It's been pretty bad for me lately as far as searching for a series or mini-series is concerned. I was hopeful about Alien Earth but don't like the tweener direction that it is going and there are a number of other series that I thought were ok, but just not good enough that I am in that zone at the end of each episode where I simply cannot wait to get the next one started.
After watching a single episode of The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox I believe I have finally found something that I think will appeal to almost anyone and it, so far, has been exceptionally done by all metrics.
This is apparently based on a true story about a murder and investigation in Italy involving an American foreign-exchange student and how she became the prime suspect in the murder of her then roommate even though she was innocent of said crime. This might be common knowledge to people out there that keep up with current events better than I do but for me, this is the first I am hearing about it.
The way that the show is presented stays seriously interesting because they keep skipping back and forth through time, jumping back to before the murder, then jumping to the investigation, and then jumping to well after it. This is all labeled on screen and is quite easy to follow and keeps the tension high throughout.
me telling you that Amanda didn't do it isn't a spoiler, this is spelled out in both the trailer and the first few minutes of the film not to mention the fact that a lot of people around the world are likely already quite familiar with the entire thing anyway.
For the viewer it is probably easy for a lot of us to identify the ignorance of youth on full display here as Amanda, being innocent, has this idea in her head that due to her innocence that she has nothing to worry about. She nonchalantly sits through hours and hours in police interviews, often attempting to answer the questions in Italian, which she does not speak very well. Then once an interpreter gets involved, Amanda appears to contradict some of what she had previously said but that was only because she was being perhaps a bit too agreeable with the detectives and answering "yes" to questions that she didn't fully understand. This appears to get her into trouble almost immediately.
The fact that she is trying to keep up a tough facade instead of acting super emotional gives the appearance of a sociopath as well, so in the eyes of the police, they start to suspect that not only is she a murderer but that she feels no remorse for having done so.
We, as the audience are able to kind of understand how they would get this impression as Amanda continually plays it cool when honestly, having an over-the-top emotional response would have likely been a better choice.
I'm only one episode in and I can already relate to every viewpoint in this story. It's easy to understand the motivations of the detectives in focusing on her as a suspect, and it is also easy to understand why Amanda would presume that because she is innocent and is cooperating completely, that she would never be a suspect.
Things have a way of happening though, I guess and that is what this show is all about.
The tension is kept high and things don't ever have a chance to slow down to a crawl by virtue of them going back and forth in time to keep us informed about all the pieces of the puzzle.
Whether they can keep this up for the entirety of the mini-series remains to be seen but up to this point, this is one of the best made mini-series I have seen in years and definitely the best one I have seen in 2025.
Should I watch it?
Absolutely. It definitely is not necessary for you to be familiar with the real-life story to understand what is going on here. They catch you up on all of that in a very inventive and easy to follow way. The actors are all phenomenal, and perfect in their respective roles. There are only 2 of 8 episodes currently available on Hulu exclusively (perhaps Disney as well since they are the same company) and the remaining episodes are going to be released week by week going forward.
If you like to have all episodes available all at once you will need to wait until the start of October before they are all out there. You will also need to pay close attention unless you happen to be fluent in both English and Italian.
