'Pam & Tommy': the miniseries on Disney + moves away from the frivolous in an excellent portrait of fame and scandal with impressive Lily James and Sebastian Stan

It must be recognized that when talking about the premise of ' Pam & Tommy ' it is easy to have some fear that it will go easy , worth the redundancy. Especially considering that behind the series are Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (' The Boys ', for example), who have made their trademark thug and somewhat "immature" humor.

It's not that we don't have that throughout the eight episodes (whose first three we can already see on Disney +) since Robert D. Siegel's script is more towards comedy (and there are some moments of excess), but he knows with precision how to treat each scene and each sequence , always managing to balance its tone, navigating correctly between the comic and the dramatic.

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This implies a purpose of not staying in the anecdote and exploring the painful ramifications of a scandal like the one that an intimate tape comes to light. Thus, the fiction portrays that longing for morbid and frivolous content of which Pamela and Tommy Lee fall unwittingly victims, attracting unwanted attention to their lives and, incidentally, guilt in the eyes of the public.

The person behind the myth
 
With this in mind, the fiction gets serious and begins to explore the human condition and the personal concerns (traumas and frustrated hopes) of its protagonists. Both from the well-known couple and from Rand (Rogen) and her desperation to get money and the girl he wants.

A humanization that does not mean that Siegel, Goldberg and Rogen are iconoclasts in the portrait of Pamela Anderson . 'Pam & Tommy' is aware that they are dealing with one of the great erotic myths of the 90s thanks to, among other things, ' Baywatch ' ('Baywatch').

Here Craig Gillespie, who directs the first episodes, is concerned with showing Anderson as (a conscious) sex symbol whenever we are looking at a man's point of view. This critique of machismo and the male gaze is one of the constants in fiction and serves to try to analyze whether we have changed.

The Internet is for Porn
 
Taking into account that part of the setting of the series is in the porn industry , it comes to mind (or at least mine) that this could have been a good subplot for a hypothetical season 4 (or 5) from ' The Deuce '.

If David Simon and George Pelecanos ' series ended in the '80s with the rise of VHS and what it meant for the industry, the Robert D. Siegel-penned chronicle feels like an unofficial sequel in which we see the next big breakthrough from which there is no turning back for both producers and consumers: the Internet.

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This plot, which is tangential at times but at other times basic to the framework, serves to explore the idea of ​​the exploitation of the body, of sex and of the key to everything —as Taylor Schilling 's character ends up verbalizing— , consent. As if the fact that she was an erotic myth for a whole generation and had posed for Playboy gave carte blanche for the attack.

This complements very well the x-ray of the scandal that concerns us, in a series that joins other recent ones and that, with its good distance (such as ' The Lewinsky case ') makes us look again and with the eyes of the present a unfair media and social judgement.

 
Beyond the impressive characterizations and acting lesson (it's from a direct Emmy) by Lily James, the cast in general is impressive. But not only her and Sebastian Stan, but the entire main cast - rounded out by Rogen, Schilling and Nick Offerman - do a great job.

'Pam & Tommy' uses the solid wicker with which it works very well, also managing not to remain in a first layer but to reinforce the structure to delve very carefully into the ramifications and implications of the case it deals with. All of this adds up to an excellent portrait of fame and scandal in a miniseries that is positioned as one to watch in 2022.

Espinof.com