The Thing About Pam

This is a dark comedy, folks, especially with the Keith Morrison narration. If that's not your cup of tea, then you'll hate this show. If, like me, you watch reality crime shows and have a slightly "off" sense of humour, you'll stick with the series, as I plan to.

Well done whoever cast Renee Zellweger as Pam Krupp. She is by far an unobvious choice but is absolutely excellent as the fascinatingly unlikeable- but seemingly mundane and harmless- Pam. There is a true crime book that has recently been released which is how I knew of the story (having never seen the dateline show.) It's twisty and I can see why a show would have been warranted. The creative angle here of Pam slurping her drink and the Desperate Housewives style narrative just work in bringing to story to life as a sort of disturbing caricature as opposed to a dark and miserable crime retelling. This was original and interesting, particularly as I had a vested interest in the case already.

I love it. Huge Dateline fan.

Contra the "top review", I think it's an inspired telling. I was surprised by Keith Morrison's narration but it's a bold move that works better than it should. It does an effective job of creating a hybrid of the Dateline roots and a dramatic re-telling. That reviewer wanted a "traditional drama" - this is bolder than that. It's a prestige re-enactment.

For me, the dark humor and the slight camp are a perfect fit for the story. Some people may find it offensive. That's fine, but likely hypocritical unless you are personally affected by this case. There is so much entertainment filled with senseless death and violence, I think it's odd to criticize a show that is at least showing sympathetic victims and the utter immorality of a sociopath - even if with a darkly humorous take.

RZ is fantastic. Duhamel gives the best performance I've ever seen him give in anything. Judy Greer is fantastic in everything she does, no surprise she is here too.

Familiar with the story, not necessarily a fan of RZ, I put off watching the first episode. It far exceeded expectations - currently quite underrated with a 6.1 IMDB rating. I know the story very well and am still very eager for the next episode.

I am uneasy with the idea of turning the story of a serial killer into a comedy - especially since these crimes are recent enough to still be very painful to the survivors. But if we judged Hollywood according to the standards of good taste, we'd all be watching nothing but Leave It to Beaver reruns.

The pacing is good, the script is well written, I like the narration (something I usually dislike), and Renee Zellweger is quite convincing as the "psycho next door." So despite the fact that I agree with the reviewers who say this is in poor taste and it's all about turning a tragedy into a comedy. I am going to continue watching...

... because the bottom line is this is an entertaining show.

Renée Zellweger transformation in this film is incredible. She really is an amazing actress. Keith Morrison well known crime documentary voice narrating the story of Hupp made it enjoyable. Yeah, the acting in general is a little over-the-top and hammy, but I considered that part of its charm. A comedic crime drama. This seems to be a new trend with real-crime dramas like Netflix's Tiger King and NBC's spoof of the Tiger King on Peacock.

At no time did I feel the producers were trying to make a serious true-crime documentary. It was evident to me this was more of a tongue and cheek show of a real life story.