Untold: The Murder of Air McNair

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 literally thought I'd missed something when the documentary ended. I was expecting additional episodes that would delve deeper into the other suspects and explain some of the twists and turns in the story. It was all surface. Netflix usually has great documentaries. I normally Google the person/people the documetary is about, if I am not familiar with them, in order to know who the key players are just in case the documentary doesnt. Netflix did a decent job at that, so I just changed my rating from one star to two stars. I'm glad I didn't Google him, as I would've learned everything the documentary was about beforehand and wouldve have been even more disappointed as I had wasted my time watching it. Perhaps this was created during the Writers Guild strike 😂

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.

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.

Netflix and their "Untold" series are rolling out a few of their famed sports documentaries and one in particular caught my eye. "Untold: The Murder Of Air McNair", a documentary about Steve McNair being murdered in cold blood by his 20-year-old mistress. My favorite quarterback of all time? Yeah, I was excited to see what new information they were going to release and what they were going to highlight.

I mean it's been 15 years since McNair was killed on 4th of July in 2009 and they drop this on us out of nowhere, surely there has to be some new information here right? Not even close. This documentary was a complete waste of an hour. 0 new information presented an a just a waste of time. Kind of fitting that these Netflix sports docs are falling flat on their face. Swamp Kings was awful, the Johnny Manziel one was not done great at all, and this one now joins the others as time you'll never get back.

Now it wasn't all bad, we got some good quotes and stories from McNair's former coach, Jeff Fisher. My guy is sitting cool guy style in a leather chair just spitting some great stories. I did enjoy hearing from him, I'd have loved another hour of that. But other than that, there's nothing too good. Interviews with his friends and a former player, his old coach, some police and that is it. The doc bounces back and forth between his playing career and the timeline and events of the murder. But they just continue to go over things that we've already been told. 0 new redeeming qualities about this film.

Maybe the wildest part of the whole documentary was the interview with the mistress' ex-boyfriend. They basically made him relive the time his girlfriend broke up with him and started dating his favorite football player of all time while they still shared a lease. I mean talk about rubbing someones nose in it.