Mar 2, 2022

Pam and Tommy: The Rocker and Pretty Girl Archetype

It seems like every famous couple these days consists of a pretty girl and their rocker boyfriend. Hulu gives a glimpse to the OG power couple: Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.

Hulu’s Original Series “Pam and Tommy” gives us a deep dive into one controversial part of their killer relationship: their sex tape. It focuses on the different versions of the couple’s story, including Pamela and Tommy’s side, as well as that of the man who leaked it, Rand Gautheir. The mini-series takes us through the turmoil each character goes through on both sides. Sometimes giving a voice to the bad guy can seem like a glorification of them, however, Hulu makes it work in their favor. The viewer is able to understand the full story of what happened.

The first episode introduces us to Rand, who is employed by Tommy to renovate his house. A few of the workers have voiced complaints about Tommy changing his mind resulting in more expenses on the workers’ part. Tommy kept telling his workers that he wanted to create a masterpiece bedroom, no matter the cost. Tommy was not giving them money to buy the materials needed to create his vision, and many of them started to go broke with Tommy’s constant changes. Rand confronts Tommy about this and is ultimately fired. Left with the debt from this job, we see Rand living in a dingy apartment filled with bills he cannot pay. He decides to take action against Tommy by taking his safe which contained some valuables. Unbeknownst to Rand, was the A-List couple’s sex tape, which would be the ultimate revenge and money maker. Thus, his villain origin story.

Hulu takes the viewer into the whole manifestation of Pam and Tommy’s relationship beginning with the night they met. After swearing off bad boys, Pamela meets Tommy for the first time at a nightclub. Tommy is immediately smitten with her, and wants to follow her to Cancun where she is doing promotional work for her TV show. Getting swept up in the vibes, Tommy proposes to Pamela and they are married a few hours later. After their wedding, the show artfully portrays them learning about each other, falling in love, and experiencing the ups and downs of marriage.

The situation of Pam and Tommy’s tape was such a unique experience. It was released when no one knew what the internet was capable of. The rocker couple was robbed, their privacy was violated, and a tape was being sold without their permission. The story splits into two once again, as it shows Rand profiting off of it, meanwhile Pamela was the victim of tough backlash. The sexism she faced before as a sex object was devastating for her, but once this tape got out there, it became even worse. Being in the midst of advancing her career was not a walk in the park with the whole world talking about your sex life. Meanwhile, her husband was told it was the best thing he put out there since his music video days.

This miniseries shows all the layers of this story, not just the beginning, middle, and end. It sheds light on the villain and the victims, and the entire timeline of this delicate topic. No news networks previously thought a sex tape could be a news story–only a scandal. This historic incident changed Hollywood and the internet forever. In a time where the rocker, bad boy is becoming glorified again,, it’s important for us to look back on our pop culture history. After all, Pam and Tommy walked, so Kim and Pete could run.

New episodes of Pam and Tommy are released on Wednesday's on Hulu.