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.

By now anyone who doesn't know who Pam Hupp is should do a quick search. This limited six-episode series is not intended to surprise you, we pretty well know the sequence of events. It is intended to entertain. With heavy makeup and prosthetics Renee Zellweger is unrecognizable until she speaks. She plays Pam with a lot of dark humor, I'd suppose the character is exaggerated. But the way she does it totally entertaining.

This week I finished the series and my overall take is the old saying "Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction."

Good series. The actors are all in fine form.

I've been reading about the actual case, and this movie isn't overexaggerating a thing. The authorities really were that arrogant, Pam really is that psychotic, and the people around her were really that manipulated.

Watching shows like this taught me more about the human psyche than any college psychology course. Another crazy movie was " The Good Father: The Martin MacNeill Story."

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.