This is probably not the first time you’ve heard about the resurgence of Y2K aesthetic over the past year. Where the Nirvana tees, well-known prints, colours, and beloved TV shows of the '90s made a reawakening in the pandemic-era wardrobe, just as we left our pandemic restrictions, so our sense of style left the 20th century, breaking into the renewed social world in an array of low-cut jeans, lip-liner, and chemically induced hairstyles.

As usual, what we’ve been watching has put a mirror in front of what we’ve been wanting. From the late '80s aesthetic of Stranger Things, the style and glittery environment of Sex Education, and needless to say, the mass of remakes, King of the Hill and The Lion King, to name a few, all looked to show our contemporary sense of personality reflected on a nostalgic backdrop, representing ideas, personalities, and identities in ways which, for one reason or another, never made it to the 20th-century audience. And, just before we break completely out of our infatuation with the '90s, one of the biggest scandals to break America from one decade to the next is revisited by director Robert Siegel.

The leak of Anderson and Lee’s private tape in 1995 became a landmark event in the discussion on celebrities, consent, and the global relationship with pornography in general. This discussion is now revisited from our 2020s perspective with the new Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, which has already received a lot of traction on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram for its easily digestible aesthetic outlook. But, as Anderson herself tells EW that she won't watch the series, comes a string of questions on the rights of the production over the event and the people affected. Here are the difficulties the show faces and how it ultimately succeeds at healing old wounds.

The Real Storypam and tommy

In 1995, a safe containing Anderson and Lee’s private tape was stolen from their apartment. In 1996, pictures from the tape were published alongside a story on the couple in an issue of Penthouse magazine. In the years to come, the tape was to be released onto the internet, leading to a vicious stream of relatively unsuccessful court cases led by the couple. It was very clear that neither Anderson nor Lee consented to have the tape released, though this lack of consent came to little fruition at the time. The couple eventually divorced, and over the upcoming decades, with similar scandals emerging among celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, the focus on Anderson and Lee slowly died down.

Pam & Tommy

Lily James and Sebastian Stan in Pam & Tommy
Disney Platform Distribution

Fittingly carved out with the motto “The Greatest Love Story Ever Sold,” Pam & Tommy was released on Hulu in late February this year. Eight episodes long, the miniseries follows the explosive relationship between Anderson and Lee through meeting, marriage, pregnancy, and divorce, marred by the leak of their explicit tape. The character of Anderson, played by Cinderella actor Lily James, in many ways portrays the sex symbol we expected to see. There is rarely a moment on screen where James is caught looking less than her best, with regular unclothed scenes splashed in around familiar presentations of her on the set of Baywatch, Barb Wire, and in nightclubs. Anderson is captured fighting desperately for respect from her predominantly male counterparts, the cast and crew of Baywatch, the police, and the team of legal advisors to whom she goes for help, her husband included.

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The show portrays Anderson as a victim of Hollywood sexism and paints this idea lovingly in depictions of her career and relationship with Tommy Lee. This is likely where the show struggles the most, as the concept of Anderson’s consensual identification as a sex symbol is set in conflict with the non-consensual portrayal of her in sexual situations. The audience is fed a depiction of Anderson’s character, bathing and being intimate, while simultaneously watching her fight to have those images removed from our media for their being invasive. We want to see our own values superimposed against the '90s aesthetic with this show, exposing the sexism and horrors of the American celebrity and entertainment industry which were kept so quiet during that time. What we get is a show that portrays sexism and the horror of being ignored on such a grand scale in such a way as to continue ignoring the woman with which it means to sympathize.

How the Series Succeeds

pam and tommy
Hulu

But, saying this, the series is definitely not bad. James and Stan have great chemistry throughout. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, they did express their own sympathies with their characters as they worked on the show. Alongside this, the tempo, cinematography, and likely the show's intentions are all praise-worthy. Perhaps what the series does most successfully is what really draws us in for the first place: that mirror we’re looking for of our own cultural values on the '90s template is achieved. We want to see Pamela Anderson succeed, and for the lack of consent to shine through where before it had been more of an afterthought. We want the idea to come across that there is a different between sexual identity as it is portrayed publicly and privately, with and without consent, and we want Anderson to know that, had it happened today, the events following the release of a private tape would be received very differently. The difficulty in ethics really comes to the way you choose to view the series, and this is where the new Pam & Tommy series actually succeeds at healing old wounds.

Related: 7 Shows Like Pam & Tommy You Need to Watch Next

Just as a leaked tape remains accessible on the internet, the invisible events surrounding it and the reality of its consent also remain. Pam & Tommy see that the intimate depictions, from Anderson and Lee’s daily life to their tape itself, come inseparable from their context. While the original tape could be consumed without a second thought towards the desires of its creators, the explicit scenes in Siegel's series come surrounded by empathetic scenes depicting the experience of a real person, whether Anderson is undergoing something painful, imagining a future for herself, or perhaps most clearly the way in which she fights for ownership over her sexuality. When we relate to a person, it becomes harder to objectify them. We can see this effort from Anderson herself as she announces the production of an autobiographical Netflix series. Perhaps at some point, Anderson might give the show a chance and see this effort reflected there too.