Pam & Tommy review: Sex, lies and an infamous videotape

Sebastian Stan and Lily James are impressive, but it's the CGI talking penis that will probably be the main talking point in the early part of the new drama series

Sebastian Stan as Tommy Lee and Lily James as Pamela Anderson in Disney+ series Pam and Tommy. 

The first three episodes of Pam & Tommy have dropped on Disney+ , with dead ringers Lily James and Stan Sebastian impressive as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. It’s the tale of two lovestruck superstars and a stolen tape, featuring a CGI talking penis. 

Already stars, the couple found themselves at the centre of a media storm when their stolen sex tape was released on the internet in the mid-1990s. So far, the series is just as chaotic as the whirlwind love affair that Baywatch superstar Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Lee embarked upon. 

Following a four-day courtship, their marriage in the Mexican resort of Cancun had the media in a tizzy - and that was before rumours of the existence of a sex tape began to circulate.

The first three episodes of the eight-part series are helmed by I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie, and share that movie’s anarchic sense of humour. But episode one, in particular, takes its sweet time in setting out its stall, with the focus on Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen), a builder at Tommy’s luxury home, who tires of the constant demands and plan changes from the rock star.

They eventually fall out following a disagreement over building arrangements and wages, and the disgruntled Gauthier steals a safe belonging to Lee, setting in motion a chain of events that would dominate headlines the world over. All of this takes too long and could have been trimmed.

Episode two is a funny and affectionate account of the pair’s whirlwind courtship and marriage, and features the notorious CGI penis. Tommy Lee talks to it following his first night with Pam. It talks back. Once you see it you can’t unsee it.

So far, so uneven - but there is promise in the third episode, most of it carried by Lily James. First images have already shown her remarkable similarity to Anderson, but it’s there in her voice and mannerisms too. She has already managed to flesh out the character, a woman yearning to be more than a sex symbol, with no idea of the violation of privacy she’s about to experience.

Sebastian Stan and Lily James in  Pam and Tommy.

The final scenes in episode three are a strong indication of where the series is going, with Anderson meeting an agent to discuss her career plans post-Baywatch.

Her inspiration? Jane Fonda, who she describes thus: “I am this badass, sex bomb, anti-war, workout video selling actress chick. And if you’ve got a problem with it f**k you. What’s cooler than that?” Unfortunately for Anderson, a stolen video is about to land on a growing new communications system called the internet.

• The first three episodes of Pam & Tommy are now on Disney+, with the five remaining episodes being released weekly