Welcome to Chippendales
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
The time for unbridled joy is over almost as soon as it begins.
Paul and Dorothy, who buoyed Steve with their enthusiasm, are dead.
All in all,Welcome to Chippendalesis a much gloomier show in its second hour.
The business is riddled withheavilyforeshadowed fault lines.
Ghosts haunt the strip club.
Anyway, my expectations have been sufficiently managed now.
Somen Steve Banerjee is the kind of guy who keeps his shirt on.
I get that, and Im moving on.
The scene is poignant, but its significance is ambiguous.
Does Steve long for this kind of camaraderie?
He didnt seem to want friends when he was operating the gas pumps himself.
Or maybe its a reflection of how far down the gutter Chippendales has already taken Steve.
Would he know a dead club promoter and a dead Playboy bunny if hed stuck to backgammon?
And yet this reading still feels like a stretch to me.
Steve was always the sad man eating (expired sandwiches) alone.
Elsewhere in Tinseltown, Nick De Noia is dissolving his very short marriage to the actress Jennifer ONeill.
By the end of the day, hell be hooking up with Jennys (male) divorce lawyer.
Still, in his heart of hearts, Nick wants more than sex in a public restroom.
Its against this backdrop of misery that the show must go on.
Crowds at Chippendales are thinning.
Women are growing tired of watching a cowboy act theyve already seen.
Steve calls Nick to refresh the number, but Nick sells him on a grander proposition.
So Steve instates Nick as creative director, and the genius count goes from one to two.
Nicks first order of business is to replace the ragtag dancers (fair enough).
He can even tango.
Steve pauses before hiring a Black dancer, then decides his audiences will love it.
Shes an accountant with a background in bartending.
By the end of the episode, she and Steve will sit at his-and-hers desks in the main office.
Its a bit unclear to me yet who Genius No.
Soon, Otis is spending more and more time with his clothes on.
The other candidate for Genius No.
4 is the costume designer Denise, played by the always-bewitching Juliette Lewis.
Within the confines of the strip club, at least, she is indisputably a genius.
It breaks their momentum.
The relationship between Irene and Steve is absolutely peculiar.
They bond over a shared personal narrative of being the most embarrassingly modest kind of rebels.
Irene comes from aluminum-siding people, but she dreamed of combining her accounting degree with Hollywood glitz.
Theyre horniest for each other when finding new ways to maximize the bottom line.
Chippendales starts selling merch, for example.
Is it love between Steve and Irene?
Or is it simply unchecked greed masquerading as a dorky meet-cute?
So far, the story of Chippendales has been told as a case study in business development.
The club doesnt just appeal to womens sexual fantasies; it speaks to their fantasies of taking control.
And the issue of control is quickly proving to be toxic among the so-called geniuses.
Steve is suspicious of anyone but Irene no matter their qualifications.
Steve started Chippendales with his own money, but its Nicks choreography thats become synonymous with the brand.
Is Chippendales a bar, or is it the burlesque show that happens inside the bar?
