Saturday, December 17, 2022

My Review of Welcome To Chippendales: "Leeches"

 

Written by Jacqui Rivera
Directed by Nisha Ganatra

Steve (to Ray, re Electric Tomato): "I'm going to burn that place to the ground."

Well someone was a wee bit pissed off this episode, wasn't he? Steve was seeing people leeching off his success everywhere and went for the smaller threat in order to vent his rage first. I bet Ray might be somewhat regretful of pledging his undying loyalty after all. 

Speaking of Ray, I'm still trying to figure out what his deal actually is here. There's no denying he enjoyed stirring the pot here with getting Steve even angrier about Nick, while Irene was trying to do the exact opposite but the minute Steve somewhat embraced his dark side, Ray realised he had bitten off more than he could chew with Steve.

Ray found himself in the position of having to commit arson and burn down a rival nightclub because Steve had him by the balls. Steve also looked far too pleased with himself with Ray actually carrying put his request. The Electric Tomato night have an easy obstacle to take out but Nick undoubtedly will prove to be a lot more difficult.

At the start of the episode, it looked like things might have softened between Nick and Steve. The latter seemed to be impressed with Nick's Hunkenstein idea actually working and almost remorseful that he had dismissed it. Even the snowball fight between Steve and Nick seemed like a great way of breaking the tension, only to have it amplified even more between them.

I guess some people just cannot get along but while Irene and Denise seem to have fallen into the ropes of trying to be peacemakers with Steve and Nick, it's the likes of Ray and Bradford who were doing everything to drive them further into battle with one another. Going by the events of this episode, they succeeded big time.

Nick was a natural on the talk show circuit in hyping up Chippendales and making the nation believe that he was the brains behind the operation whereas Steve's attempts to counter this on one talk show was a complete car crash to watch. If anything, I think Steve has well and truly lost the plot here.

- Irene wasn't pleased with Steve's VIP card idea and the very idea opened them to a lawsuit from a black customer.
- Denise doesn't seem to like Bradford at all (or he with her). I thought the use of actual Chippendales chairs for the VIP lounge in the New York location was a very nice touch. Even Steve was impressed with that.
- That Hunkenstein routine was straight up ripping off The Rocky Horror Picture Show and I loved it for that.
- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left off.

Leeches was an apt title where it looked like Steve didn't learn the right lessons, listened to the wrong people (yes, I mean Ray) and made a lot of bad choices as a direct result. The rivalry between him and Nick has certainly reached boiling point.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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