Welcome to Chippendales

If you remember the grifter in "Nightmare Alley," a movie from 2021 starring Bradley Cooper, you will notice that grifter's life trajectory is pretty similar to Steve Banerjee's. From rags to riches, they both get too greedy for their own good, only causing their demise. It is very sad that some people don't know when to stop and just be grateful. When I start the first episode of "Welcome to Chippendales," I have no idea what it's about and who the actors are. But it is an extremely pleasant surprise that it is starred by four major powerhouses in their own right: my favorite Murray Bartlett who is outstanding in "The White Lotus," Juliette Lewis who is an Oscar nominee at 18 years old, comedian Kumail Nanjiani who apparently has very good dramatic acting chops, and the underrated Annaleigh Ashford. This series hits all of the right notes. It has very good production values, good eye candy, some humor, suspense, and the important moral lesson to be learned from the downward spiral of Steve Banjeree's greedy life, similar to the sad geeker/grifter in "Nightmare Alley."

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.

The sets, costumes , and feel are 100% authentic. Amazing job Hulu. The casting is dead on perfect as well Murray Bartlett again, as he did in White Lotus, shines the brightest. Glad to see he has been noticed in Hollywood. But the story is one I had no idea of and didn't know how dark it was. Or the twists and turns it took. And I know this isn't 100% accurate. But that's not the point of the show. It's immensely engaging and entertaining. And the direction and pacing also are perfect. This is one of those seires that will end and leave one longing for more. But in this case there won't be. But enjoyable while it lasts.

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!

If I hadn't watched the documentary I'd probably have enjoyed it more. I don't get why so many characters had to be fictionalised. It's a fascinating story without adding fake people into the mix... and then making them so crucial to the plot. It's just stupid and lazy. And they left interesting characters out!

The last couple of episodes were short and feel tacked on. Again they're 75% fantasy.

Such a waste of genuine talent and good performances. Nanjani really gets to show off his dramatic chops here. Ashford plays his wife very well. Murray Bartlett makes a great Nick. It's just a pity they were t given a better script.