REVIEW: ‘Pam & Tommy’ horrifically disappoints
This review contains spoilers for the first two episodes of “Pam & Tommy.”
In 1995, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee had their sex tape stolen out of a safe in their home. In 2022, Hulu — for some unknown reason — decided to create a show highlighting the sex tape’s thief.
Hulu’s newest original, “Pam & Tommy,” premieres Feb. 2 and follows Pamela Anderson (Lily James) and Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan) as they fall in love, get married and have their sex tape stolen and leaked.
The first episode introduces audiences to Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogan), Lee’s electrician, who Lee reportedly fired for subpar work and subsequently failed to pay $20,000. Gauthier is immediately cast as the sympathetic exploited worker manipulated by a rockstar.
Gauthier is understandably fed up with Lee and feels taken advantage of. He then decides to take revenge on Lee by robbing his house. At the end of the second episode, Gauthier steals a safe from Lee’s house, takes it into the woods to crack open and finds Lee and Anderson’s sex tape. With the help of Uncle Miltie (Nick Offerman), Gauthier decides to sell the video.
It becomes apparent immediately that “Pam & Tommy” chose to focus not on the victims, but the perpetrators of one of the biggest ‘90s sex scandals.
With recreations of ‘90s drama gracing television screens recently, such as “Impeachment: American Crime Story” and “The Crown,” it seemed inevitable that the infamous scandal would soon reach our screens. However, unlike in “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” which included Lewinsky as a producer to ensure accuracy and do her story justice, Hulu did not offer that same courtesy to Anderson.
“Pam & Tommy,” after all, is Gauthier’s story, not Anderson’s.
If the show was meant to truthfully portray Anderson’s story, showrunners would have consulted her. The showrunners attempt to craft Gauthier as a sympathetic victim of the vicious Lee. Unsurprisingly, this attempt fails, in part because of Rogan’s awful acting. Rogan is hilarious when he plays himself, but because the role of Gauthier forces him to show a tiny bit of genuine emotion and not just a funny character while high, he is awful.
The first episode attempts to force you to understand Gauthier’s motives for robbing Lee’s house, but honestly, who cares? Who cares about Lee bullying Gauthier and thus Gauthiers justification for releasing someone’s most intimate moments onto the internet without their consent?
It does not matter what happened to Gauthier — revenge porn is never justifiable. It’s 2022. We don’t need to know about the sex tape distributors, and Gauthier’s story certainly did not deserve its TV show.
It is awful that an appalling script so intensely mars a well-created show, especially in its other aspects. “Pam & Tommy” manages to recreate the feeling of ‘90s Los Angeles through its color scheme, filming techniques and set design. It is an excellent look into the glamor and intense sexism of the ‘90s.
The acting and work done to recreate Anderson and Lee are both outstanding. James perfectly embodies Anderson, a woman attempting to be more than the sex symbol the world has made her, and Stan is a complete and utter asshole, just like Lee.
James looks nothing like herself and nothing like she did in “Cinderella” or “Mamma Mia.” She completely embodies Anderson, from her voice to her mannerisms. Additionally, the prosthetic work on the show is incredible. There was an astronomical amount of fake tan and prosthetics applied to James, but thank goodness for that decision — she looks like ‘90s Pamela Anderson at the peak of her career.
Similarly, the amount of work done on Stan’s body to look like Lee’s is shocking. Fake tattoos and piercings cover his body, making him a far cry from the Winter Soldier — his most well-known character. Stan’s ability to make you hate Lee is outstanding. By the end of the first episode, you want to punch Lee in the face just as much as Gauthier does.
James and Stan are the stars of this show, but they are not in the limelight, at least in the first two episodes. They deserve more screentime because the pair perfectly depicts one of the wildest love stories of the ‘90s: the original Britney and K-Fed.
However, no amount of incredible acting by James or Stan can cover up the glaring issues with the show. “Pam & Tommy” tells a story that did not need to be told.