Welcome to Chippendales Review: The Dark Side of Show Business In The Seventies And Eighties

Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Murray Bartlett, Annaleigh Ashford, Juliette Lewis

Creator: Robert Siegel

Streaming Platform: Hulu and Disney+

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Disney+ premieres this Wednesday, January 11, the miniseries Welcome to Chippendales, an 8-episode production based on some as funny as lurid real events. The miniseries is described as a true crime saga that tells the scandalous story of Somen Steve Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who became the outlandish founder of the world’s largest male stripping empire, letting no one and nothing get away with it gets in the way of his plans.

Thanks to the Star section, which hosts – among other things – many of the original contents of the American platform Hulu internationally, Disney+ has been expanding for about two years with titles with a more adult target. Among these is also a new miniseries in a crime sauce based on real events, which we talk about in our review of Welcome to Chippendales.

Welcome to Chippendales Review: The Story

Los Angeles, 1970s. Somen “Steve” Banerjee, an immigrant of Indian origin, dreams of becoming an entrepreneur along the lines of his idol Hugh Hefner, and to do this he decides to leave his job as a gas station employee and open a backgammon club. He meets Paul Snider and his wife, a Playboy model named Dorothy Stratti, and with them he has the idea of ​​reinventing his business, giving life to Chippendales, the first strip club designed for a female audience. After the death of the couple, Steve carries on the initiative with the help of the choreographer Nick De Noia, and subsequently, two other people join the staff: the accountant Irene, with whom Steve will establish a relationship, and the costume designer Denise.

For a business that was even ahead of its crazy time, and in the case of a plot full of murders, betrayals and other spicy dramas, the truth is that this miniseries lacks a lot of personalities when it comes to portraying its events. And it is that, although fiction tells the story of Chippendales and its members, this is not exactly a biography, since in the first five episodes no character is delved into. Also, even though it also narrates true crimes, it does not take advantage of it to be a good true crime either.

What’s more, it doesn’t seem like it’s about anything in particular, since everything is treated as if it didn’t want to go beyond what can be read in any article or encyclopedia entry. There are hot topics that are dealt with without dwelling too much on their importance, such as the pure evil that resided in Banerjee or the real emotional consequences of what happens. On the other hand, it is preferred to lighten the matter by making up everything with invented dramatic resources, excuses and reasons, seeking more empathy from the viewer than showing the harsh reality of the protagonists.

Welcome to Chippendales Review and Analysis

Steve is portrayed by Kumail Nanjiani, in an unusual negative-leaning role after years of mostly comedic performances and his recent entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the alien superhero Kingo. The other three main cast members are Australian actor Murray Bartlett, Emmy Award winner for his role as Armond in The White Lotus and upcoming The Last of Us as Frank, here playing Nick De Noia; Annaleigh Ashford, a stage actress who also starred in Masters of Sex and two seasons of American Crime Story, plays Irene; and Juliette Lewis, more active on the small screen for a decade, in the role of Denise. In the first episode, guest stars Dan Stevens and Nicola Peltz (the daughter of Mark Wahlberg in the films the Transformers), respectively in the roles of Paul Snider and Dorothy Stratti.

It is the second time that screenwriter Robert Siegel brings to the small screen, for Hulu, a true story with elements of sex, scandal and crime, after signing the miniseries Pam & Tommy in 2021 on the story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s porn video. Assisted by Matt Shakman ( WandaVision) as director of the first two episodes and creator of the show’s visual identity, transports us into a seductive and at the same time grotesque world, well summed up in the opening credits sequence where the two realities subtly coexist (even without knowing all the details of the true story, it’s easy to guess where the miniseries will end up). Dramatic evolutions are always around the corner, as the first episode illustrates very well with the sudden exit from the scene of someone who, in a fictional context, would be legitimate to include among the regular protagonists (and the modesty with which the show treats the story of Snider and Stratton as if to indicate that the tricky part has not yet begun).

Where Disney+’s distribution policy provides, in most cases, a weekly cadence, with episodes sipped to preserve the various titles in the cultural conversations of the day, for some productions, especially documentaries or coming from the Hulu catalog, the principle of binge-watching remains in force, now quite obsolete outside the context of Netflix (and, in part, Amazon Prime Video). The story of the Chippendales falls into the second category, but this is not an indication of inferior care on a structural level as can happen with series conceived directly for viewing as a whole (also because on Hulu, where the show arrived a few months earlier than European release, distribution was weekly). On the contrary.

So much so that he gets to lose more time showing the glory of Chippendales and his dance numbers than narrating all the misfortune that surrounds him. If nothing else, the leading quartet of Kumail Nanjiani, Murray Bartlett, Juliette Lewis, and Annaleigh Ashford works as one of the biggest excuses one can think of for choosing a miniseries over a good documentary. In particular, Nanjiani moves away from his comic origins and confirms himself as a dramatic actor to be taken into account, while Bartlett once again shows how undervalued he has always been.

Thus, Welcome to Chippendales is a more correct miniseries in its ways than necessary. A fiction that does not take risks and that develops too agilely, without consideration or worry about delving beyond the obvious. There are episodes where nothing happens, which is shocking for a story with as much criminal fanfare as this. At least, it cannot be denied that it works as addictive entertainment, but it is excessively harmless and sweetened for what it could have been. All in all, a pretty watery Chippendales cocktail.

Welcome to Chippendales Review: The Last Words

The sordid story of the birth of Chippendales is the excellent raw material for an engaging miniseries on the dark side of show business in the seventies and eighties. Thus, Welcome to Chippendales is a more correct miniseries in its ways than necessary. A fiction that does not take risks and that develops too agilely, without consideration or worry about delving beyond the obvious. There are episodes where nothing happens, which is shocking for a story with as much criminal fanfare as this. At least, it cannot be denied that it works as addictive entertainment, but it is excessively harmless and sweetened for what it could have been. All in all, a watery Chippendales cocktail.