Hulu is carving out its niche as the go-to place for salacious "ripped from the headlines" limited series demonstrating the downside to fame and fortune. Earlier this year, we saw "Pam & Tommy" dramatize the leaking of the world's most famous sex tape. Now, Hulu's showing the dark origin story of everyone's favorite cuffed exotic dancers in "Welcome to Chippendales." Dreaming of becoming rich, gas station attendant-turned-entrepreneur Somen "Steve" Banarjee (Kumail Nanjiani) originally sets out to open an upscale baccarat club in Los Angeles. Despite his calculations about the hole in the marketplace for such a club, it doesn't take off. However, a chance encounter with a Hollywood starlet/Playboy model and her boyfriend makes him see that the path to achieving his wealth is paved in oiled-up hot bodies instead of board games. But as the money flies in, Banarjee spirals and is willing to do anything to murder — quite literally — the competition and maintain his position. Creator Robert Siegel walks the line perfectly of mixing the shady underbelly with the more dramatic human interactions while never becoming overly serious. He knows what the people are here for, and is more than willing to give you plenty of hot bodies, pelvic thrusts, and clothes being ripped off. That said, he does infuse the show with issues like racism and discrimination that Banarjee faced and, in turn, perpetuated at the club by refusing to hire more than one dancer of color and resorting to other tricks to give the club an "elegant, exclusive atmosphere." Come for the titillating subject material, but stay for the performances — okay, and the male strippers, too. "Welcome to Chippendales" may be an eight-episode limited series, but binging it in one sitting wouldn't feel like a chore. Interestingly, as Steve's spiral begins to occur the episodes get shorter, with the last few reaching just over a half hour. If anything, the biggest complaint about this would be that the show ends too abruptly, without giving much of an epilogue about where the surviving characters ended up.⁠ ⁠ Tap link in bio for more on @EDGEmedianetwork ⁠ ????⁠ ?: @hulu

Hulu is carving out its niche as the go-to place for salacious "ripped from the headlines" limited series demonstrating the downside to fame and fortune. Earlier this year, we saw "Pam & Tommy" dramatize the leaking of the world's most famous sex tape. Now, Hulu's showing the dark origin story of everyone's favorite cuffed exotic dancers in "Welcome to Chippendales." Dreaming of becoming rich, gas station attendant-turned-entrepreneur Somen "Steve" Banarjee (Kumail Nanjiani) originally sets out to open an upscale baccarat club in Los Angeles. Despite his calculations about the hole in the marketplace for such a club, it doesn't take off. However, a chance encounter with a Hollywood starlet/Playboy model and her boyfriend makes him see that the path to achieving his wealth is paved in oiled-up hot bodies instead of board games. But as the money flies in, Banarjee spirals and is willing to do anything to murder — quite literally — the competition and maintain his position. Creator Robert Siegel walks the line perfectly of mixing the shady underbelly with the more dramatic human interactions while never becoming overly serious. He knows what the people are here for, and is more than willing to give you plenty of hot bodies, pelvic thrusts, and clothes being ripped off. That said, he does infuse the show with issues like racism and discrimination that Banarjee faced and, in turn, perpetuated at the club by refusing to hire more than one dancer of color and resorting to other tricks to give the club an "elegant, exclusive atmosphere." Come for the titillating subject material, but stay for the performances — okay, and the male strippers, too. "Welcome to Chippendales" may be an eight-episode limited series, but binging it in one sitting wouldn't feel like a chore. Interestingly, as Steve's spiral begins to occur the episodes get shorter, with the last few reaching just over a half hour. If anything, the biggest complaint about this would be that the show ends too abruptly, without giving much of an epilogue about where the surviving characters ended up.⁠
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Tap link in bio for more on @EDGEmedianetwork ⁠
????⁠
?: @hulu