Critic Reviews

It’s The Thing About Pam’s performances from actors breaking from their established molds that make it stand out in an overpacked genre.

Even if you've never watched Dateline NBC—but more especially if you have—NBC's miniseries The Thing About Pam is irresistibly entertaining.

At first, the show comes on a little strong with the whimsy. ... But Pam settles into a spirit of wry satire as it chronicles the grimly comical law enforcement ineptitude and/or cavalier disregard for the truth that allowed Pam to elude capture for so long.

Ms. Zellweger, who does justice to the role, transmits a powerful aura of derangement, and does so with enough energy to make you want to reach for the antacid pills. The one flaw in the tone of the six-part work is its pervasive note of archness, ever so slight but also ever so always there. A note common in many a crime docu-drama. ... Such things aside, all in all this is a wholly compelling tale.

There are times when I almost had to take out an umbrella to shield myself from the steady downpour of condescension permeating the series — e.g., when Pam adds several pumps of cherry syrup into her Enormous Gulp cup of soda, because, you know, small towns — but on the whole, “The Thing About Pam” manages to be both amusing and appalling, eccentric and shocking.

“The Thing About Pam” is entertaining. Zellweger, Duhamel and Judy Greer (as the Lincoln County prosecutor) land their laughs and make you wonder how stuff like this happens. ... But it takes on a different feel when you see Betsy’s children and husband caught up in the big gulp world of Pam Hupp. While your eyes widen, your heart also sinks.

Even though The Thing About Pam has significant flaws, it is compulsively watchable.

While providing superficial nods to Pam’s grievances, “The Thing About Pam” repeatedly recedes into a one-note character study, a regression only emphasized by Renée Zellweger’s exaggerated lead performance.

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, complete with ghoulish narration by reporter Keith Morrison. Featuring Renée Zellweger tromping around under the weight of prosthetic makeup, it's a true-crime experiment that clearly wants to be the next "Fargo" and doesn't get there.

Ultimately, “The Thing About Pam” is a watchable if often underwhelming true crime docudrama that wants to both be weird and play it safe, ending up in a strange middle ground between the two.