Based on Steve Jones’ 2017 memoir Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, FX’s miniseries Pistol thrashes through London’s early punk scene as seen through the bleary eyes of the Sex Pistols: guitarist Jones (Toby Wallace), drummer Paul Cook (Jacob Slater), singer John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon (Anson Boon), and bassist Glen Matlock (Christian Lees), who is unceremoniously dumped and replaced by John Beverley, who rechristened himself Sid Vicious (Louis Partridge). Emma Appleton plays the tragically flawed heroine Nancy Spungen.

The entire career of the Sex Pistols was a premeditated swindle malignantly perpetuated by their manager Malcolm McLaren (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), who similarly plotted the downfall of the rising proto-punk outfit The New York Dolls. He schemed the chaotic caper at 430 King’s Road, the boutique Sex, co-owned by the truly revolutionary Vivienne Westwood (Talulah Riley), after the artful dodging Jones tried to make off with the wrong pants. In the series,...