“The Greatest Love Story Ever Sold.”
If the tagline for Hulu’s new limited series Pam & Tommy isn’t a perfectly appropriate summation for it, this writer isn’t sure what is. The latest offering from the streaming giant is a big-budgeted and extravagant retelling of one of the ‘90s’ most infamous, media-frenzied events. As its title implies, the series depicts the whirlwind relationship between Baywatch and Playboy bombshell Pamela Anderson and bad boy Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. And those who lived through the decade will recall the scandalous sex tape of the couple that was stolen, shown worldwide, and unleashed a tabloid avalanche unlike no other for its time. Granted, viewers may feel some ennui with other well-known ‘90s stories getting the extended series treatment in recent years (the O.J. trial, Versace murder, Clinton impeachment, etc.). However, with its first three episodes now available to stream, Pam & Tommy is massively impressive in its own way.
The premiere installment “Drilling and Pounding” sets the stage for what’s to come, as we’re introduced to Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen, Superbad, also a producer), the handyman/electrician who kickstarted everything circa 1995. The episode is told from Rand’s point of view as he and his crew are doing some remodeling work inside Tommy Lee’s (Sebastian Stan, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) Malibu mansion. While building the rocker’s revamped “sex den” for him and his new bride Pamela (Lily James, Baby Driver), Rand is abruptly fired, humiliated, and stiffed for the expensive costs of the project. It is then that the mullet-haired schlub and amateur theologian plots his own karmic retribution against Lee and breaks into his estate to steal a massive safe from his garage. Besides some wads of cash, inside are some guns and jewelry, which Rand then pawns, and a Hi8 camcorder videotape with the contents we all know about.
This initial episode may paint Rogen’s character as the victim getting some righteous justice against the gonzo and hot-headed Lee. But it is during the third where Rand goes to extreme lengths in his quest for glory by trying to exploit the sex tape for all it’s worth. He teams up with a former pornography associate (a deliciously sleazy Nick Offerman, Parks and Rec) to squeeze as much profit as possible from their venture. Rand produces the idea to make copies of the tape and then distribute them to paying customers through the World Wide Web, then in its infant stages. The doubts and scoffs he initially receives make the series not only a hilarious time capsule of sorts but also a glimpse into how powerful a thing the internet would soon become. Once Rand gets financial backing from a local gangster (a spot-on Andrew Dice Clay, A Star is Born), his self-aggrandized path to be a “loser no more” empowers him to try to rekindle things with his former porn star ex-wife Erica (Taylor Schilling, Orange Is the New Black).
The incredible pedigree of Pam & Tommy’s team behind the camera makes the entire spectacle even more compelling and addictive than you’d expect. Writer/creator Robert Siegel (The Wrestler) and director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) have collaborated to make their own fantastic representation of a ‘90s-set American Crime Story. Based on a 2014 article in Rolling Stone by Amanda Chicago Lewis, Siegel’s storytelling elements are expertly adapted to give us a true behind-the-scenes preview of the impending scandal. Gillespie also brings the same experience from his film on Tonya Harding to this other media-crazed event of the decade. Helming these first three episodes, he presents that same Scorsese-esque visual style to the proceedings and even contributes an awesome, hit-laced soundtrack of the era along with it.
Rogen is the biggest name attached to this limited series, and he deserves credit for doing a fine job and being funny with a more restrained style than we’re used to seeing from him. But let’s face it…we viewers came to see the title characters themselves, and that’s where Pam & Tommy is at its best. Stan and James are damn near perfect and practically unrecognizable as the biggest tabloid pairing of the time. They get the spotlight in the series’ second episode “I Love You, Tommy,” which focuses on the couple’s first meeting and short-lived courtship. Their four-day excursion in Mexico full of booze, drugs, and lust culminates in an impromptu beachside wedding.
The top-notch hair and makeup team deserve their own early Emmy awards for the job they’ve done with Stan and James and only enhance the duo’s spectacular performances. The MCU’s Winter Soldier exudes every single bit of Lee’s hedonistic, metalhead party animal. Stan, like Gillespie, is also an I, Tonya alum, and his tattooed, big-pierced role belongs right alongside that of the infamously-mustachioed Jeff Gillooly in that film. And a scene involving Tommy having an actual conversation with his…eh, NOT band member (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas, The Good Place) is just as outrageous as it sounds. Just wow.
But it may be Downton Abbey veteran James who ultimately steals the show in Pam & Tommy early on. Armed with blonde hair, giant eyelashes, and pouty lips, the British actress is a dead ringer for perhaps the biggest sex symbol of the time period. However, the gravitas and humanity she brings to Anderson is the real sight to behold, even in these early episodes. There’s a sweetly romantic scene with her and Stan where the couple sing and dance together to “Getting to Know You” while watching The King and I. And Pam’s efforts to be taken seriously as an actress are undermined on the Baywatch set, as we see her struggles to strive above her pin-up status. She even explains in the third episode “Jane Fonda” her admiration for the title actress and her goal to have a career just like her idol’s. With the contents of her raunchy sex tape with Tommy about to be copied and released worldwide, it’s ironic that James’s vulnerable Pam is as close to an innocent party for the onslaught to come.
Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, from the onset, appears to be one of the first great television events of 2022. The limited series starts off as wild and over the top as one would expect considering the subject matter. The production is as A-level as this tale of celebrity overexposure deserves, and everyone involved should be tremendously applauded. Those of us who’ve lived through the event all remember the media storm and the fallout of what is truly a zeitgeist moment in pop culture. But the work of the creators as well as the actors in the title roles, particularly Lily James, appears poised to give us more depth behind the events than we ever knew existed. While yours truly knows the story’s ending regardless, this ‘90s kid is all in.
