Pamela: A Love Story Review 2023 Tv Show Series Season Cast Crew Online

After six unhappy marriages, Pamela Anderson finally seems to have found someone who can offer her deep, meaningful love: herself. Pamela, A Love Story is a new, surprisingly touching Netflix documentary that follows the former Baywatch star as she tries to find personal acceptance. Directed by the Emmy-nominated Ryan White (The Case Against 8), it gives Anderson a chance to retake ownership of a life that has seemed to belong less to her than the public. In 1995 a sex tape she made with her then-husband Tommy Lee was stolen and circulated online, to her horror; last year, the scandal was dramatised by Hulu, without Anderson’s consent, in Pam & Tommy, leaving her feeling exploited anew.

That Pamela, a Love Story opens with Anderson at home on Vancouver Island, rifling through a box of video tapes, feels significant: this is her story to share and to process on her own terms. It is one affected by trauma. We hear how she was molested as a child, raped as a pre-teen and physically assaulted by various partners. Modelling for Playboy freed her from the shame that she felt was invisibly tattooed on her body. Yet she is eager to stress that she is “not a victim”.

A sense of self-possession and awareness (as evidenced in these interviews and in narrated diary extracts) is matched by a willingness to make fun of herself — or how she’s perceived by others. “My boobs had a career and I was just tagging along,” she jokes. At other points, light-hearted remarks about ageing or lacking purpose seem flecked with melancholy.

Pamela trades on its homespun, intimate approach. There are no talking heads besides her parents and sons, no gushing testimonials from other famous faces. No make-up either. Instead there are lengthy montages of journalists and chat show hosts aiming cheap, sexist comments at Anderson over the years. While the film may not win any awards, it might elicit some long-overdue apologies.