The new Disney+ miniseries is a story of money, murder and men in thongs, writes Catherine McGregor.

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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.

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.