A Wild Series of Sex, Crime, and Tragedy: 'Pam & Tommy'

'Pam & Tommy' is a strange and fascinating story, one that's best told through the lens of fiction. It’s also a cautionary tale, not just for celebrities, but for anyone who assumes that the threats of the Internet are limited to stolen credit card information.

The series is an American-British television drama series created by John Hodge and starring Lily James, Jaimie Alexander, and Shaun Sipos.

The story centers around the sex tape scandal between Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, along with their subsequent marriage and divorce. The story is told primarily through flashbacks and is anchored by Lily James' performance as Pam Anderson.

In an interview, “Pam & Tommy” co-creator Robert Siegel said that he wanted to avoid “satisfying the audience” with excessive nudity in service of a plot that should be about much more than sleeping with someone. Instead, Siegel wanted to focus on the “strange entertainment-industry story” that surrounded the sex tape, including how it was stolen from Anderson and Lee’s home and distributed around the world.

The show is well aware that its very existence is one of the many ways in which Anderson’s life has been commodified and exploited by a patriarchal system — and yet here we are, watching a show about her life in 2022.