguirre, the boyfriend, was charged with murder. Pearl Fernandez, Gabriel's mother, had to have a hearing to see if she was fit to stand trial, which it was decided she was. Perhaps one of the more shocking parts of the case is that the district attorney, Jackie Lacey, brought child abuse charges to the social workers who had reviewed Gabriel's case.
While this is one of the latest in a very long line of true crime documentaries, The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez stands out for its horrific subject matter and the way that it is presented. The audience are shown, in detail, the injuries that the little boy sustained. Interviewees hammer home the pain that his torture caused him and the old and new injuries present on the night that he died.
This is not an easy watch, not a particularly enjoyable one. But it is essential viewing for any who wish to see inside the details of one of the worst cases of child abuse ever recorded.