Pam & Tommy
Pam & Tommy balances an enormous amount of raunch with a compelling story of privacy and celebrity culture
When the sex tape between “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee leaked back in 1995 it forever changed the world of celebrities, pornography, and the internet. In an age now where celebrity sex scandals feel like commonplace, Anderson and Lee’s case was a worldwide phenomenon and found themselves as victims when their privacy and intimacy was leaked to the world. Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, who have produced some remarkable content for television including the hit Amazon Prime Video series “The Boys” and the AMC series “Preacher.” Though were their edgy ways of telling stories too much for a cautionary tale such as this.
The series premiere of “Pam & Tommy” focuses mainly on Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen), the man behind the leak. Rand is a down on his luck handyman who is struggling to pay the bills and lives a life that proves to be mentally draining him. When he gets a gig to work on the mansion of Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan) and his wife Pamela Anderson (Lily James), he finds himself be ordered to do some costly and strenuous tasks in a job that proves to be thankless. After being gypped by Lee for buying Lee an expensive water bed and being fired without pay, Rand plots his revenge and breaks into the mansion of the celebrity couple and steals a safe, which holds countless valuable items and the sex tape between Lee and Anderson. He then presents the tape to an old colleague, porn director Uncle Miltie (Nick Offerman).
The second episode flashes back to when Anderson and Lee first meet at a night club, before Lee follows a reluctant Anderson on her business trip to Cancun. Sparks fly and soon the two are smitten with each other leading to countless hours of sexual activity. Only 96 hours after their first meeting, Anderson and Lee get married on the beach. It isn’t until they return to LA and Anderson moves in with Lee, that the tape is eventually filmed.
Some may scoff at the true story behind “Pam & Tommy” claiming that it’s exploitative and degrading, even the real Anderson herself isn’t a fan of the show’s existence. Though thanks to showrunner Robert Siegel’s way of telling the story and Craig Gillespie’s direction for the first three episodes, the series proves to balance out its abundance of raunchiness with a story that actually paints these characters as human beings. Much like Gillespie’s Oscar-winning film “I, Tonya,” the miniseries never presents this story as black & white, there’s nuances to these characters, we’re able to understand what made Anderson fall so madly in love with Lee so quickly but we’re also able to get what led Rand to steal the tape.
The series never wallows in sorrow and instead basks in absurdity, a nostalgic 90s soundtrack, and lots (and I mean lots) of sex and nudity. While some viewers may be turned off by some of the lengths the series goes, especially when it comes to a scene where Lee literally has a full-on conversation with his penis (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas), there’s a riveting story surrounding it all, pulling back the curtains of these icons showing their insecurities, emotions, and their feelings.
James has been building up quite the resume over the past decade from leading Disney’s blockbuster live-action retelling of “Cinderella,” playing the romantic lead in films from established directors from the likes of Edgar Wright and Danny Boyle, and taking on the role of a young Meryl Streep in the sequel/prequel “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.” Though James performance as Anderson is easily her best work yet, while the makeup and prosthetics used already do wonders to make James resemble the 90s bombshell, James perfectly captures the mannerisms, the voice, and the physicality of Anderson. This is also James’ riskiest role yet, having built a reputation on appearing in films and television shows that are marketed more as crowd-pleasers, James takes her career into another direction with her involvement here.
Stan’s work as Lee is also worthy of praise, while he may not resemble the famous rocker as much as James does with her counterpart, Stan is still noticeably immersed into his role and doesn’t hesitate to do things that most actors in the industry would quickly decline. Rogen is another stand-out, while most of us are typically used to seeing Rogen playing the lovable pothead in many of his comedies, here the A-list star gets to really flex his dramatic chops and even bring a bit of humanity to Rand. He recognizes the harmful actions of the character whilst still bringing in a personality that makes him empathetic.
“Pam & Tommy” is a wild and bonkers wild and while it may not be for everyone, it proves to be a great winter viewing and doesn’t disappoint in entertaining the audience.