Welcome to Chippendale's Final Assessment

 

In my initial review of Welcome to Chippendale’s last month I was fundamentally correct about the overall quality of the series but having finished it, I now I believe I misunderstood the scope of it.   While I was correct about the overall coldness that I saw in Kumail Nanjiani’s incredible work as Steve Banerjee I characterized Murray Bartlett’s Nick De Nola as a hanger-on punching above his weight.

Now that I have finished seeing it I clearly did not understand what the writers had in mind.  The second episode was titled ‘Four Geniuses’ and in hindsight I realize that was one of many problems Bannerjee had. There was a part of him that believed that wealth came hand and hand with respect and that being rich was the equivalence of happiness. The problem was Steve could not be happy with just the money: he had to get credit for everything.  This was in a sense clear from the pilot when he was willing to throw away Schneider in favor of someone who could bring him the success he craved.  It’s now clear that Steve couldn’t just be happy with money and fame; he had to have credit and control.

In the third episode he returns from his father’s funeral infuriated that Nick and Denise have designed a performance for the club that he does not consider ‘classy enough’. He then decides to design a calendar without even thinking of asking Nick. Nick goes to New York with every intention of coming up with a club of his own and he might have done it and he not met a man who turned out to be his soul mate.

I’ve been watching Andrew Rannels’ on television for more than a decade and I have to say his work as Bradford is arguably the most genuine performance I’ve seen out of him in that period.  There’s truly a connection between them beyond sex, drugs and money and it is his presence that allows Nick to realize his true potential at Chippendale’s. When he makes the decision to open a New York club and take Denise with him, he frames it in such a way to assume total victory. He has no way of knowing that Steve will frame it to Irene in such a way so it sounds like his idea.

By this point we already know the kind of person Steve he is his relationship with Otis, his greatest performer is dealt in clear racism. Otis calls him on it and makes the decision to walk away from the club, which is probably his smartest decision. By that point Steve has created a VIP card designed to keep African-Americans and Latinos out.  A racial discrimination suit comes in the next episode and Steve’s attitude is to first deny it to Irene and then tell her that he did it because the club had to be ‘classy’.

Irene is by this point very aware of the problems her husband has but because she loves him she genuinely thinks she can work through it. The problem is Steve has taken offense to Nick’s success and is determined to prove that he alone is responsible for Chippendale’s. His behavior becomes increasingly reckless and he begins to see enemies everywhere. When he sees another club having a strippers night, he demands that they change it and then orders Ray to burn the club to the ground.

As the series progresses it is clear that there’s something fundamentally broken in Steve. Perhaps it is because he is dealing with his mother’s attitude that no matter how successful he gets, he had an obligation to stay behind and help his family.  There is little doubt he suffered the racist slights that so many immigrants do: I have little doubt there were countless scenes in a restaurant like the ones we see.  But eventually it becomes clear there’s a void in Steve that no success can fill. The fact that Nick becomes the face of Chippendale’s is essentially just an excuse; Steve apparently can not be happy unless he is complete control of everything.

The other problem is that Steve is not as smart as he thinks he is. Like so many wealthy people he thinks he can just avoid meetings with his attorneys and that a contract on a napkin isn’t binding. By the time the series is over, the only person he is listening to is his toady Ray who assures them that he is the best of all and that no one would know that perpetuity means forever.

By the time his failures have caught up with him in Los Angeles Steve has made the decision to have Nick killed. It’s clearly not just because of the money; he’s jealous of Nick’s success and the clear happiness he has. That by this point Nick has decided to stop being the face of Chippendale’s and find happiness with Bradford is something Steve never knows – and would likely not have cared about if he did.

By the last episode the government has caught up with Steve and he faces the end of everything he has built. In his cell he has a conversation with the ghost of Nick and even then, he is refusing to accept any true culpability. He still thinks that a few dancers in London were a threat to his empire and that everything he did was justified by the American dream. His final action in the episode could be seen as an act to help save the woman he loved from ruin – or a selfish act designed to make sure he never has the face the consequences of everything he’s done. Given everything I’ve seen, I’m inclined to think it’s the latter.

Had I seen Welcome to Chippendale’s at the time of its original release I very likely would have pitched it for Best Limited Series ahead of White House Plumbers, I still believe it deserved to go in ahead of Fleishmann is in Trouble and certainly Obi Wan Kenobi.

The decision to nominate Nanjiani is, in hindsight, one of the best ones the Emmys made in 2023. This is perhaps the most stunning work he has done in all his years of my watching him on TV and film. I clearly understand why he was drawn to this project and it one of the most revelatory works for the man I knew only from Silicon Valley.

Clearly the decision to nominate Bartlett for his work as Nick was a smart one.  In the course of just two years this actor who was basically a total unknown has delivered incredibly divergent work in three very different series.   It would have made far more sense to leave Richard Jenkins out of the field and make room for Domhnall Gleason in his place.

And having seen the entire series, the decision to nominate both Annaleigh Ashford and Juliette Lewis for Best Supporting Actress over Judy Greer for White House Plumbers was absolutely the correct one. (I still think they should have found room for Lena Headey.) Over the course of the series Lewis did work at the equal in Yellowjackets  (I’m still pissed at them not nominated her for that, but that’s a different group of awards) Denise’s work was fascinating as someone who clearly had both a love for Chippendale’s and a doomed love for Nick. Some part of her truly could not accept what was going on between him and Bradford, which made what happened to Nick all the more tragic.  Her character is never referred to in the final episode so we have no idea to her fate but Lewis again found herself capable of reaching the depths I’ve known her too.

I was thrilled one of my favorite actresses of all time was finally recognized by the Emmys; having seen the entirety of her work, I’m even more impressed. In both Masters of Sex and B Positive, the two series she’s had lead roles in, Ashford has played boisterous and fundamentally out of control characters. As Irene she plays the voice of reason not only to Steve but to Chippendale’s as a whole. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Banerjee was that at a certain point he just stopped listening to Irene, the one person who loved him unconditionally and clearly had everybody’s best interest at heart. When she chose to walk away it hurt her deeply.  A subtitle in the final scene reveals that Chippendale’s is bigger than ever. Is it possible that part of the reason is that it is under the control of someone who knew what she was doing and did not care about being in the limelight the way her husband did?

There is a similarity in the theme between Chippendale’s and Fleishman, in that several of the leads in both series seem to be suffering from a void even though they have everything. What made Chippendale’s the better series – and why it clearly deserved to be nominated for Best Limited Series instead of Fleishman – is that, for people like Banerjee, trying to fill that void can lead us to do horrible things not merely to the people we love, but to the world around us. The last scene in Chippendale’s is clearly a fantasy – perhaps a flashback, perhaps the last thing Banerjee ever saw. That’s the tragedy. Steve Banerjee could only be happy in his dreams. Reality was something he never accepted.

My score: 5 stars.