'Pam and Tommy' Recap: Drilling & Pounding
Recapping the Pam and Tommy Series Premier
Sex, Drugs, and Rock n’ Roll. Millions of people around the world dream of living that life. Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe had that dream. He had sold millions of albums by the time he entered his ‘30s and he was married to one of the most famous supermodels on the planet, Pamela Anderson. Anderson had made her career on the cover of Playboy magazine and then launched into a successful TV star opposite David Hasselhoff in the ‘90s series Baywatch. Two beautiful people who had all the money they could imagine.
The sex tape was going to be a big deal.
Hulu’s new series, Pam and Tommy, is based on a 2014 Rolling Stone article entitled “Pam and Tommy: The Untold Story of the World’s Most Infamous Sex Tape” by Amanda Chicago Lewis. The article surprisingly focuses on electrician Rand Gauthier who was a disgruntled ex-employee of Tommy Lee. Gauthier was an electrician hired to do work for the rock star and after accruing over $10,000 in debt buying materials, Lee fired Gauthier and didn’t pay for any of his time. Having forgotten something at Lee’s mansion, Gauthier returned only to have Lee point a shotgun at his face. Gauthier was determined to make Lee pay for making him feel small.
In the case of the series, Gauthier is played by Seth Rogan (Pineapple Express, Knocked Up) in a role that is perfectly suited to what made Rogan famous. His character has that everyman vibe, someone who you feel for when he’s stiffed by Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan). On the other hand, this electrician didn’t get any money upfront and probably can’t get out of the massive debt he’s amassed on this project. Similar to the simple-minded criminals of the director Craig Gillespie’s other films (I, Tonya, Cruella), Gauthier devises a master plan to sneak into Lee’s mansion and steal something equal to or greater than his debt.
He literally steals a safe.
Gauthier finds plenty of items of value — guns, watches, money — but it isn’t until he accidentally kicks a Video-8 tape, that he really hits the jackpot. Knowing someone in the pornography industry is certainly helpful and Uncle Miltie (Nick Offerman) comes into the picture to lend a hand. Uncle Miltie is reveling in the rise of the consumer VHS market; pornography is about to skyrocket and he has aspirations of starting his own adult film company. So when Gauthier comes knocking with some shocking footage of Pam and Tommy, Uncle Miltie instantly sees dollar signs.
If you’re wondering why Pamela Anderson (Lily James) hasn’t been mentioned much, she doesn’t have too much to do in the pilot. We see her accompanying Lee a few times, but for a show that features Pamela Anderson in the title role, there isn’t too much of her here. Hulu has launched the series with the first three episodes, so this will move along at a pretty quick clip.
I’m intrigued by Pam and Tommy’s premier even if I thought the intro would be a little bit different. At this point, it’s more about Seth Rogan’s character than really Pam or Tommy. As the sex tape becomes public knowledge I expect that to flip pretty quickly though.
The first three episodes of Pam and Tommy are currently streaming exclusively on Hulu.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to It's the Pictures to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.