I was born in 1985. I primarily grew up in the 1990s. There were various news events that became a visceral part of my childhood. I remember the O.J. Simpson trial and the implications that it had for sports, justice, and culture. The Bill Clinton Sex Scandal was a huge topic of conversation when I was in middle school in addition to the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado. One that stood out along with these was the Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape.
Pam and Tommy, from showrunner Robert Siegel, stars Lily James and Sebastian Stan as the titular Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. The story revolves around the theft of their sex tape by a disgruntle carpenter Rand Gauthier, played by Seth Rogan. The tape explodes onto the scene with many duplicates, rip-offs, and knockoffs appearing, just as the dawn of the internet age begins. The series is 8 episodes long, starting from the theft of the tape and dealing with the fallout as the tape goes viral in a matter of months.
The performances across the board are pretty great.
The star of this series is Lily James and her performance as Pam. Lily James is unrecognizable as Pam between the spot-on look and the way she speaks.
She is doing some of the most amazing work of her career.
Sebastian Stan keeps up with James as rock ‘n roll legend Tommy Lee. The make-up and hair for Pam and Tommy definitely deserve a shoutout for the excellent work they did. This show encapsulates the 90s extremely well. The music is amazing and brought me back to days of being on a roller rink and jamming to some of the radio hits.
My favorite episode of the series is the second one entitled I Love You, Tommy. It highlights how Pam and Tommy met and how that ultimately lead to their whirlwind romance. It has some of the best comedy of the series and it also has some of the more sweet moments. We see how much Tommy truly cares about Pam, even if he doesn’t always express it in the healthiest of ways. They fall for each other hard and fast.
Credit goes to Lily James and Sebastian Stan for having amazing chemistry. I really believed their story, as crazy as it appeared to be.
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This is quite an interesting story to tell because so many different perspectives are explored. The distribution and sale of the tape is startling. I didn’t realize that the tape was stolen when it first came out, which makes the whole fiasco infinitely worse in hindsight. How can something like this be allowed to happen when consent and release forms are such powerful entities nowadays. Different time right? Rand shows the tape to his producer friend Miltie, played to scuzzy perfection by Nick Offerman. The tape was being marketed by this new thing at the time called the internet. It’s almost shocking to see how far the internet has come since those days when you can mail a check to some random place and then get a tape with a handwritten label and hope for the best.
Not much is known about its capabilities yet so the role of the internet (and all the dial-up tone noise-causing post-traumatic stress) is crucial for this.
The internet is a powerful character in Pam and Tommy.
Without it, the tape might not have taken off as much as it did. Even if the tape was released a few years earlier, it might not have made the waves that it did when it was actually released.
Tommy’s perspective is one of aloofness and rage
Tommy’s furious about the release of the tape for a variety of reasons but one that stands out is that it makes him famous for the wrong reasons. We’re in the 90s, where hair metal and glam rock are losing out to grunge and alternative. Tommy’s told constantly how famous the tape is making him, even though Motley Crue hadn’t had a hit in quite some time. Tommy waffles between being mad to just misunderstanding how big something like this can become. Tommy and Pam are unfortunately not on the same level during this time from a career standpoint. Pam is a rising star on Baywatch and is trying to desperately break into more film roles whereas Tommy is unfortunately at the twilight of his time in the spotlight. The constant reminder of this gets the best of Tommy and eventually causes a lot of tension with Pam.
Pam’s perspective is by far the most interesting and the toughest to watch
She gets put through the ringer and the audience can’t help but sympathize with her after the ordeal she has gone through. The opening line of the series involves an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and him asking Pam how does it feel to have the tape out there. Pam clearly is uncomfortable and cuts away before she can give an answer. I do hope Siegel understands the irony of that first scene, considering it was reported that Pam didn’t want anything to do with the series, that something so private becoming public like that has to be incredibly devastating.
Pam’s struggle throughout the series highlights the double standard women go through with something sexual like this versus men.
Whereas Tommy was commented on for making the tape and saying how lucky he is, Pam’s name gets dragged through the mud and her life is irreversibly damaged due to the trauma. This difference is highlighted a few times during talks between Pam and Tommy. For however many times Tommy says they’re going through the same thing, it’s clear to the audience that that’s simply not true. Tommy even says it eventually in one of the episodes where he says Pam doesn’t deserve this, something that resonates with Rand and eventually causes a semi-change of heart about what he has done. Episode 6, titled Pam in Wonderland, is the most uncomfortable of the series due to the deposition Pam has to give regarding a lawsuit for the tape. All the questions are horrible and highlight just how much of a void there is between Tommy and Pam’s fallout.
Pam and Tommy have an important story to tell about consent, sexism, and the role technology can play in a story.
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It also is a story made for Hollywood through and through. It’s upsetting but captivating and a great watch. I went into this with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. I would definitely recommend checking this out, especially if you lived through the 90s and remember this story.
Season Grade: 8/10
