A plane flies over a gas station in Los Angeles. Somen Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani), the station manager, is attending to a customer.
Banerjee has been doing a good job as the station manager, but he has other dreams, as we see in his apartment; he has pinned on the walls pictures of Hugh Hefner and pictures of discos and sophisticated clubs. When his boss offers a promotion to oversee all his stations, Banerjee refuses; he wants to take his savings and open a classy, sophisticated backgammon club.
He opens the club, Destiny II, but people don’t show up. One night, Paul Snider (Dan Stevens) shows up with his gorgeous girlfriend, Dorothy Stratten (Nicola Peltz Beckham), and offers his services as a promoter; Banerjee — who now goes by “Steve” — offers him a 25% stake. But Banerjee realizes that Snider has sold him a bill of goods; he knows no one, and all he seems to do is get jealous of the increasing attention Dorothy is getting from big-time Hollywood types.
The three go to a gay club, which Paul prefers because no one hits on Dorothy there, and Banerjee gets the idea to have a male strip revue for women at his club, which he decides to rename Chippendales. It’s an immediate success, mainly because, as Dorothy says, “Women get horny, too.” Despite the “women only” policy for the audience, one night a choreographer named Nick De Noia (Murray Bartlett) shows up with two women on his arm. He offers his services to turn the revue from just a bunch of gyrating guys to an actual show.
Conflict between De Noia and Snider starts almost immediately; De Noia thinks that Snider is not only childish and impulsive, but also too smarmy of an emcee. Right before the new revue is about to debut, De Noia fires Snider, and Banerjee tells the angry Snider that he gave De Noia the authority to make creative decisions.
The first night of the new revue is a massive success, and Stratten’s idea — borrowed from Hef’s Playboy Clubs — of putting the guys in cuffs and collars is part of it. Snider angrily leaves early, dragging Dorothy out with him; when he calls Paul later that night, both Snider and Stratten are already dead.
The first two episodes of the series are now streaming on Hulu.
Robert Siegel has created biographies before. ( Mike Tyson). Even if you have not watched the Curse Of The Chippendales docuseries or knew the history of the club would still roll their eyes at the coincidences, like Stratten coming up with the cuffs and collars costumes for the dancers, or the idea that Snider murdered her on the first night of the De Noia-created revue. Definitely a lot of overs\dramatization.
Kumail Nanjiani is most scenes perhaps cannot figure out if he is doing comedy or playing this straight up evil guy, which makes him go stiff in front of the camera.
Bartlett, so good in the first season of The White Lotus, is good as De Noia. Annaleigh Ashford, who shows up in episode 2 as Irene, as an accountant who becomes a loves interest and business partner for Banerjee looks well cast too.
We look forward to how Siegal treats the rest of the content. For now, a riveting watch even if really elaborate.
