Welcome to Chippendales is true crime laid bare

A story of money, murder and men in thongs

Kia ora and welcome back to Rec Room, The Spinoff’s pop culture and entertainment newsletter brought to you by Panasonic. This week I caught up on the final season of the wonderful buddy comedy-drama Dead to Me (Netflix), finished season two of the NXIVM-cult documentary The Vow (Neon), and dug into the widely praised true crime podcast Bone Valley. Here’s what else I’ve been watching and reading, along with guest recs from Alex Casey and Stewart Sowman-Lund.

- Catherine McGregor

Welcome to Chippendales is a true crime story laid bare

Would-be dancers at an outdoor audition in Welcome to Chippendales (Disney+)

The lowdown

In the late 1970s, a nondescript Los Angeles nightclub became the hottest spot in town after owner Somen “Steve” Banerjee introduced a unique floor show: male exotic dancers performing for women customers, with all the raunchiness and boundary-pushing of traditional female striptease. From that one nightclub, the Chippendales male revue became a global phenomenon, pulling in millions of dollars and laying the groundwork for a shocking murder case.

The story is told in the new miniseries Welcome to Chippendales – as it was in Welcome to Your Fantasy, the hit eight-part podcast released last year. Despite their similar names, they’re two different projects; if you’ve listened to the (excellent) podcast, you’ll recognise a lot of the same story beats, but don’t expect a 100% faithful retelling. This is TV, after all.

Kumail Nanjiani and Murray Bartlett in Welcome to Chippendales (Disney+)

The good

I’ve never been to a male revue show, and don’t have any interest in doing so in the future. As Irene (Annaleigh Ashford) tells Chippendales owner Steve Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani) during their first meeting, it’s “not my kind of place” (he gallantly assures her it’s not his kind of place either). But I can’t deny that Welcome to Chippendales makes male exotic dancing look… kind of fun? It’s all down to the superb dance sequences, which evolve from rough-as-guts stripping in the club’s early days to ambitious routines that wouldn’t look out of place in Magic Mike.

It’s hard not to think of that film when watching Welcome to Chippendales, and not just because of the buff men in rip-off pants. Like Steven Soderbergh’s post-GFC drama, the Chippendales story touches on some pretty deep themes amid the bachelorette-party bacchanalia. Born in India, Banerjee was the sort of striver the American dream is built around. He toiled for years as a gas station manager, saving almost his entire pay while fantasising of a life of Hollywood sophistication. Opening a nightclub was meant to be his entree into a more glamorous echelon of society. Yet, as he soon discovered, no amount of success could make this Bombay boy an LA insider.

In all likelihood Banerjee’s sense of rejection fuelled the paranoia that would eventually destroy him, and is just starting to take hold at the end of episode two, as far into the series as I’ve watched. Welcome to Chippendales is careful not to lay the foreshadowing on too thick, though the bleak story of early investor Paul Snider (Dan Stevens, reprising his bare-chest-and-bouffant look from Eurovision) and his girlfriend, Playboy playmate Dorothy Stratton (Nicola Peltz), is a hint that this is not going to be your standard rags-to-riches tale. 

Unlike his previous ripped-from-the-headlines limited series, the misguided Pam & Tommy, creator Robert Siegel doesn’t start Welcome to Chippendales with every character turned up to 11. There’ll be plenty of time for Banerjee’s paranoia and seething jealousy to take hold; these early episodes are where we see the real person behind the headlines. Banerjee is not exactly likeable here, but Nanjiani is able to extract some charm from his extreme awkwardness, particularly during his courtship of fellow business nerd Irene. As Nick De Noia, the creative brains of the Chippendales brand, Murray Bartlett is the suavely confident yin to Nanjiani’s gawky yang, while Juliette Lewis brings her usual amped-up energy to a fictional character seemingly inspired by real-life “Chippendales den mother” Candace Mayeron, who features heavily in the Welcome to Your Fantasy podcast.

The bad

I realise it’s an unfortunate film-making necessity, but this “nightclub” is just too brightly lit to be believable. When the club is doing poorly, all the light does at least help it feel even emptier and sadder. But once Chippendales is humming it just looks silly. How is anyone supposed to indulge in late-70s debauchery with the lights turned up that high?

The verdict

Oiled-up beefcake might be the draw, but the on-stage antics aren’t what’s really startling about the Welcome to Chippendales story. Money, murder and men in tiny thongs? Sign me up. (Disney+)

Movie rec: She Said

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan in She Said

She Said tells a story we’re all incredibly familiar with. Based on the earth shattering New York Times investigation that triggered the #MeToo movement, She Said dramatises the journey of real life journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey to bring down film behemoth Harvey Weinstein. If it feels too soon to be telling this story – Weinstein is still making his way through the legal system – that’s because it kind of is. The film at times feels unsatisfying or unfinished because the story of Weinstein hasn’t come to a close yet. Nor has the issue of workplace harassment. That being said, the story is handled with extreme sensitivity by director Maria Schrader. Weinstein’s face is never shown. The women victims are very much at the forefront, with real life victim Ashley Judd playing herself. As Twohey, Carey Mulligan shines, though the scenes with Zoe Kazan’s Kantor feel a bit overdramatised (though maybe that’s just the journalist in me watching how Hollywood depicts journalism as “glamorous” and sniggering). Overall, She Said is a tense, at times uncomfortable real life thriller that strives to be this year’s Spotlight but ultimately ends up a bit Spotlight-lite.

- Stewart Sowman-Lund

Reality rec: The Bridge Australia

Do not make the same mistake as me and dismiss The Bridge Australia as some lame Antipodean reboot of the Scandi-noir series of yesteryear. Along with Hunted Australia, The Bridge Australia is one of the most captivating high concept reality shows of the year. For a start, here’s the tagline: “With bare hands and basic tools, 12 strangers are tasked with building a 330-metre bridge across a lake over 17 days to win $250,000.” What that doesn’t tell you is that this bridge-building mission is packed with gnarly twists, dastardly deception and at least two absolutely classic Aussie drongos (“Bushie” and “Jonesy”). Episode one introduces an ethical dilemma you will mull over for weeks – if you made it to the end, would you keep all the money for yourself or split it with the people that helped you get there? For a reality show, the production values of The Bridge are sky high, complete with beautifully moody cinematography and a solemn narration by the drongo thespian king himself, Hugo Weaving. Take that first brave step into The Bridge Australia on TVNZ+ and I swear on Bushie’s life you won’t regret it. 

- Alex Casey

On The Spinoff: The Real Pod’s best international reality shows of 2022

You’re already convinced to give The Bridge Australia a go, now discover the 9 other international reality shows The Real Pod chose as their favourites of 2022, from Love Island UK to Selling Sunset. (Read the full list here)

Local TV recs: NZ TV Awards winners

Inspired by last week’s NZ TV Awards, here’s a grab bag of local TV recommendations, all available on streaming now. Best drama went to The Panthers (TVNZ+), the stylish retelling of how the Dawn Raids inspired the rise of the Polynesian Panthers. In his review, Dan Taipua praised The Panthers’ depiction of ‘70s Auckland as a city at boiling point, adding “If you drew a squiggly line around Ponsonby, Sandringham and Albert Park in the 1970s, you’d have an entire universe of stories available to you. The show’s creators have done just that with The Panthers.” The assisted-dying drama The Pact (TVNZ+) scooped the acting categories and won best script. I reviewed it last year and called it “a brave and unusual piece of television, and one that I hope is widely watched, despite its tough subject matter”. Best comedy went to Pax Assadi’s delightful Raised by Refugees (Neon), which Afghan-Kiwi Abbas Nazari praised for its attention to detail in bringing the immigrant experience to life (and its many great jokes).

Random links

• New Timothee Chalamet movie Bones and All is about a couple of sexy young cannibals. OK, but is eating another human being bad for your health?

• Entertainment-biz story of the month has to be “retired” Disney CEO Bob Iger ousting his hand-picked successor. The LA Times has all the juicy details.

• The week’s best hoax, meanwhile, is the extremely fake Martin Scorsese movie Goncharov, which has suddenly jumped from a Tumblr in-joke to a global internet phenomenon. 

• Season one of Andor is over, and boy did they stick the landing with that incredible finale. Here’s director Tony Gilroy on how it was made plus Empire’s 10 best moments of the entire season. 

• Michael Sheen as a time-travelling 1980s nightclub owner with a Limahl hair-do? And it’s a Christmas movie? Yes please.

• On YouTube, a doctor uses John Wick to explain every bone in the human body, and how they break.

• I’ve never read a Jack Reacher novel in my life, yet devoured every word of this wildly entertaining ranking of all 28 books.

• RIP Irene Cara, whose hit singles ‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance…What a Feeling’ soundtracked my childhood and which both remain undeniable bops.

• How it feels when your play gets an absolute stinker of a review.

That’s it for Rec Room for this week. If you liked what you read, why not share Rec Room with your friends and whānau.