Bienvenidos al Chippendale

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this. I already knew I liked actor who plays the main character in other comedies I've seen him in, so that's initially what inspired me to give it a shot. It was surprisingly entertaining! I didn't know a lot of the backstory involved in coming up with the club Chippendales, so I even learned quite a bit after this series! Give it a chance, go in with an open mind, you may even learn something. Quite a few well-known, charismatic actors too! Not hard to get into the story really, and they do a decent job of introducing each character enough that you find yourself genuinely interested in what happens to them next.

First off, the actors all do a phenomenal job and really nail it. I've been a huge fan of Kumail Nanjiani ever since he voiced Prismo in Adventure Time, fans will be happy to know he brings his usual air of charm to this as well.

As a whole, it's really engaging and well made. The pacing of the first episode is a bit rushed, while some shows take 2 hours of content and turn it into 6 episodes, the first episode could've been extended to two. Otherwise the pacing is pretty great and the writing is well done for a biopic.

For a biopic. Unfortunately, it falls into some traps that every biopic does. It does that thing where the main character has a moment of inspiration that you know didn't happen in real life, and various other things for dramatic effect.

Normally that's fine, but the thing is that the way it actually happened in real life was even weirder and probably would've been more entertaining.

On top of that, where I take issue with it is with Paul Snider and Dorothy Stratten. While everything else is harmless, in reality Paul and Dorothy were much more tragic characters. The show makes Paul a more empathetic character, but.... I'd urge people to read their story Paul was more monstrous than the show makes him out to be and I actually think it does the audience a disservice to act like they can't handle it.

So far! How can I be the first review?!? I like things set in the 70s and 80s and this being that and a true story I decided to watch( even tho male dancers aren't my thing)! I watched the 2 episodes that have aired and I think it's decent. I like Kumail Nanjiani in some previous things I've seen him in. I get him confused with Nick Mohamed who's very funny. Juliet Lewis looked at first like she just had a small role but looks like she'll be a regular. Her looks change so drastically from thing to thing I didn't recognize her at first. Any ways I think I'm going to like it because its seems well done( so far) and I like that time era!

Update: I didn't realize this was a mini series - my bad. That explains the fast pace development. Overall it was enjoyable, but it would have been so much better as a continuing series.

I watched the most recent documentary about Chippendales, which made me interested in checking this show out to see how much it aligned.

There's a bunch of creative liberties, I'm sure, but the writing and acting seem to be on point. The show is pretty fast-paced in terms of how the club progressed compared to how the documentary laid it out, but I think it's because they want more time to develop the characters (so you are be able to see their good sides before you see their bad sides).

I'm super impressed by the accuracy of the costumes, hair/makeup and even the cinematography. They actually try to make it look like a show that was filmed back then with the filters and shooting styles (e.g. Slow pan ins from far away). If you're a film buff, you'll appreciate the subtleties.

I'm excited to see where this goes and hope it stays on track. I'm also hoping they give some time to develop storylines for some of the dancers, since in the documentary they had a lot of stories to tell - plus, it's always interesting to see from a different side of the business.

I've heard of chippendales when I watched a YouTube clip of SNL doing a skit about it but I never dug deep into it, let alone know who was the person behind the "magic Mike" alike shows. It definitely shows that once you gain fame from a business you own, you can be asking for trouble and you can even be the one who cause the trouble in the first place. It was always the "Steve vs Nick" fight club every time the guys always interact with each other. It's never a sit down and we'll talk about our ideas bit by bit. Nope it was always the pair of them constantly peed off with each other because their creative differences were basically shooed away.

The actors were really good, story was a little confusing at times with the bickering as well as the large amount of sex scenes but it was pretty interesting. I recommend people who like magic Mike to give this a go!