Streaming on: Disney+
Episodes viewed: 3 of 8
Never mix business with pleasure. It’s an old adage that history has shown rings true more often than not. Yet it becomes an impossibility when one’s business is pleasure. Welcome To Chippendales, created by Robert Siegel (Pam & Tommy), depicts the turbulent origin story of male dance troupe the Chippendales as a rock ’n’ roll tragedy. It’s comprised of big personalities, flashy stripping sequences, an expansive soundtrack, and an overwhelming sense that the grand dreams of founder Somen Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani) could only ever end in heartbreak and blood.
From the first episode, which sees Banerjee open a club with the help of hustler Paul Snider (Dan Stevens), it’s obvious Welcome To Chippendales isn’t attempting to tell the story of a budding entrepreneur who simply got in over his head. Banerjee isn’t a good man, and success only makes him worse. Nanjiani, who has proven so likeable as a comedian and actor, subverts expectations in crafting a character who is compelling and complex, but never entirely endearing. He’s charming in a calculated sense, but there is a pretence to his humanity that feels just as fake as the name he chooses to go by in American business dealings (‘Steve’). Even his business attire has been carefully selected from a catalogue, meant to evoke Hugh Hefner.
Much of the success of the series comes from the juxtaposition of personalities.
There’s a disquieting aspect to the way Banerjee sees people as a means to a financial end; it’s an attitude that runs parallel to his strip club, in which clients see strippers as mere objects. Much of the success of the series comes from the juxtaposition of personalities — a professional competition between people who desperately want to be part of the limelight LA has to offer, with things descending into unprofessionalism all too quickly.
No time is wasted in introducing the other core members of Banerjee’s budding enterprise, which include his accountant and later wife Irene (Annaleigh Ashford); choreographer Nick (Murray Bartlett), who matches Banerjee's greed with his passion; Otis, a stripper with dreams of becoming a businessman (Quentin Plair); Denise, an opportunistic costume designer (Juliette Lewis); and handyman Ray (Robin de Jesus), who is all too eager to please. The performances are excellent, although the pacy storytelling sometimes means certain key relationships aren’t as subtle as they could be. In fact, were it not based on reality, Welcome To Chippendales could easily shift into the realm of comedy; its warring personalities all want something and all need each other to get it, despite barely tolerating each other. That perverse need is the American Dream that few want to speak of. Excess, sex and violence aren't means to an end, but the end itself.