Welcome to Chippendales

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.