The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez is a very difficult show to watch. But it’s one of those that’s a must watch, because it’ll show you how the government agencies that are supposed to protect children can often fail, often for very stupid reasons.

Netflix’s new true crime six-part series “The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez” is one of the toughest things I’ve ever watched. ... More than a mere TV special could possibly do, “The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez” digs deep into the case in ways that we rarely see in projects like this. ... It is also fascinating and informative as a procedural in terms of how high-profile cases like this unfold.

If Knappenberger’s series sometimes lingers too long on certain narrative elements, the motivation for such minor missteps is pure: to convey the full extent of Gabriel’s agony and Pearl and Isauro’s villainy. ... It succeeds at inciting outrage at the wide-scale callousness that caused this nightmare to occur. ... It’s a sprawling, heartbreaking portrait of true evil.

Documenting a horrifying story from every conceivable angle, "The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez" examines the abuse and murder of an eight-year-old boy by his mother and her boyfriend, and the ways that the system failed to protect him. Difficult to watch, the documentary is inevitably compelling but structurally messy -- a byproduct, perhaps, of stretching the material over six parts.

The uncomfortably ominous reenactments of this series—by and large suturing devices between interviews and courtroom footage—do nothing to enhance our understanding of the Gabriel Fernandez case. At times, they even work against what we already do know.