“Top 5 Benefits of Watching The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox on Disney+”
s best exemplars can feel a little grubby and exploitative. The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox breaks away from the overdone genre and comes at its subject from another direction entirely: the whodunnit sleuthing and media sleaze are part of the wider crime the series is here to retell. As is the systemic slut-shaming of its central character – an attractive (foreign!) young woman. Without getting too meta, it’s a narrative about the creation of narratives. Plus, as Knox says herself, “It’s a amazing ride.”
Monica Lewinsky is an executive producer who better to help tell the story of a young woman traumatized by media sensationalism than Monica Lewinsky? Knox calls her a fellow member of “The Sisterhood of Ill Repute”, and she’s basically the patron saint of ’90s and ’00s women-publicly-done-wrong. Like Knox, Lewinsky has claimed ownership of her notoriety in recent years – starting with that 2014 Vanity Fair article – and become an advocate against cyberbullying and the media’s culture of humiliation.
Relatable rites of passage gone very, very wrong while many of us already know the big salacious story arc, the show never lets us forget that the people at its center are young and naive and just going through the same stuff as the rest of us. First share house, first time alone overseas without family, first love (or at least first all-consuming sexual relationship). On screen, Knox is at times clueless and clumsy, inappropriate and self-absorbed. Like all those before her, and after, she fails to match the myth of the perfect victim.
Grace Van Patten is brilliant in the lead role fresh out of compelling rom-dram series Tell Me Lies – and her breakthrough turn alongside Nicole Kidman in Nine Perfect Strangers – Grace Van Patten rises above what could be a “ripped from the headlines” role. Instead, she portrays Knox as quirky and well-meaning, if a little oblivious, as she goes through a brutal coming of age. Adding to the role’s difficulty factor, Van Patten had to learn Italian during the shoot (just like Knox, she was halting at first and fluent by the end). And since Knox was on set most days, she had to act out all the trauma in front of her real-life counterpart.
It’s the story everyone is (and will be) talking about if you already knew about Knox’s ordeal beforehand, this series and the way it tells her story will grip you. Or, if this is the first time you’ve heard of it, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is a good place to start. Half the episodes are out already, with praise from both critics and regular viewers alike. And while it’s a highly bingeable tale, the weekly release schedule means you’ve got a new episode to watch every Wednesday night – and something to talk to your coworkers about at the lunch table the next day.
