‘Pam & Tommy’ – ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ – Review
It’s crunch time for Pamela Anderson in Episode Seven of Pam & Tommy, ‘Destroyer of Worlds’, as the premiere looms for Pamela’s big-budget blockbuster movie Barb Wire and the judgement on the Penthouse lawsuit is soon to be released, and mixed into all this nervous tension is would-be adult entertainment entrepreneur Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen) and he’s having a hard time of it.
Battling a fight on every front Pamela Anderson (Lily James) is feeling the pressure and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Five months pregnant and awaiting the worldwide premiere of her big-budget action film Barb Wire, this is make or break time for Pamela’s career and the tension is winding itself around her tight. Trying to temper her delinquent and temperamental husband Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan), along with managing the fall out of the tape and an impending ruling on the Penthouse lawsuit is not making it a fun time for Pamela, but she’s holding her ground and won’t stomach any shit anymore, from anyone. Then there’s would be adult entertainment entrepreneur Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen) who has been left in the lurch and is now responsible to a vindictive mob boss who is ready to take it out on Rand in a very personal way.
Pamela Anderson (Lily James) is about to become the biggest movie star in the world. Already beloved by a billion viewers around the globe for her role as C.J. Parker on Baywatch, Pamela is ready for the release of her blockbuster action movie Barb Wire and is ready to take on the world and greater Hollywood. The premiere is looming in Episode Seven, ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ and she’s ready for the glitz and glamour. There’s just the pesky little issue of a certain tape that has spread around the internet like a virus and it’s making her life very unfun at the moment. Director Lake Bell focuses in on the emotions of Pamela’s shot at fame and fortune and she dives in deep as this woman steps up to take her shot at glory, and she’s ready to stare down anyone who gets in her way.
The ongoing dilemma of the leaked sex tape, along with a very messy lawsuit with Penthouse, has not made life any easier for Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee and the cracks are dramatically starting to show in their relationship. After another humiliating press junket and a bit of give and take on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which riles Tommy Lee up, she makes it clear that nothing is going to ruin her big night. James is incredibly forceful and dynamic in ‘Destroyer of Worlds’, all along we have seen Pamela as a somewhat wild, yet sweet and happy innocent character. But those days are done and she’s finished being humiliated, and it’s a very assertive turn on behalf of James’ performance.
Seth Rogen’s Rand Gauthier also isn’t faring must better. Side-stepped by his asshole partner Uncle Miltie, who has galavanted away to an onslaught of drugs and hookers in Amsterdam, Rand is left to face the wrath of Butchie (Andrew Dice Clay). And this mafiosa font man is not happy. After a good old beatdown, Butchie puts Rand to work as a collector to pay off his debt and we really see the sorrow come out on the part of Rogen. In over his head and with nowhere to go, he’s led into a head-on confrontation with Sebastian Stan’s Tommy Lee, and it’s not what you would have expected. Demanding money for his past services, the two men engage in a bitter stand-off where Lee accepts his own faults but points out that Pamela herself never did anything to hurt Rand and that he’s stuck it to her just because he could. This scene is one of the episode’s most dynamic moments and Rogen and Stan give a great back and forth between each another.
Along with his confrontation with Lee, Rand also has to contend with his ex-wife Erica (Taylor Schilling) who admits to having seen the tape and who says that she really empathizes with the couple. And it’s not what Rand wants to hear. Pointing out that both Pamela and Tommy were totally in love and that the tape is filled with their passionate display of romance for one another, her feelings for Lee as a ‘sensitive caveman’ rile Rand up and lead into a full-on confrontation between the two of them. Deducing that it was Rand who leaked the tape and tried to profit from it, Erica explodes on her ex-husband, berating him for his slime-ball behaviour and bringing up notions of consent and permission. This feeds into the major theme of the episode, and the series in general, with the message being that Rand’s behaviour was totally repugnant and the line being drawn between intimacy and pornography. It’s a straight shot from director Lake Bell and she nails it in hard.
The tension of Pam & Tommy has been building episode by episode and it’s starting to get unhappy in ‘Destroyer of Worlds’. Things don’t exactly go according to plan for any of our characters and it quickly gets messy. Of all the episodes to date, ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ is the most heartbreaking for all the characters involved. None of them is exactly in a dream place and this episode positions Pam & Tommy as very much a modern-day tragedy of fame, excess and the internet. It’s an intense and uncomfortable watch at times and the growing drama keeps you hooked from beginning to end.
Pam & Tommy streams every Wednesday on Disney+
Image: Walt Disney Pictures