Amanda Knox has a lot in common with Monica Lewinsky; both women had to take back the narrative that media and pop culture in America had written for them because of their notoriety. Part of how Lewinsky has done it was to be an executive producer of a fictionalized retelling of her affair with Bill Clinton. Now Lewinsky has teamed with Knox to produce a fictionalized retelling of Knox’s ordeal in Italy, where she was convicted twice of killing her roommate despite very little evidence that she was involved.
Opening Shot: We hear heavy breathing, and then see a woman under a blanket in the back seat of a car.
The Gist: The woman is Amanda Knox (Tell Me Lies star Grace Van Patten, who replaced Margaret Qualley). She’s in the car with her husband, Chris Robinson (Jared Canfield), her mother Edda Mellas (Sharon Horgan), and her baby daughter. They’re in Italy, where there is still a warrant out for her arrest, even after she was cleared of murder charges. She’s hiding because if she’s discovered, even by civilians, she’ll be arrested.
We then hear from Knox about how she grew up in Seattle, the child of divorce and always looking to be different and stand out. In 2007, she signed up to study abroad in Perugia, Italy, as much for an adventure away from her parents and stepparents as much as the academics. Her housemates seemed to be a good fit for her, including Meredith Kercher (Rhianne Barreto), with whom she became fast friends.
On November 2, 2007, Knox woke up in bed next to Raffaele Sollecito (Giuseppe De Domenico), her boyfriend of about a week, and found that the door to her flat was open. She locked it, showered and changed, noticing but ignoring the spots of blood in the bathroom and elsewhere. However, someone used the toilet in another bathroom and didn’t flush. When she came back to the flat after being at Sollecitio’s place, she noticed Meredith’s bedroom was locked and the window of the bedroom of another roommate was broken.
Confusion reigned after that, but eventually Meredeth’s body was found in her room; she was covered by her blanket and her throat had been cut. The detective in charge (Corinna Lo Castro), along with prosecutor Giuliano Mignini (Francesco Acquaroli) start to look at Knox as the primary suspect, along with Sollecito, because they are annoyed at how little sadness or any other trauma Knox seems to be displaying. In fact, they are seeing her and Sollecito display PDA at various junctures, which they find completely inappropriate.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by K.J. Steinberg, The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox has a similar feel to Impeachment: American Crime Story. Not coincidentally, Monica Lewinsky is an executive producer of Twisted Tale, along with Knox and Robinson. And because this is based on a true story, we would be remiss not to recommend Amanda Knox, the 2016 Netflix documentary about these events.
Our Take: Even a few days after watching the first episode of The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox, we are trying to figure out just what the purpose of the show was. Ostensibly, it’s a fictionalized retelling of how Knox was wrongly accused of Kercher’s murder, a product of police and prosecutorial mistakes, but also a product of the idea “that my every quirk was used to brand me a monster,” says the fictional Knox.
Those first few minutes where we see Knox waking up with Sollecito on November 2 are, for some reason, played in a light way, with Sollecito being goofy and Knox being quirky. Then postal police show up with two abandoned phones, and there’s Keystone Cops-style confusion with Sollecito, Knox, and Knox’s roommate. Is this all being done to illustrate just how silly it was for Knox and Sollecito to even be people of interest in the murder? Was it being done to show the incompetence of Italian law enforcement? We’re not sure.
What we do know is that, given how extensively Knox’s story was covered by the news media at the time, and how outspoken Knox has been since finally being exonerated of the murder and released in 2011, we’re not sure what a scripted series is supposed to prove. If there are people out there who still don’t believe Knox had nothing to do with Kercher’s murder, we don’t think the series will convince them. The rest of us are already well-versed in how Knox and Sollecito were treated during questioning and especially during both of their trials, so we’re not sure what we’re going to learn by watching this series.
That being said, Van Patten’s performance as Knox is very watchable, because she not only looks like the real Knox but matches her ferocity and quirkiness, as well. While it’s a bit disconcerting to hear Horgan sporting an American accent, we know that her presence as Knox’s mom will mean that Edda Mellas’ involvement in trying to get Knox out of an Italian prison and back home will be heavily emphasized. What we wish, though, is that Steinberg and writer Sam Rubinek figured out what tone to use early on and stuck with it.
Sex and Skin: Any sex in the first episode is implied.
Parting Shot: Back in 2022, Knox is squired into a church to have a very unlikely meeting with someone who was involved in her case.
Sleeper Star: As we said, Sharon Horgan isn’t there as Knox’s mother just to show off her American accent, so we’re sure we’ll hear more from her later in the series.
Most Pilot-y Line: When one of Meredith’s friends says to Amanda that “I hope she didn’t suffer,” Amanda replies, “Of course she suffered; they slit her throat.”
Our Call: STREAM IT. While there are aspects of The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox that we found annoying and unnecessary, we appreciated how Grace Van Patten portrays Knox, showing the aspects of her personality that annoyed Italian authorities so much they sent her to prison for murder.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.