The glitchy buzzing of a dial-up modem makes a lo-fi electro soundtrack in Pam & Tommy, Disney+ and Hulu’s colourful dash through the Nineties it-couple’s whirlwind marriage and the fall-out from the theft and distribution of their sex tape. Even before disgruntled carpenter Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen) has made off with the now-notorious video cassette, those screeching beeps act as sonic foreshadowing - they’re a reminder of the furore that is about to kick off, and how futile the pair’s analogue attempts to contain an online leak will be.
The eight-part series, which stars Lily James and Sebastian Stan in some transformative prosthetics, tells the story of the first viral video from an avowedly contemporary viewpoint. Like FX and BBC Two’s recent Clinton-Lewinsky drama Impeachment, it applies our post-MeToo understanding of consent and slut-shaming to a Nineties cause célèbre; unlike Impeachment, it features a talking animatronic penis (Lee’s) voiced by actor Jason Mantzoukas.
