Directed by Craig Gillespie
Written by Robert D. Siegel
Starring Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogen
First three episodes debut on Hulu February 2

by Kristian Cortez, Staff Writer

After watching the first three episodes of Hulu’s new limited series Pam & Tommy, which chronicles the sex tape scandal of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, I’m struggling to figure out exactly how this show wants the audience to view its characters. One would assume that, because of the show’s title and the stolen sex tape scandal at the center of the story, a certain level of care for its subjects would be present in its first three hours—or even its first hour—but that’s not what translates.

The series opener focuses entirely on the perspective of Rand Gauthier, the electrician who stole the tape, played by Seth Rogen. Through this episode we discover how hostile the environment was to work for Tommy Lee, the troubled unstable upbringing of Gauthier, and the events of stealing the safe and discovering the tape. It was about halfway through watching that I wondered where Pam and Tommy were, after all, their names are in the title! And their absence in the first episode (although Tommy does have a handful of scenes) is a grave miscalculation because without them the show verges on the territory of dullness.

It is so uninteresting to follow a character like Gauthier for longer than a few minutes at a time, but Pam & Tommy gives him an entire forty minutes. With such a lengthy amount of time dedicated to the person who stole and distributed someone else’s sex tape, it makes one wonder if the intention is to get the audience to empathize with Gauthier. Tommy Lee was a terrible person to work for, so that validates this invasion of privacy. If this was not the intention and the goal was instead to simply paint an unbiased portrait, I’d say it failed. For the moments to better empathize with Gauthier continued into episode three. 

There we learn about his failed marriage to a woman he still loves, who remarks how whatever he is doing currently seems to be changing him as a man for the better. Of course, we the audience know that this thing is trying to sell the sex tape of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. So, what exactly are we supposed to do with the insight into Gauthier’s failed marriage in juxtaposition to how happy getting revenge is making him? Root for him instead of against him? As the villain in this situation, his story should not be as fleshed out as it is. After all, the incentive in watching this show is in the title: we are here to see Pam and Tommy, not Gauthier.

We finally get to spend time with them and experience “the greatest love story ever sold” in episode two that traces the pair meeting for the first time, getting married after a few days of knowing each other, doing drugs, having lots of sex, and adjusting to married life. Lily James as Anderson and Sebastian Stan as Lee give great performances as the pair, nailing their look, speech, and mannerisms, but it’s unfortunate that the show chose to depict them with the public’s warped and dramatized perception of them, instead of attempting to show them as they actually are. With a show such as this, there was an opportunity to display them in a different, honest light since much of the time we spend with them is when they are behind closed doors. Instead, we are given over the top interactions that feel excessively embellished. 

Things only really get interesting when the over-dramatization lessens for something quiet, honest, and real - like the scene Pam and Tommy share in bed while watching The King and I. It’s while they view the film that we learn of Pam’s desire to go further as an actor and how the couple both can’t wait to have kids together. In episode three there is thankfully more of this as we follow their struggle to get pregnant, Pam losing a monologue she prepared tirelessly for Baywatch, and Tommy struggling with his identity as a musician, now that the times have changed. In one scene Pam speaks about her desire to have a career similar to Jane Fonda, who began as the girl next door and managed to evolve into a sex symbol, then an Oscar-winning actress and activist. The show benefits tremendously from these scenes, as they work to slow the rushed pacing present in all three episodes. With the events on screen having slowed, we are able to get deeper into the lives of these two people, which is the reason we are tuning in at all.

It’s possible that the intention for over-dramatized scenes was to provide us with the Pam and Tommy that was constructed by the media and to slowly discard it away for something more real later, but this could have been achieved without overly sexualizing Pamela Anderson. By having her topless in many scenes, it plays into the very real problem she is trying to escape from on her own show Baywatch: that the scenes with her work better wordless. It reinforces the perception that has always hung around Anderson, which is that to enjoy her presence is to only see and not hear her. Pamela Anderson’s sex symbol image is precisely what it is called, an image, constructed and performed for the world to see. But a show that aims to explore her non-public persona should have understood this and aimed to show us the opposite. Our story takes place in the late 1990s, but that doesn’t mean we need to approach it with a 1990s mindset.

Five episodes remain in the limited series, so there is a chance for things to turn around. Upcoming episodes have women as the writers and directors which will make it interesting to see if the subject matter is approached with more nuance. The question is, are audiences willing to stick around that long to find out?