I was drawn to Welcome to Chippendales right out of the gate. The first half of the season had all the energy and fervor of an actual Chippendales spectacle. Even though I'm much too young to have ever experienced the troupe live in their heyday, you can chalk it up to my fascination with vintage YouTube videos, documentaries and podcasts. Having said that, there is a lot of nonsense to unpack. Creative license is a necessary thing and I don't hate on the writers for taking liberties, I just think they could have done a better job with accurately representing more of the facts. For example, and with no spoilers, the final episode was so sloppily executed that it almost felt like an entirely different and disconnected story. There are many films and shows that do amazing things with true crime sagas and there are some that struggle. Though Welcome to Chippendales did carry itself well in the beginning, I feel like it fell flat. It's no fault of literally the entire cast, as they all delivered sound performances, most notably Murray Bartlett as De Noia and Kumail Nanjiani as Banerjee. There are quite simply some juicy morsels that should have been brought to the table and some unsavory ones that should have been left behind. Still a solid 8/10 though and definitely a fun watch. If you're craving more now that it's over, I encourage you to seek out the true, sordid tale in its entirety. It's sure to satiate.
Review of Welcome to Chippendales
