DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A KILLER?

The Thing About Pam stars Renée Zellweger as the unlikeliest suspect in her friend's bloody murder

- LINDA MALEH

PAM HUPP IS a wife and mother of two, a neighbor, a "nice lady"...and a suspected murderer in mom jeans. Played by an unrecognizable Renée Zellweger in the six-part limited series The Thing About Pam, she's already been the subject of five Dateline NBC episodes and a hit podcast. The homicide in a small Midwestern town that unfolds is about as twisty as they come. The location: Troy, Missouri, the "sort of place that didn't make a fuss," notes wry narrator Keith Morrison of Dateline fame (see sidebar). But on December 27, 2011, "there'd be a fuss tonight." Pam's friend Betsy Faria (Katy Mixon) is killed, stabbed 55 times, the blame pinned on Betsy's husband, Russ (Glenn Fleshler). Something is off, though, and the trail leads back to Hupp. Eventually. Here's more on what makes Pam tick.

THE THING ABOUT...BECOMING A SERIES

“I binged [the podcast The Thing About Pam] on a road trip in one go," recalls Zellweger. "It's about a series of escalating absurdities that make you keep questioning how. How? How's that possible?"

The actress' enthusiasm to adapt Hupp's story for TV opened doors quickly. Says executive producer Chris McCumber: "When a two-time Oscar winner calls and says, I'm obsessed with this story, and I want to play Pam, and I want to produce, you say, 'Yes, yes, yes and yes.''

THE THING ABOUT...THE TITLE CHARACTER