Pam & Tommy is a brilliantly acted show depicting the train wreck of real-life events that audiences will find impossible to look away from. The new series from Hulu brings audiences back in time to 1995, when the internet was an unknown invention, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee were just recently married after a five-day courtship in Mexico, and grunge music was dominating the music scene. For those who grew up in this time, the Pam and Tommy sex tape is a moment in time when celebrity private lives transcended the tabloid front page to stolen accessible content thanks to the internet.
In Hulu’s newest limited series viewers will finally see beyond the tape and learn about how this private marital moment became a touchstone moment in the battle between an angered tradesman and the superstar couple. The whirlwind of publicity would leave everyone scarred for life.
First, we meet Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen), a carpenter working on a high-priced renovation for Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan) and Pamela Anderson (Lily James). Things are not going well on the job. Tommy is constantly changing his mind, refusing to pay the bills, and after a misunderstanding, Rand is fired. Tommy pulls a gun on Rand when he tries to retrieve his forgotten toolbox, and from that moment on, Rand is bent on revenge.
After weeks of observation, Rand has a plan to rob Tommy and Pam, and successfully gets away with stealing a large safe from the garage. Inside are multiple valuables, including a sex tape of the couple that Rand sees as a potential moneymaker. With the help of his friend Uncle Miltie (Nick Offerman), a porn producer, they set out to find a company that will distribute the tape. Failing to find support they enlist the services of the mob and sell the tape on the internet.
Life for Pam and Tommy continues unaffected by the theft, because neither of them is aware of the missing safe. Only after Tommy insists on placing the sonogram of their child in the safe, does the rocker notice the theft. Thinking they will be able to find the tape and save their embarrassment, Pam and Tommy have no clue of the damage being done, because the tape is already in circulation.
In the first episode a viewer might sympathize with Rand’s plight, but he is not the hero of this story. Pam & Tommy is a show that viewers must see through past the first episode. The story that is told is worth the wait and is as tragic as anything that Shakespeare could have cooked up hundreds of years before.
What makes this story so compelling is the stellar performances by the cast. Seth Rogen is incredible as the down on his luck, forever failing Rand Gauthier. You will want to care for Rand when first meeting him, but the genius in Rogen’s performance is that Rand Gauthier is forever complicating his life by assuming he’s smarter than everyone else, which he is not. Rand loves to talk about his passion for studying religions around the world, and his appropriation of religious beliefs for his own personal philosophy shows the audience that this man is desperately trying to find his place in the world, and just can’t get his act together.
Rogen shows audiences what a talent he is. While he has played some lovable losers in past parts, in Pam & Tommy, Rogen proves his acting chops by bringing to life a warped frustrated man, who sees a life of crime and publishing a private video as his means of gaining righteousness over Tommy Lee.
Sebastian Stan as Tommy Lee is a revelation. He not only inhabits the role of the famed rocker, but he brings his performance to the forefront of the screen because of the passion and emotion that makes Lee such a colorful character. Tommy Lee is not introduced to the audience in the best way. In that first episode we see him wandering the house in his underwear changing his mind and frustrating the tradespeople, including Rand. First impressions are deceiving.
Viewers will forget that this is the man who played Bucky Barnes. Sebastian Stan makes his performance memorable for not only duplicating the outrageous antics of the real Tommy Lee, but the heartache and pain of a rocker who has outlived his fame from music. Stan allows the audience to see beyond the tattoos and fist fights, and show the world that Tommy Lee is a real person. There is one moment where Lee is sitting on the couch watching an MTV special about Motley Crue and how the group is past their prime. Sebastian Stan is great for channeling the loud behavior of Lee, but this quiet moment speaks volumes about what Tommy Lee is feeling.
Lily James as Pamela Anderson is the perfect completion to this acting trifecta. James, like Stan, has the looks of the Baywatch star, but her voice captures the essence of Pamela Anderson. While for most of the show the audience is not meant to like Rand Gauthier or even Tommy Lee, the show is heavily invested in showing Pam’s side, and what she experienced thanks to the release of the tape.
James has Anderson’s looks but allows us to see a snapshot of what Pam would have felt by being mortified by the release of the tape. She deals with the daily sexism on the set of Baywatch where she is expected to run into the ocean in a skimpy bathing suit, and no chance to show her acting skills. When Pam and Tommy sue Penthouse to stop the publication of pictures from the tape in the magazine, it’s Pam who is deposed by “Penthouse” lawyers and not Tommy. Why did Pam have to experience this? Because she is an easier target to shame.
Given Pam Anderson’s past posing for “Playboy” and her role on Baywatch, the lawyers for “Penthouse” use the legal proceeding as an opportunity to offend, insult, and degrade her. While the world was curious about the tape, the story of what happened to Pam and Tommy during this personal crisis was never thought about. Pam miscarried, the relationship between Tommy and Pam fell apart, and the world would never be the same. Their sex tape would span many other leaked celebrity private moments that would all find a home on the internet.
The key to the success of this series is the emotional and human performances given by Sebastian Stan and Lily James. For most of the 1990’s, the tape was a running joke. No one ever considered the harm it caused Pam and Tommy. I look at this pop cultural moment as a moment of shame. While I feel for the real Pam and Tommy having to relieve this moment again almost twenty years after it happened, I am glad to see shows like Pam & Tommy being produced. Finally, a snapshot of their story is on the screen too.
Pam & Tommy is a show that you shouldn’t miss. Filled with terrific performances that not only humanize the paparazzi side of the mega couple, but also offers a commentary on the state of our celebrity obsession. Based on the Rolling Stone article by Amanda Chicago Lewis, viewers will be intrigued by the level the show goes to establish reality in an unreal world, and how even in the early days of the internet, anyone with an axe to grind could harness the power of the world wide web.
Pam & Tommy is a must see for 2022 with incredible performances from Seth Rogen, Sebastian Stan, and Lily James.