The Thing About Pam

A review of 'The Thing About Pam,' a fictionalized adaptation of a true-crime story and podcast covered and produced by newsmagazine 'Dateline.

“For the first time, Pam wasn’t in control of her own story,” Morrison intones, but The Thing About Pam is so disparate in its methods and so mistaken in its centering of Zellweger that it loses its own sense of control, too. Brightly colored, chipper fantasy sequences in which we see how the narcissistic Hupp views herself (dressed in all white like an angel and adored by her family and friends or performing every role in a courtroom better than the actual judge, jurors, or bailiff) tip The Thing About Pam toward comedy. Instead, this fictionalized miniseries is partially a meta-experiment in the newsmagazine format’s reliance on dramatic reenactments, partially NBC patting itself on the back for Dateline helping to release an innocent man, and partially Zellweger doing the most, and The Thing About Pam cannot sustain all three. Betsy’s friend Pam Hupp was the last person to see her alive, and she points directly at Russ — around whom she spins accusations of abuse that the police accept without a second thought. But The Thing About Pam isn’t a documentary because that approach has already been done for this story by NBC itself in a podcast of the same name and five Dateline episodes. That is an actual line from my notes on The Thing About Pam, the NBC miniseries premiering tonight about the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria that the network’s long-running newsmagazine Dateline has covered for years.

WHEN DO NEW EPISODES OF THE THING ABOUT PAM PREMIERE? The limited true-crime series will air weekly at 10/9c on NBC, with the series finale slotted for Tuesday, ...

To ensure that you don’t miss a single episode, here’s a quick guide for when each will be on air. Over the course of the series, we will be able to see Zellweger completely charm and lie her way out of suspicion in the most manipulating fashion ever. NBC’s latest limited series will have true crime fans sitting on the edge of their seats.

"The Thing About Pam" premiered on NBC on Tuesday, March 8, and it charts the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria as well as the key witness in her murder trial, ...

Will 'The Thing About Pam' Have a Second Season? When Will 'The Thing About Pam' Air? How Many Episodes Will 'The Thing About Pam' Have?

Russ Faria, Joel Schwartz and Leah (Askey) Chaney react to having their true crime story turned into an NBC miniseries on Pam Hupp, starring Renee ...

Drama meets "Dateline" in "The Thing About Pam," an NBC series that seeks to turn one of the newsmagazine's salacious stories into a limited series, ...

In success, the project could theoretically open the door for other true-crime dramas that expand on such stories, which has obviously proven to be a fertile genre for streaming services and premium networks in both scripted and unscripted formats. You know the type." But the key player in the drama turns out to be Pam Hupp (Zellweger), a friend of the dead woman who happened to be the last person to see her alive.

The Thing About Pam TV show on NBC: canceled or renewed? (Photo by: Skip Bolen/NBC). Tuesday, March 8, 2022 ratings — New episodes: The Resident, I ...

The percentages represent the change since the previous original episode. These are the fast affiliate ratings. The show pages are updated with the daily final ratings when they become available.

Pam Hupp sits in a state prison in northern Missouri, serving a life sentence for murder; she'll eventually face trial another killing. The two murders left ...

Renée Zellweger's fat suit is getting all the press, but Judy Greer and Josh Duhamel also get a chance to shine.

Greer’s Askey gleefully and repeatedly emphasizes to Schwartz how far away from the Troy inner circle he is, but Schwartz is undaunted, believing he has the truth on his side. So often unfairly sidelined to the best-friend-in-the-rom-com role, Greer is uncharacteristically wily as Askey, refusing to admit that she may have fingered the wrong guy and crafting any number of implausible theories to make that accusation stick. Like the podcast, The Thing About Pam is narrated by Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison, which adds a strange but compelling folksy flavor to an increasingly disturbing story.

The new NBC series "The Thing About Pam," stars Renée Zellweger as murderer Pam Hupp. Here's how the show's cast and actors compare to the story's real ...

But her role in "The Thing About Pam" required a special sort of commitment: Zellweger began her days on set with up to four hours in the makeup chair. The team had seen images of Faria sporting a perm and straight bangs, and replicated the look almost exactly, per Variety. "In this era of peak TV, having an artist of Renée’s caliber is an incredible advantage. Renée Zellweger is no stranger to transforming for a role. But what really is "the thing about Pam" that has inspired such fascination? In 2011, Hupp allegedly murdered Betsy Faria, a woman she claimed was her best friend, in a bid to collect insurance money.