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.
HBO Max doesn't let up when it comes to documentaries, and has had some serious standouts this year already, not least of which is Monsters of God, the ongoing saga of the illegal reptile trade that's 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
This week, however, HBO Max dropped a fascinating handful of new titles. They include a pair of fresh new seasons of shows—one that will make your skin crawl as it gets up close with some seriously disturbed individuals, and another that will boggle your mind with its enormous undertakings—and my top pick this weekend, a detailed account of the assassination attempt of a Russian double agent in Britain in 2018. Let's go!
Trust me: you only need to give Signs of a Psychopath a couple of episodes, and you'll be strangely hooked. What makes the stalwart Investigation Discovery series—now six years in and celebrating its 11th season and 100th-episode milestone—so shocking and compelling is how it lets the killers talk, and what they often have to say will give you the heebie-jeebies.
Season 11 of the half-hour true-crime workhorse series covers eight cases that, true to its tried-and-tested formula, are assembled largely from interrogation-room footage and interviews with some heinous killers and the detectives who worked their cases. It also mixes in archival and some newsreel footage with case files and accounts from the investigators. But some of the most fascinating insights come from the psychological analysis that's anchored by forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill and other analysts, who flag all the signs from the killers as they're being questioned—lack of remorse, flat demeanor, arrogance, grandiosity, and the often shocking pivots from denial to confession.
The opening episode, "I Guess I'm a Maniac," sets the tone with a decade-old Florida unsolved murder case, in which the psychopathic sexual predator killer just shows up with a surprise confession.
If you're a fan of in-depth documentaries or series like How It's Made or Extreme Engineering, then Building Giants is going to seriously scratch your itch for watching how some of the world's craziest mega structures and buildings are built. Yes, it's eye candy for engineers and documentary nerds like me who are impressed by the massive scale of it all.
Think you know your cold cases from your con artists? Test your knowledge of
Netflix's most gripping true-crime stories.
Which Netflix docuseries follows the story of Steven Avery, a man who was exonerated
after 18 years in prison only to be charged with murder shortly after?
The Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler focuses on a con man who posed as a
wealthy heir to which real-world business dynasty?
The Keepers, a 2017 Netflix docuseries, investigates the unsolved murder of which
victim?
Which Netflix documentary features Robert Durst, a real estate heir, who made a
stunning apparent confession while wearing a hot mic?
Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer centers on the online manhunt for a
killer who first gained notoriety by posting what kind of videos online?
Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. tells the story of Sarma Melngailis, a celebrity
restaurateur who was manipulated into committing financial fraud by a man who claimed he could do
what?
Which Netflix true-crime docuseries examines NXIVM, the organization accused of
being a cult that recruited women as 'slaves' and branded them?
