Pam & Tommy

I'm 1 episode in, and I'm hooked.

The story telling perspective is amazing. I love seeing this through the eyes of "the bad guy". I'm old enough to remember when this was all over the news. That news depiction back in the day did not give us the perspective that this series does. If this quality story telling continues, I might just up my rating.

I do despise the casting choice of Tommy Lee. The actor somewhat captures the attitude, but not the presence of the man. Tommy is very tall, lanky, boisterous, unforgettable...the actor kind of misses the mark for me.

Otherwise, awesome cast. Two thumbs up so far.

This show really started off strong, had no issue being raunchy with some gratuitous display of nudity and sex and craziness. But right off the bat, after the third episode, it was all too fairy tale like Tommy Lee wasn't a piece of garbage in reality whose relationship with Pam was littered with unfortunate events, and Anderson's worst problem was the male patriarchy who kept her career from flourishing past sex symbol status.

In simple words, the story is very basic, and beyond the skin-deep superficial premise of tabloid sensationalism lies nothing more than two people who are just operating in a world dictated by a script that never really goes anywhere. It was actually quite shocking to see that Craig Gillespie made this because it does have that look I, Tonya had, which is one of my favorite movies of all time, but lacks the heart and emotion that I, Tonya had no trouble delivering to its audience. Its unfortunate, but I don't think I am going to finish this, there is not enough in their story to warrant its length.

I really enjoyed watching this show and thought it was well done. Pam and Tommy were obviously a fun loving couple and I knew the series would be stylish and sexy, but I respected how the filmmakers focused in on the gratuitous denigration Pamela Anderson received during the experience of their privacy being shamelessly publicized and monetized. It was disgusting and deplorable how easily people caricatured her, especially because those home videos so obviously represented the sheer love and happiness the couple shared in their marriage, HOWEVER, I lowered my would-be 9 rating to a 7 when I lost respect for the filmmakers after learning that they never got Pamela Anderson's approval in making the series. Knowing how the scandal ruined her marriage to Tommy Lee and caused them such shame and heartbreak why publicly expose their pain again, ultimately ALSO MONETIZING off of it by reenacting and releasing their story without their blessing? If I were her I'd almost feel like my intimacy was stolen all over again. I'm sure that the cast and crew had good intentions, but whether or not they represented her as the gracious and respectable human being that Pamela Anderson is, I don't think that they actually respected her by making the biopic.

When I read that one of my fellow reviewers called this a "documentary," I spent a few minutes staring out the window to mourn the death of a country so overrun with craziness that young people can no longer distinguish "reality" from "satire." I didn't blame the person who wrote the review. I blamed a country so out of its mind that it elected a president who tried to destroy documents by flushing them down the toilet while living in a White House with fourteen fireplaces.

We don't have to be this dumb, people.

Meanwhile, this series satirizes the theft and distribution of a sex tape between Bay Watch star Pamela Anderson and Motley Cru drummer Tommy Lee. Lily James and Sebastian Stan star as the lovebirds, and, although James gives Anderson wide-eyed dignity, Stan is so in on the joke. He plays Tommy as stoned into dangerous stupidity, but in love with Pam.

Seth Rogan turns Rand Gauthier , the hapless carpenter who stole the tape, into exactly the kind of guy who is proud of being a former porn star, even though his fame was having equipment small enough to specialize in anal. Nick Offerman plays Uncle Miltie, the poor man's Hugh Hefner who enjoys spending time with the actresses in the porn he produces in the Valley.

The series itself is a dirty little valentine to the era just before the internet exploded and changed everyone's lives. It concentrates on the seediness of the porn industry in the San Fernando Valley, the way video tapes were openly copied and sold with no regard to the cost of making them, and the insane amount of wealth someone can have from playing a set of drums. It is a tongue in cheek snapshot of celebrity before the Kardashians, streaming televisión and online life.

However, it would be a lot more fun had Pam and Tommy given their permission for the world to watch them having sex. They didn't. How that affected them is made pretty evident by the way the two of them reacted to the series. Tommy gave his enthusiastic approval of the project and loved Stan's portrayal of him. Pam wanted nothing to do with it, and wouldn't return phone calls from the producers or the actress who played her. She still felt humiliated by the whole thing,

Yes, Pam had done several Playboy spreads, starred in films and tv shows where she mostly showed off her body, and married a rock star. However, she GAVE HER PERMISSION to be photographed and filmed. She did not give her permission to be filmed having sex with her husband. She didn't want anyone to see that video, which is why it was kept in a locked safe.

And what happened afterward? Tommy got reality series and Pam never got much more work than Baywatch. Their children can see the film.

I haven't seen the end of the series, but I hope it is handled in a way that addresses the misery it caused Pam. I like Lake Bell, and I hope it does.

I liked the show and part of me wants to rate it highly because Sebastian Stan and Lily James did a spectacular job in their roles and I think it was a good lesson to people on the trauma and invasion of privacy Tommy Lee and especially Pamela went through. It also showed how awful, exploitive, and plain unhelpful the world was in response to it when they should have been appalled and supportive. BUT despite how good I felt the show was I did not realize until afterwards when I decided to look up how accurate the events were when I learned that Pamela Anderson never gave consent for this to be made. Tommy Lee gave his but he wasn't even asked for it until after it's creation so they probably would have released it consent or no. That's honestly messed up and makes them no better than the people that exploited the couple in the past. For it to be a show about consent they should have had the consent of the two people it's about. Had I known prior, I would have felt obligated not to watch it. That being said, I did feel the show did a good job of empathizing Pamela and Tommy Lee's situation in a way that speaks for many who have found themselves in similar ordeals.