In August 2025, Hulu released a limited series that reopens one of the most infamous and convoluted criminal cases of the 21st century: the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, and the years-long legal and media maelstrom that engulfed Amanda Knox, her American roommate. Titled The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, the series has already reignited debate about justice, media responsibility, and the enduring power of narrative—especially when the person at the center helps tell her own story.
The case itself is the stuff of tabloid legend. In 2007, 21-year-old Kercher was found raped and murdered in the apartment she shared with Knox and two Italian students. Within days, Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested after a marathon interrogation that, according to Slate, involved 53 hours of relentless questioning without a lawyer or interpreter. Under this pressure, Knox implicated Patrick Lumumba, her boss at a local café. Lumumba was quickly cleared thanks to a solid alibi, but not before his life and business were upended. Meanwhile, Rudy Guede, a drifter with a history of sexual assault, was arrested and convicted of Kercher’s murder only a month later.
The Italian and British tabloids pounced on the story, weaving lurid tales of sex, drugs, and jealousy gone awry. Knox and Sollecito were painted as the villains in a supposed drug-fueled sex game turned deadly. In 2009, both were found guilty and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison, respectively. Yet the saga was far from over. Their convictions were overturned in 2011, reinstated in 2014, and finally quashed for good by Italy’s highest court in 2015. The only constant in this legal rollercoaster was the public’s fascination—and, for Knox, the near-total loss of privacy.
It’s this chaotic journey that The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox attempts to unravel. The series, which debuted at the New York Historical Society on August 19, 2025, stars Grace Van Patten as Knox, tracing her ordeal from a wide-eyed 20-year-old student in Perugia to a 38-year-old mother of two still seeking closure. According to People, Van Patten felt a mix of excitement and nerves about portraying Knox, especially with Knox herself serving as an executive producer. "The main thing for me was what involvement Amanda was going to have in it," Van Patten told People. "So when I found out she was going to be involved, I was really excited and also nervous. Because what would she think of me, this random actress portraying her in a very traumatic time of her life?"
Knox’s involvement was key. As Van Patten described, "When I met her, it was just so beautiful how vulnerable she was about it and how open she was. And how willing she was to talk to me and trust me." This trust, Van Patten said, made the daunting task of portraying Knox in the most harrowing chapter of her life not just bearable, but meaningful. "She was so trusting and was there if I needed anything or had any questions and really allowed me to tell her story. That felt so good, to feel trusted."
Yet the series’ focus on Knox’s perspective has not been without controversy. Slate notes that each episode opens with a disclaimer explaining that the show privileges Knox’s viewpoint, a choice underscored by her executive producer credit. Monica Lewinsky, herself no stranger to media firestorms, also serves as an executive producer. The Kercher family, meanwhile, has largely remained silent, with Meredith’s sister expressing only that "Our family has been through so much, and it is difficult to understand how this serves any purpose."
One of the most hotly debated aspects of the case—and the series—is Knox’s confession. According to her own account, detailed in interviews with Nightline and The Atlantic, Knox was subjected to hours of interrogation with no legal counsel or interpreter, kept awake, denied food and bathroom breaks, and even physically struck. "They lied to me: We have hard evidence placing you at the scene of the crime that night. We know you were there," Knox recalled in The Atlantic. "All of this—compounded by the bullying, exhaustion, promises, and threats—reshaped my sense of reality, and made it hard to know what was true and what wasn’t."
Her coerced confession led to a slander conviction after she implicated Lumumba, who later sued her. Although Knox attempted to recant her accusation in a four-page letter, she never fully withdrew it, writing, "In regards to this ‘confession’ that I made last night, I want to make clear that I’m very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock, and extreme exhaustion." Still, the slander conviction stuck, and Lumumba’s life was forever altered. As of early 2025, his lawyer noted that Knox had never made financial amends, though she did issue a public apology in 2024: "I am very sorry I was not strong enough to resist the pressure of the police and that he suffered for it."
The European Court of Human Rights weighed in on Knox’s interrogation in 2019, ruling that her rights had been violated and ordering Italy to pay damages. However, the court also found there was not enough evidence to conclude she had been subjected to "inhuman or degrading treatment." The case drew comparisons to other notorious miscarriages of justice, including the Central Park Five, where coercive police tactics led to false confessions.
The series also revisits the problematic forensic evidence at the heart of the prosecution’s case. The DNA evidence—a knife with traces of both Kercher’s and Knox’s DNA, and a bra clasp with DNA from all three defendants—was later debunked by independent experts from Sapienza University in Rome. They testified that police had mishandled evidence, failed to wear protective gear, and used improper storage methods, raising the risk of contamination. The bra clasp, in particular, was not collected until 46 days after the murder and had been moved around the crime scene, further undermining its reliability.
As for the relationship between Knox and Kercher, the series paints them as friendly roommates, but police testimony suggested underlying friction over household chores and visitors. Knox herself, when asked about Kercher during her trial, responded, "In the end, I knew her for a month. And first of all, I’m trying to get on with my life." Still, no credible motive for the murder was ever established, and the prosecution’s theory of a drug-fueled sex game remains unsupported.
For Van Patten, stepping into Knox’s shoes was transformative. After six months filming in Rome and Budapest, she admitted to People that she still felt traces of the character in her daily life. "I went right into it. I’m like, 'Oh, I feel like I have Amanda-isms.'" The emotional weight of the story, she said, made the experience "very, very important to me, which I haven’t experienced doing a job before."
As The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox streams on Hulu, it’s clear the story remains as compelling and controversial as ever. With Knox herself helping to shape the narrative, the series offers a rare, if partial, window into the personal cost of a global media frenzy—and a justice system under intense scrutiny.
For all its twists, the Amanda Knox case continues to raise questions about truth, memory, and the stories we choose to believe.
