Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades.
Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear.
Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College’s Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade.
An avid skier, when all the snow’s gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren.
Fiction and fantasy offer a great escape from life’s stresses and mundanities, but documentaries are often full of crazy and fascinating real-life stories that it’s hard to believe they’re not fiction.
This weekend on Netflix, I’ve found a few that fit this bill perfectly, including the life story of a female chess player who defied the odds, a too-crazy-to-be-true account of an actor who may have taken a hoax too far, and the tragedy of a troubled young man who murdered his father.
3 Queen of Chess
In Cold War-era Hungary, there was little hope for László Polgár and his family to make much of themselves under the communist regime. But inspired by the many books he read about the intellectual and wealthy, László embarked on an educational “experiment” with his three young daughters — genius is made, not born. With an intense focus on chess, he would train them, often for six hours a day, to master the game. His experiment would pay off.
Queen of Chess tells this fascinating and inspiring story. And while it charts the success of sisters Susan, Sofia, and Judit Polgár, the documentary eventually shifts to its prodigal focus, the youngest, Judit, who would go on to become the greatest female chess player of all time, and one of the best ever, period. Told in her own words, and with interviews from her father, mother, sisters, and some of the world’s best chess players, Queen of Chess traces Judit’s meteoric rise up the ranks of the male-dominated chess elite, from her beating Bobby Fisher’s record in 1991 by becoming the youngest Grandmaster ever (at the time), to her many tense and often-controversial clashes with Garry Kasparov, who is considered the greatest chess player who ever lived.
Queen of Chess is a dramatic (for a chess movie) coming-of-age story of female empowerment and triumph, which currently has an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Queen of Chess TV-14 Documentary Biography Release Date February 6, 2026 Cast Judit Polgar Self Runtime 93 Minutes Director Rory Kennedy Writers Mark Bailey, Keven McAlester Producers Rory Kennedy, Keven McAlester, Mark Bailey Main Genre Documentary Studio(s) Netflix Executive Producer(s) Gábor Harmi, Meryl Metni, Stephen Nemeth, Regina K. Scully, Peter Stern, Galen Walker, Ariane Wu Powered by Expand Collapse 2 The Truth About Jussie Smollett?
If you don’t remember this crazy controversy involving Empire actor Jussie Smollett from back in 2019, then buckle up for a riveting reminder, update, and head-scratcher in the 2025 Netflix doc The Truth About Jussie Smollett?. The feature-length doc speaks to all the main players involved, including Smollett, who tells his own story at length for the first time.
It lays out the case in which the actor alleged that he was the victim of a hate crime after two men attacked him, poured bleach on him, and put a noose around his neck while yelling racial and homophobic slurs. The case then took a bizarre turn when it was alleged that Smollett had staged the whole thing as a hoax and had actually hired a pair of Empire extras, the brothers Osundairo, to pull it off. With interviews from law enforcement, journalists, lawyers, and the Osundairo brothers, too, The Truth About Jussie Smollett? uses archive footage and reenactments to lay out both sides of the story so you can decide for yourself.
Smollett has always, and still, maintains his innocence in the case, and you might find yourself questioning the details yourself, which makes this true-crime doc a fascinating ride.
1 I Just Killed My Dad
Netflix’s true-crime series I Just Killed My Dad is still as unnerving now as it was when it came out in 2022. The three-episode series is one of the most intense of its kind I’ve ever seen, as it peels back the layers of what happened leading up to the time that 17-year-old Anthony Templet called Louisiana’s 911 to report that he had just killed his dad.
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Directed by Skye Borgman (the filmmaker behind Girl in the Picture), the series reveals that even with Anthony’s cold and emotionless confession, the story is far from cut and dry. Layered with gripping interviews from Anthony himself, as well as direct-to-camera interviews with his family, law enforcement, and prosecutors, Borgman also weaves in archival news clips and police interrogation footage with Anthony to paint a complete picture of abduction, isolation, and long-term abuse at the hands of his father — Anthony may not be the psychopath he was thought to be.
Was it self-defense? How do the revelations about Anthony’s situation affect the case? With a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, you can rest assured that I Just Killed My Dad is a compelling ride on the way to finding out.
These eye-opening and entertaining documentaries on Netflix are there for the taking this weekend, but if they’re not quite your cup of tea, use this helpful Netflix code and dig around for a doc that is. Happy hunting.
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