Welcome to Chippendales Premiere Recap: Season 1 Episode 1 – Hulu

When the ladies of the 1980s were looking for a sassy night out, Chippendales was the way to go. The premiere of Hulu Welcome to Chippendales fills us up how the well-known all-male revue began – and how even its rocky beginnings were riddled with scandals.

Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley), who is also the executive producer of the limited series, plays Somen “Steve” Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who runs a gas station, when we meet him in the first episode of the two-episode premiere. It’s the 1970s and Steve’s boss, pleased with his performance, offers him a promotion to general manager of several gas stations. But Steve has other plans: He’s saved 90 percent of his income over the past five years, and he has his eye on a bigger, shinier prize. He will start his own business: “A Backgammon Club.”

Steve is soon donning a new Sears suit, fancy shoes and cufflinks in what he feels befits the owner of a “stylish, exclusive atmosphere” for Los Angeles’ first backgammon emporium. He calls it Destiny II because “people are attracted to things that they find successful,” he notes. Turns out? Not as much. The building is fairly empty most nights, including the one where a nightclub promoter named Paul Snider (played by Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens) and his Playboy playmate Dorothy (Bates motel‘s Nicola Peltz Beckham) happened to stop by.

Steve is impressed that they are talking about knowing Hugh Hefner – one of his role models – and he eventually asks Paul to come on board to increase enthusiasm for the club. Paul scoffs, but when Steve offers him a quarter of the club in exchange, he relents. Six weeks later, however, it’s clear that Paul isn’t as connected (or as wealthy) as he claims to be. The men agree to reduce Paul’s share to five percent and then try to find a concept that fills the place every night.

First, Destiny II becomes a nightclub. Then a women’s mud show with Paul refereing. Then a place for an oyster eating contest (which is really gross). Nothing clicks. Steve joins in after work one night as Paul and Dorothy go to a gay bar, and his wheels start spinning when a dancer takes the stage and starts stripping for the very eager crowd. “A strip club for women!” Steve cries as they come outside, excited about his latest idea. Paul thinks it’s stupid, but Dorothy doesn’t. “Women get horny!” she says. “We’re just as lusty.”

Pretty soon, Steve and Paul are recruiting guys who train at the beach to become the club’s dancers. And the place is now called Chippendales, after the famous carpenter: ‘A new name for a fresh start,’ says Steve, adding that the moniker is ‘posh’. But the procedure — though popular with the whooping, carousing women in the audience — is a mess. There is no choreography. The guys just come out and do their thing. And when the choreographer Nick De Noia (white lotus‘ Murray Bartlett) comes over one night, he’s very unimpressed.

Steve eventually meets up with Nick, who won Emmys for creating/directing a children’s series by the title unicorn stories. At the end he comes on board to give shape/narrative/creative direction to the show. Paul, who is acting as host, feels threatened – and things don’t get any better when Nick flirts with Dorothy during rehearsal. After a particularly bad outburst from Paul, Nick sends him off: “You’re creepy, and you’re weird, and you’re fired.”

Much to Paul’s chagrin, the new Chippendales is a success. Everyone celebrates after the first big performance, and Steve pays Nick his $3,000 consulting fee. But soon after, the episode ends on a somber and unsettling tone: when Steve calls Paul and Dorothy – who are now married – to ask her a favor, the camera cuts to their bedroom, where they are both naked and dead a gun nearby and blood everywhere. Police believe Paul killed Dorothy and then fatally shot himself.

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