Pam and Tommy
…and the feeling of exceeded expectations.
Expectations are something. They’re something real special, especially as regards entertainment.
As silly and pedestrian as it may seem it is true that despite our much-heralded higher brain function and those fancy, almost flashy opposable thumbs, as humans we do tend to let things such as “expectations” and “hype” affect our enjoyment even if only subconsciously.
You can expect a lot from a show, movie, video game and through no fault of your own end up being served with absolute doodoo (and yes, that is the scientific term). Or, conversely, you can expect little from a production for whatever reason, maybe there wasn’t too much publicity, they lost a lead writer or director, it’s been pushed back for far too many times, etcetera, etcetera and then be positively surprised by the work’s genuine quality.
Or in a completely wild set of circumstances, you can expect/hope for at least the bare minimum, i.e that a TV series about a decade deep, bound for Television’s proverbial Mt. Rushmore would deliver a competent conclusion by at the very least not somehow tripping over itself, dying and setting the whole place on fire in one fell swoop. But alas, as is the point that’s currently being made, sometimes your hopes and expectations are dashed. Unceremoniously.
Me? I’ve always tried a little to manage whatever proclivities I might have to let expectations ruin my enjoyment.
I keep my loop small, tight. I ingest content considered, having garnered a huge following and stood the test of time, to be some of the greatest ever. I also ingest content attached to an IP or a Director/Actor I really like or in a universe that I’m already familiar with and find that I enjoy. I don’t usually watch trailers, especially not for things I already intend to watch/enjoy upon release and when it comes time to expand my entertainment I take recommendations from people who don’t know who I am and don’t know I’m listening.
It’s a pretty simple system (yunno once you carry the one and divide it all by 2a) and, honestly, besides the aforementioned unceremonious fall from grace of a once great TV show and maybe the odd Star Wars movie, I’m not usually left with shattered expectations.
Then this show came to me. I think Seth Rogen retweeted the Hulu trailer for Pam and Tommy. Seth was involved with it and was gonna be in it so, in line with my internal system, I was interested. I watched the trailer and let’s just say I was extremely excited.
It’s about the infamous sex-tape scandal with Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. Lily James is playing Pamela Anderson and fucking Sebastian Stan is playing Tommy Lee along with Seth playing the guy who stole the tape (Rand Gauthier).
I dunno if you can tell by the subtle, subtle tone of my writing but I am a huge fan of those actors.
I couldn’t quite make out Lily James in the trailer, she’s only in it for a couple frames but I can pick out Sebastian Stan pretty easily. I find out Lily James will be our Pamela and I was stoked.
At that point, the show was still to come. Months went by, the show came out in its entirety and I eventually got around to watching it.
The very first scene in the very first episode exposed me to a feeling that permeated through me just about the entire time I spent watching the show.
The scene flings us a little further into the shows future, right in the middle of the controversy around the tape. Pamela’s in the shot, she’s on Leno. She Pamelas her way through a couple questions cutely, deftly, subtly sexy and then he asks about the tape. The entire scene I was looking at Pamela and I struggled with it. You see, I know It’s Lily James in there, somewhere deep down I know. But I was struggling. I realized the reason why I couldn’t quite as easily pick out Lily James in the trailer.
It was because it’s not Lily James anymore, that is 100% Pamela Anderson. From the hair to the skin tone, the posture, the body.
That’s where that feeling first hit me, the one that would punctuate my experience with this series at every turn, I cannot believe the production quality on this show.
I mean, I can definitely believe it but I was hugely impressed by it and I cannot say that I expected it.
I love every little thing about the way this show looks, especially the little things.
Everything about the way the show feels, (which if you’ve been paying attention is the easiest way to make me fall in love) is just enchanting.
Everything from the way people wear their hair , the way the cars look, the way furniture looks, interiors, a f —king Jerry Seinfeld Rolling Stones cover on a wall, the way Vivid Entertainment’s logo looks, hell, even just whatever filters they used.
In dialogue, as well, the way characters talk about the internet like it’s something out of black mirror and speak on 56k like it’s a conspiracy theory, it does everything to categorically inform you
“It’s L.A in the early to mid ‘90s and we’re about to a tell a zany, emotional, thoroughly intriguing story. Buckle up.”
The thing is, the show is merely something of a period piece.
That is, it doesn’t take place in our current time but also doesn’t go all the way back to a time before color TV.
So, it’s set in a time that a lot of its audience could very well remember and revere so a lot must be done to sell that but only ever so subtly and to me, they f — king nailed it. The little things.
After I initially watched the trailer, I genuinely didn’t know what to expect from the story the show would tell.
They could go in a heist direction, I thought, follow how Rand comes up with some nutty plan to steal from them and then he gets hunted down. Or, perhaps, we could peel back the curtain and expose how dealing with such a scandal can affect those we consider to society’s untouchables such as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. Or, maybe, we can measure the impact the tape and the scandal had.
Well, they went with all 3.
Watching Rand steal the tape, the circus that ensued on their end and the fortunes that they faced once it was all out there was a very interesting watch to start with.
Then, all of a sudden, Pam and Tommy becomes about Pam and Tommy and the origin of their relationship, the definition of a whirlwind romance, and also the farce that follows the tape and how it threatens to fracture them individually and their relationship irreparably.
This along with watching Rand fade into obscurity while still on screen, desperately trying to retain control while other actors in an evolving and cutthroat world wrestle control for themselves was also very interesting to watch.
Furthermore, there is nary a prominent character lacking in depth.
Pamela’s got it all. From her humble Canadian origins to Hugh Hefner to her love/hate relationship with Baywatch to society’s controlling attitude to her body and ultimately her sometimes serious and sometimes jovial proclivity for making questionable choices in men, she stands out and remains an interesting character throughout.
Rand’s just a regular, kind of down on his luck guy, who is still in love with his ex-wife. He constantly looks out of place and like he bit off way more than he could chew and is made to realize how small and insignificant he is to the fallout he wrought.
He is a character that’s all about karmic justice but fails to see how his own actions expose him to same. Unfortunateness ensues.
Tommy Lee is the one character that might’ve been in danger of being one-note.
“An asshole celebrity? Okay, I’ve only seen that 100 million times before.”
It’s not quite the case though.
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The show bares his violent, brash tendencies right next to his all-consuming love for Pamela all in the midst of a crisis in his own life.
His and the Mötley Crüe’s position in the music industry is in danger. The likes of Nirvana and Third Eye Blind are pressing their neck, the label that he and his crew have sold so many records for is not affording them a shred of loyalty, pushing them further and further unto the back-burner as it seems like the writing is on the wall.
He’s struggling to accept or just merely internalize this. Trying to lose himself in his music.
All while having had to understand that he may be a celebrity, Pamela’s celebrity far supersedes his.
He struggles to understand that, for so many more reasons, while he may think feel like they share the scandal, it affects her so much more. His desire to support wholly faces is directly at odds with his underlying propensity for making things way harder for her which eats at him.
I didn’t like the dollar store Carmine Falcone Mob Boss character as much as i could have just because I didn’t think he was too intimidating.
Besides that, most characters shine. I’m not just talking the big ones I’ve just mentioned. I mean Rand’s ex, Pamela’s agent, Tommy Lee’s private investigator, Leno, Leno’s writers, Miltie, the Los Angeles Times reporter and many more.
The performances here are stellar.
I can’t remember the last time I used the term stellar but, damn it, I’m whipping it out. Lily James and Sebastian Stan are slinging Hall of Fame performances episode by episode.
There a part in the cast list that merely states that “Starring: Lily James and Sebastian Stan” and to be honest, it gets to a point where that’s akin to looking at a picture of Prime Shaq and Kobe.
Individually they can captivate and absolutely hold scenes hostage and when together they can and sometimes do absolutely destroy everything in their path.
It’s an enrapturing, explosive combination, the characters and the actors.
Tommy Lee’s meeting with Rand after the heist and Sebastian’s Stan’s performance in general, all the drumming scenes and performances with the Motley Crew the fight at the bar and much more were great.
Lily James’s performances in pockets like when she first realized the tape was stolen, when she first saw the tape on the Baywatch set, when she was on Leno and especially at the deposition scene is some of the best acting I’ve seen in a little while.
All the way leading up to their eventual clash and conclusion the actors fit the more upbeat turns in the story well and elevate the harsher moments masterfully.
All that being said, I only wish I was doing it justice.
Alright, listen, this show is ridiculous.
So much wild, over the top, chicanery in so much of the show.
This is a show that has a sex scene so off the wall it feels like a chase sequence, a grown man masquerading as a dog, a man who apparently has beef with John Stamos, a whole thing about The King and I, a scene where a man has a conversation with his genitalia, a Jane Fonda shout out, a horrible action movie, and, yunno, a whole thing about a sex tape.
It shouldn’t work, but it does.
I know you just read that paragraph and now you’ve probably got some questions.
You know, I’ve lived my whole life, however long it’s been, and I can tell you I never thought I’d live to see the day where I would witness a scene where Sebastian Stan would be having a candid conversation with his wedding tackle.
You know I probably never even thought about thinking about such a thing, but here we are.
I couldn’t, in good conscience, let you go watch this show without giving you a heads up about this scene. It’s there and it is not censored in the slightest. It is easily one of the most horrifying and thoroughly intriguing things that I have ever witnessed. I wish I could drop a picture or perhaps draw a verbal picture of what that would be like but you’re just gonna have to see it to believe it.
It’s one of those scenes that could’ve been easily left on the cutting room floor for whatever reason you’d like. However, that would be a mistake, because it’s an important scene. It communicates to us, the audience, about Tommy Lee’s genuine feelings for Pamela Anderson through/to the one character whose opinion has the potential to limit the scope of their relationship to a merely physical one (It also communicates to us that he thinks he has a shot with Jenny McCarthy and Denise Richards). We can tell it’s personal, true and candid because nobody else is watching.
Also because, I mean, why would a man lie to his own penis?
It shouldn’t work, but it does.
It’s like there’s a running scale of absurdity and sincerity that is constantly being balanced by this show.
Balancing drug fueled hedonism with slow nights, balancing nefarious intentions and a desire for parenthood, balancing an entitlement to retribution with a desire for repentance.
It does this sort of thing so well, keeping you grounded in its crazy world without distractions from its conclusion.
I could merely go on a bit of a spiel about how this show, from the outside looking in, may seem juvenile but actually, unexpectedly, makes pointed social commentary about the systemic factors militating against a woman’s struggles with society to retain control over how her own body is viewed and used but I also think it might be interesting to note that the show may be a little like the tape itself.
According to Rand’s ex-wife, Erica, when talking about the tape;
“I mean it’s kind of sweet… I mean it should be- I guess it should be disgusting. Rich, debauched, famous people just f — king on a boat but it’s- it’s- it’s, like, super wholesome. It’s- it’s romantic.”
Speaking less about the creative decisions that go into the filming of a sex tape and more about the substance of the show itself, the quote fits because the show is a lot.
It puts a lot before your eyes yet is so much more than meets the eye and honestly, it shouldn’t work, but it does.
Coming into this show I had reasonably high expectations, I wont lie. Even with my infallible system, I fall victim to the ol’ reliable “what’s that new show Seth Rogen’s involved with?” tactic.
So, I came into my relationship with this show with some expectations and, having watched it, this is one of those weird times where I had pretty high expectations and they were greatly, artfully exceeded.
I got say, it feels pretty damn good.
