Don’t Miss These Disney+ Shows and Movies This Weekend [August 22-24]

My watchlist goes up and down, depending on the week and month. This week, I have some absolute corkers to get stuck into on Disney+—none of which you’ll want to miss.

Amanda Knox’s part in the murder of Meredith Kercher enraptured global news outlets in 2007; it didn’t end when she was (wrongfully) convicted alongside her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, in 2009. And even after Knox and Sollecito were acquitted once, retried, convicted again, and then pardoned, the story still didn’t end.

That’s what this eight-part true-crime miniseries explores: a dramatized set of events surrounding Knox, Sollecito, her trial, and eventual wrongful conviction. The series is co-produced by Knox and Monica Lewinsky (yes, that Monica Lewinsky), and it dives into coercive interrogations, media sensationalism, and judicial missteps.

Critics have praised the performance of Grace Van Patten (who plays Knox), and I’m interested to see how this series handles an emotionally charged story that was swamped by media at the time.

The Amateur slipped me by earlier in 2025, but it’s my kind of perfect background noise, Saturday evening film when playing board games or similar.

It features Rami Malek as a CIA operative who goes rogue in an attempt to avenge the death of his wife. So far, so normal. Through some coercion, he manages to become a highly-trained assassin with the help of Laurence Fishburn, who plays Colonel Henderson.

The Amateur has all the hallmarks of a classic action-thriller, packed with murders, personal grief, and the lust for retribution.

This three-part docuseries recounts the 2017 murders of two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana. Using archival footage, interviews with victims’ families, and local officials, it paints an intimate portrait of a crime that haunted a community and the long road to justice.

I’d not heard about this horrific crime until this series appeared on Disney+, but the story’s central pillar—the haunting phone footage captured by one of the young victims—is a really sobering yet intriguing part of the story.

I know; we’re on a bit of a dark bent this week, but I promise it gets better next.

The Simpsons Season 37 is just around the corner, launching in September 2025. So, what better time for me to get back up to speed with what’s going on down in Springfield and catch up with one of America’s favorite families?

Like many of us, I started watching The Simpsons when I was very young. I also carried on for a long time, even after the quality of the show began its slow demise after Season 15, popping up with the odd 8.x rating here and there.

The first episode of Season 36 I watched, Bart’s Birthday, is one of the best in recent years, and one that was well-received by long-time fans of The Simpsons. But I must admit, I haven’t watched more than that yet, so I’m eager to get stuck into the rest of the series.

Hopefully, it has more than this one highlight and the traditional Treehouse of Horror spectacular.

See—I told you that we’d be ending the weekend with a slightly calmer focus. Ryan Reynolds narrates Underdogs, a series focusing on the “weird and unsung heroes of the animal kingdom.”

It’s packed full of amazing cinematography with Reynolds’ trademark sarcasm, though it adds in a considerable amount of toilet humor (with some veering into really rude) that makes it unsuitable for really young children. In that, Underdogs has a very mixed set of age reviews on Common Sense Media, ranging from 18+ down to 8+ (it’s rated 16+ on UK Disney+).

So, yes, while Underdogs definitely bring some comedy to the nature documentary genre, it’s not one you’ll be sitting down to watch with your smallest kids—unless you want to field some rather interesting questions based on Reynolds’ commentary. Don’t say you haven’t been warned!