Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Lily James. Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogan, Nick Offerman, Pepi Sonuga, Taylor Schilling, Fred Hechinger, Paul Ben-Victor, Mozhan Marnò, Adam Ray, Iker Amaya, Chris Mann, Andrew Dice Clay, Paul Guzman, Don Harvey, Larry Brown, Mike Seely.
There is no greater story of fiction than that which is housed in fact.
The biographical drama that comes along, the type which likes to play with the conflicting emotions wrapped up in a bizarre tale that once would have seemed too elaborate and completely out of the interest of public interest, but which since the advent of a type of consumptive energy found a way to merge news with titillation, gossip with truths an evidences, has meant that we have all become willing partners to one extent or another of that of the voyeur, displaying outrage at the conversation, whilst secretly, even openly and without shame, enjoying every moment of someone else uncomfortable revelations.
Based on the article by Amanda Chicago Lewis, and arguably in part on the sense of unbelievable heights of intrigue and equal damnation felt for all party’s con concerned, Pam and Tommy is the drama serial examination of one of the consumable acts of the 1990s, a pornography of the mass human entitlement in which coincided with the advent of the internet in its infancy.
Pamela Anderson and Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee, a power couple for the age of mass media production, from being the face of Labatt’s and onto television screens as one of the heroines of Baywatch, and her husband, the energetic, arguably passionate, and much-loved drummer of one of the bands of the time, they jointly dominated the front pages and scandal/gossip columns when they married after, not so much a whirlwind romance, but a tornado of sensations that became embroiled in one of the go-to stories of the decade.
Karma, the collision of souls when the sense of toxic overloads explodes, the ridicule unfairly placed at the soul of Pamela Anderson, the part played by ego, and the stifling suffering of what the internet holds forever; Pam and Tommy is not so much a love story but a warning that has come too late; one video, perhaps naively, of an intimate nature stolen by a person who had been dealt a rough hand by Tommy Lee, and the world crumbles apart…the lesson of which has never been learned by millions of others who believe that their own sex life cannot manipulated for the excess and stimulating thrill of others.
If this story had never been, they could never have found a studio willing to indulge in what had been a fantasy derived by innuendo, the truth within though, the sheer scale of pain upon pain brought on by ego and bad will though makes the series one of undaunted explanation and voyeurism that cannot be dismissed; for it is the epitome of downfall, the act of hedonism and sex brought together under the banner of fame and revenge, and for all that it is compulsive viewing.
With Lily James in sublime form as Pamela Anderson, the excellent Sebastian Stan outrageously capturing the essence of Tommy Lee, and Seth Rogan in possibly one of his finest screen roles to date as Rand Gauthier, the electrician who changed perhaps the way the internet could be used, Pam And Tommy is a lesson for the age, and no matter which side you come down upon, the suffering is felt by all.
A thought-provoking series, one driven by remarkable circumstances and the perfect storm of broken privacy and assumed status, Pam And Tommy is the act of voyeurism you won’t feel dirty over consuming. Ian D. Hall