Critic Reviews

The show performs an impressive turn around the halfway mark, reeling us into the personal lives of the people at the center of the scandal and telling an even stronger story about celebrity, the paper-thin divide between publicity and privacy, and what happens when human intimacy is swallowed up by glossy headlines.

“Pam & Tommy” is funny, emotional, and an incisive look at a story many still believe they know. James and Stan are astounding, with the former completely transforming herself physically and utilizing that to show Anderson as the fully realized person she was never allowed to be.

An incisive, occasionally heartbreaking, and often laugh-out-loud funny exploration of the volatile relationship between former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and the global scandal that followed in the wake their very private, very adult home video being leaked. And to be clear, the series is fantastic, anchored by transformative performances from stars Lily James and Sebastian Stan, as well as a crystal-clear sense of purpose.

To say that “Pam & Tommy” transcends its source material wouldn’t be giving it close to enough credit. ... The opening episodes, in which Rand is so mistreated and Tommy so loathsome, evolves into something much deeper and richer than an exploitation flick about good-looking stupid people. ... It’s all about Ms. James, though, who disappears inside the role of Pamela Anderson and makes her something epic.

Pam & Tommy is far more than a sniveling, pervy time machine revisiting a salacious sex scandal that’s been mocked for decades. But the genius is that it is also that: sniveling, pervy, and canny about the scandal and the mockery that piqued all of our attention in the first place.

The eight episodes bring together a tumultuous rock star, an iconic model/actress, and the dawn of the internet for a captivating story told with such energy and pop that it comes as a shock, when it reminds you what a violation actually occurred.

Lily James has put in the performance of her career in this compelling, crazier-than-fiction miniseries. But what of the cost to the real Pamela?

Pam & Tommy repeatedly acknowledges the unfair toll the sale of the tape took on Anderson’s life, even as it’s wildly entertaining most of the time. Pamela Anderson never got to have a Jane Fonda-esque second act, and maybe couldn’t have even if Rand Gauthier had never entered her husband’s life. But here, she at least gets her story retold in a far kinder and more endearing way.

As a dramatization of events that have slipped into history, “Pam & Tommy” is part of a crowded genre. But its curiosity and sensitivity toward its subjects set it apart. ... James’ Pam is an outright triumph, both of acting and of special-effects makeup. ... The Rogen story, about the contractor who cracked the couple’s safe to pilfer the tape, can’t find its tone over much running time.

Goofy as “Pam & Tommy” can be — and despite its periodic struggles to add a #MeToo frame to the sex tape story — it’s still clever enough to be a worthwhile escape.