Pam & Tommy Review: A Chronicle Of A Love Story For Sale A Sex Tape And A Black Comedy

Starring: Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogen

Creator: Robert Siegel

Streaming Platform: Disney+ and Hulu

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Pam & Tommy Review: The Pam & Tommy miniseries on Disney+ debuts today Wednesday February 2 or with the first three episodes (and if you don’t find it, remember to remove any age limit from your profile), in perfect conjunction with the United States and Hulu streaming. The miniseries written by Rob Siegel and DV DeVincentis, directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya), is produced by Seth Rogen who is also the protagonist and developed the idea. Pam & Tommy drags us into the heart of the 90s to tell the troubled love story between Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee (Lily James and Sebastian Stan) and above all the scandal of the “private” video cassette stolen and spread through the first forms of the internet.

Pam & Tommy Review: The Story

Pam & Tommy rides the nostalgia of the 90s, when the Internet was still in its infancy and the world was very different than today, which we have already glimpsed in Yellowjackets, Cruel Summer and the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal story in American Crime Story. At its core is the incredible true story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape, stolen from the couple’s home by a disgruntled worker and become a global phenomenon in parallel with the rise of the internet. From the simple exchange of videotapes in 1997 it becomes an international scandal thanks to the web.

The miniseries is not a legal drama, it is not an investigation or a docuseries, but in parallel to the scandal it tells the love story of Pamela and Tommy, it tells the 90s with the music that characterized those years, the unbridled world of the stars of that period, TV and the music world of that period. But it is also a kind of warning about the relationship between privacy, technology and celebrities, tracing the origins of our current era of Reality TV in a stolen tape seen by millions of people, which was actually intended only for the two protagonists.

Pam & Tommy Review and Analysis

Pam & Tommy is a miniseries glorified by the magnificent interpretations of Lily James, Sebastian Stan and Seth Rogen that go beyond imitation, especially for the first two who play Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, giving soul and depth to the characters. The true spirit of the TV series can only be understood in the complex of the 8 episodes, which are not a celebration, an investigation, an indictment, but represent in a plastic way how much reality is often the ideal subject of a fiction.

Eight visually very rich episodes, especially in the first part directed in a deliberately excessive way by Gillespie and then leave the pace at a different pace, in which the interpretation of Lily James in the role of Anderson is surprising. The make-up work is undoubtedly stunning but the real surprise is how James manages to capture the essence of her character: from the lively giggle to the hoarse voice, from the undeniable sensuality to the more intimate and tender aspects of a woman with dreams. and an unheard voice. Despite the title, she is the protagonist of the story. Because Pamela Anderson is the real victim of this story, she is the only one who has lost something.

Making a miniseries rather than a film allows you to expand what would be contained in half an hour of shooting in two episodes. The miniseries in fact does not enter the theme bomb and at times the first episodes are unsettling. In fact, we meet Rand, the worker who has to submit to the harassment of star Tommy Lee who changes his mind about the work to be done every day. Soon after we meet Pamela and Tommy, we see their story, their fleeting marriage. All this is essential to lay the foundations of the story, understand the love of the couple and not see the sex tape as a scandal, understand the reasons for Rand’s theft and his desire to take revenge.

The upside of the coin is that all the memes already spread on social media, all the clips, the trailer take the audience far beyond the first episodes and creating a disturbing effect for those who approach the miniseries. But this is more a problem of communication than of narrative construction. From this second point of view, everything is built to perfection, in the full style of an author miniseries, with that popular vintage taste. Those who grew up in those years cannot help but be carried away by the soundtrack, by the images of Baywatch. The 90s that middle ground between the past and the future. In which the internet began to take hold but still seemed like a utopia, in which the stars could still do damage without fear of ending up on some social network within 20 seconds, but in which a videotape (which the youngest will rediscover with this series) it could ruin your life.

Craig Gillespie takes his time, builds the story episode after episode, and then focuses on Pamela Anderson, the wounded and forgotten woman, as if it were normal to nudge each other with friends talking about that video, or to incense Tommy Lee for hers. performance, as if it were normal to judge it with a look for a private thing that no one intended to make public. Transformed into a woman object by a TV in which she ran on a beach in skimpy costumes and the shots of her were designed to highlight her B-side, Pamela Anderson had no dignity to exist except according to the desire of others. Pam & Tommy does justice to her figure but without sanctifying it, without transforming it. Pamela was a naive provincial girl who dreamed of glory to leave her life and who took every opportunity that presented itself, without ever denying anything she did. But she at the same time she is a woman who would not have wanted to see her intimacy exposed in this way and not protected by laws and lawyers.

The miniseries returns all the distortions of an era, in which privacy seemed easy to maintain, in which the internet was not yet present in everyday life, in which the stars enjoyed that unbridled and exaggerated luxury son of a sort of apparent well-being of the 90s, with his fear that there might be a paparazzo around and not fearing every single hand with a phone. Pam & Tommy returns all that sense of precariousness of a passing decade, poised between ancient and modern. Tommy is the rock star anchored to her glorious past overwhelmed by the changing time. Rand is the good-natured naive who, however, immediately takes every opportunity to try to change his life.

The two protagonists Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee are beautifully played by Lily James (seen in Downton Abbey) and Sebastian Stan the Marvel Winter Soldier, both capable not only of becoming very similar to the original but also of giving life to real characters and realistic beyond imitation masks. Next to them the producer Seth Rogen plays Rand, the worker who, with his theft, is the engine of the whole affair. Nick Offerman is Miltie the porn0 film producer who helps Rand with the operation. Also in the cast we also find Taylor Schilling in the role of Erica, Andrew Dice Clay is Butchie, Mozhan Marnò and Gail Chwatsky.

From the first 3 episodes we are already involved in the story, in fact the series does not focus on Rand’s point of view but also explores the single and couple life of the two protagonists. The choice of cast couldn’t be better than this, Lily James and Sebastian Stan create a formidable couple who manage to bring all the good and bad sides of Tommy and Pamela to the screen.

Pam & Tommy is a story of denunciation, and we can also say of love. We are shown for now how difficult it is for Pamela to work in this world of men, she begins to realize that no matter who she is, the important thing is that she is shown. Slammed on the screen and famous thanks to its shapes. While Tommy is a difficult and impulsive man, he often has outbursts and is addicted to alcohol and drugs. But we see that in a tormented story like theirs, even if short, there was also love and passion. We liked these first 3 episodes very much and we can’t wait to see the others too. Pam & Tommy is available on Disney + Star and is definitely a content reserved for adult viewing, not just for the monologue in which Tommy Lee talks with his penis (for which he used a prosthesis).

Pam & Tommy Review: The Last Words

Pam & Tommy will be a beautiful journey for Disney+ viewers, a sexy and painful adventure but a must see. If you are skeptical of the seemingly superficial themes and tone of the series, give it a chance because it will surprise you, excite you and involve you. 2022 has just begun and I think I’ve already found my series of the year.