The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez

Probably the most difficult thing I've ever watched; it is absolutely gut-wrenching. It's really effective at telling the personal story. It does try to focus heavily on the systemic issues with the child protective services, but feels like it never really gets to the real bottom of things on that front. While this is overall very well done about a story that needs to be told, it's a difficult thing to recommend because it's just so heartbreaking.

I would consider myself a connoisseur of the darker side of human nature. I have watched a lot of documentaries about everything from serial killers to all kinds of ways that people abuse each other. I don't think anything will ever top what happened to Gabriel Fernandez,

It's hard to put to words how horrific and terrible this boy's fate was. It's not the kind of story you want to hear, either about how some families treat their children, how siblings are affected and how they develop as a result, or how the system can be so fundamentally broken that a horror like this is allowed to occur.