The final step in creating the show’s distinctive tone and sophisticated relationship between the audience and its story is in the editing, which is extremely delicate in its presentation of its indelicate title character. For Aric Lewis, who edited episodes three and six, one challenge was calibrating how obvious Pam’s lies were at any given moment, since the progression of the series follows her as someone who is initially believed by many but ultimately believed by virtually no one — even though she’s blatantly lying the whole time. “If we’re on Pam and it’s ‘real’ — not a Pam vision — I’m always looking for smaller moments where Pam shows certain tics that come out when she lies,” Lewis said. “I might look for a sniff or an eye shift. Then in the Pam visions themselves, it’s about finding a balance so that the emotions don’t get too big or absurd.”

Lewis felt the same sense of responsibility as everyone else when it came to editing the piece. “The script tells me where to go, but knowing that these are actual events I have to keep in mind that this happened to real people,” he said. “I’m trying to make something that’s entertaining without making light of it. I don’t so much want you to have fun as be unable to look away because you can’t believe what you’re seeing.” While for the viewer “The Thing About Pam” is undeniably “fun” at times thanks to the sheer pleasure of the craftsmanship and the infectious joy the actors take in their performances, one can feel the gravity of the source material behind every scene, a testament to the filmmakers’ seriousness. “Everyone tried to handle this with grace and integrity and honor the story,” Cookson concluded. “’Happy’ is a strange word to use, but I’ll put it this way: I’m glad that the story is out there.”

Read the full review and interview(s) here.