Some of you may know I don’t watch too many shows, nor do I review too many of them. This time, however, I felt like reviewing Pam & Tommy. Some of you mightn’t’ve heard of it as this show was only really popular back when it was first announced and then one more time when the first three episodes were released. So last Thursday the final episode was released and next to no one talked about it, so I thought why not I.
Pam & Tommy is an 8 episode long mini-series on Disney+ (Yes, I find that hilarious too.) It’s about the 90’s celebrity power couple Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, who is played by Sebastian Stan and Lily James. Some of the most left-field casting choices you’ve ever seen. The series revolves around the drama of their stolen sex tape that ultimately goes viral in the early years of the internet. There is also another story going on about. Rand. the disgruntled contractor that breaks into Lee’s manor and steals the safe, which unbeknownst to him contains Pam & Tommy’s sex tape. That’s the first episode of the show, where we focus solely on Rand, as Pam is barely in it and Tommy only shows up to treat him like crap. The second episode is a flashback to how Pamela met Tommy at a club and how Pam is ultimately wooed and married to Tommy before the end of the week. Then the third episode happens and I learned about how the internet works in 2022. I get it, it’s the 90s, but this very minor issue does spiral over in the next 5 episodes, and sort of represents a larger issue I have with the whole show.
The main hook I would say is the leading performances from Sebastian Stan and Lily James who play the title characters. Based on their previous works, (with Stan being the Marvel stuff and James rom-coms) you wouldn’t expect them to be as great as they are in this show. The two completely escape into these roles, which is amplified thanks to the impressive make-up work that transforms them into their real-life counterparts. Lily James, especially it’s a little off-putting how pitch-perfect accurate she is as Pamela Anderson. It’s almost like looking into a mirror. These are career-defining performances and this show has given me a newfound appreciation for them. I also enjoyed Seth Rogan’s Rand mainly because I felt he had the best storyline to follow in the show. Outside of that the main three roles the rest of the story is pretty dull.
I singled out episode 3 before, because like learning how the internet works, seeing the steps it took to put the tape on there was not as annoying, but it was definitely more boring. The drama of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee finding out that their private imitate video being leaked to the entire world was a bit more of a snooze fest than a compelling drama. The latter half of show kind of all blends into together as even the best parts of the show that being Pam and Tommy’s excellent chemistry and Rand’s story are heavily sidelined, in favour for the most underwhelming drama ever put on my screen. I should reiterate I like what the show has to say, especially with how tape affects Pamela, which is some powerful stuff. It’s just they repeatedly bring this and similar messages for the rest of the series and it just becomes tiresome. It blows it’s material too quickly and I think this show should have being reduced to four episodes, or be turned into a 2 hour long movie. One final point that for a show that’s rated R, this probably one of the most tamest things I think I ever seen. Sure there they use drugs and there is a talking penis, but that’s all in the early batch of episodes. This isn’t a knock against the show, this is just a general problem I have with rating systems, as I also brought up last week with The Batman.
Overall Pam & Tommy is a pretty good show, but after finishing that final episode I have never being more ready to move onto something else. Got the new Pixar movie coming up after this so stay tuned for that. Blog Complainer, signing out for now.
