The drama meets "Dateline" in "The Thing About Palm", an NBC series that tries to turn a news magazine into a limited series, complete with terrifying narration by reporter Keith Morrison. With Renee Zellweger swirling 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.
"Dead Wife. Guilty Husband Pretends Grief," Morrison, in her trademark style, portrays the notions that stem from the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria, and casts doubt on her husband Russ ("True Detectives" Glenn Fleshler) Gone.
But the main player in the play turns out to be Pam Hoop (Zellweger), a friend of the dead woman, who was the last person to see her alive. Pam seems to be a little too eager to point the finger at Russ, telling the detectives working on the case that he was "verbally not nice to her. You know the type."
"Dateline" viewers certainly know the type, which partly explains why the prosecutor (Judy Greer) immediately focused on the victim's husband. That goes as far as Russ's lawyer, Joel Schwartz (Josh Duhamel, working against a flatterer), his attempts to persuade the police to take a second look at Pam—who oddly finds his way into Betsy's will. Taken - met with hopeless resistance.
As with Zellweger, the way it's all presented has a decidedly quirky quality (hence the "Fargo" comparison), billed as her broadcast-TV debut following her Oscar-winning role in "Judy". Done, moving around and drinking soda is what looks like a gallon-sized drum.
Yet “The Thing About Palm” falls into that weird confines of a fact-based limited series that essentially teases an episode of a news magazine like “Dateline” into a multi-part drama—more practice that feels more specific. , probably, because of the straight line from one format to another here.
In success, the project could theoretically open the door to other true-crime dramas that expand on such stories, which has clearly proven to be a fertile genre for streaming services and premium networks in both scripted and unscripted formats. Such a pipeline would prove to be a boon for NBC News, which risks further blurring the lines between news and entertainment.
According to NBC, "The Thing About Palm" has already demonstrated commercial potential following its coverage on "Dateline" with Morrison's eponymous podcast, which has been downloaded over 20 million times.
First, though, "Dateline" in terms of reaping the windfall from that treasure trove of mysteries. And the main thing about "Pam" in this guise, frankly, is that it's not all that good.