Hulu's Pam & Tommy is ready to revisit one of pop culture's most infamous scandals
Also tonight: South Park is back with season 25, and Netflix's true-crime documentary The Tinder Swindler
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Wednesday, February 2. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Pam & Tommy (Hulu, 12:01 a.m., series premiere): Hulu’s biographical drama about Pamela Anderson (Lily James) and Tommy Lee’s (Sebastian Stan) sex tape scandal premieres with three episodes. The remaining five will air on a weekly basis. Seth Rogen plays Rand Gauthier, Tommy’s disgruntled carpenter who stole and distributed the tape widely. Nick Offerman and Taylor Schilling also star.
In her review of the show, Olivia Truffaut-Wong writes: “Pam & Tommy is at its best when it confronts the harsh realities of the tape, which was much more than just a pivotal moment in pop-culture history. Yes, it inadvertently kicked off the era of the celebrity sex tape, but it also marked a major shift in how people thought about celebrities and privacy. The tape’s trajectory from a personal item so valuable it was in a safe to a video sold in stores worldwide is a story about sexism, power, and the patriarchal way we view women’s bodies and sexuality. But, thanks in part to the decision to split time between Pamela and Tommy and Rand, Pam & Tommy fails to really dig into any of these themes, nor does it explore the power dynamics of Hollywood in any meaningful way.”
Keep an eye out for A.V. Club’s interview with Stan and James on the site later today.
Regular coverage
The Book Of Boba Fett (Disney+, 3:01 a.m.)
DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow (The CW, 8 p.m.)
South Park (Comedy Central, 8 p.m., season 25 premiere): Dan Caffrey will be back to recap the new season.
Wild card
The Tinder Swindler (Netflix, 3:01 a.m.): Directed by Don’t F**k With Cats’ Felicity Morris, this true-crime documentary is about a group of women who met a man, Shimon Hayut, on the dating app Tinder. Only, he didn’t use his real name. He conned them into thinking he was Simon Leviev, the son of Russian-Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. He went all out to prove his identity, including hiring fake assistants and business partners, before stealing thousands of dollars from several women. Luckily, three of those women teamed up to help take him down, and the documentary charts their road to revenge. Fun fact: The 2011 Bollywood movie, Ladies Vs. Ricky Bahl, has an eerily similar, highly dramatized plot.