Saturday, December 10, 2022

My Review of Welcome To Chippendales: "Just Business"

 


Written by Annie Julia Wyman
Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Steve: "You're not fired."
Otis: "I know. I quit."

With the previous episode being somewhat sluggish, this one actually took a few interesting turns and ended up being a rather solid affair. We're halfway through this season and clear alliances are being made and broken all over the place.

Taking on a slightly larger role this episode was Quentin Plair's Otis, whom this series has emphasized as the most popular dancer at Chippendales. Naturally Otis would be miffed that he didn't make it on Steve's calendar and the latter's excuse about only money mattering wasn't going to be enough to keep Otis in the company line.

I don't blame Otis for going behind Steve's back with Ray to make his own calendar and I also don't blame him for refusing to stay with Chippendales with Steve undermining him. I was however a little surprised that he didn't take up Nick and Denise's New York offer but with four episodes left this season, something tells me he'll be heading for the Big Apple fairly soon though.

As for the Big Apple, Nick spent a large portion of the episode here trying to drum up business for Chippendales and he certainly fell on his luck when he hooked up with investor/lounge singer, Bradford Bartin (Andrew Rannells). Bradford wasted no time in telling Nick to take Chippendales to New York and Nick strong armed Steve into going along with the idea. Though Steve made Irene believe that he was the one behind the whole thing.

With Steve losing Otis, realising his wealth and influence can't buy his way into everything and Nick forcing his hand with the New York idea, having Ray swear his undying loyalty to him was an interesting way to end the episode. Is Ray being sincere in his loyalty to Steve or does he have an agenda of his own? Time will tell of course.

- Steve ended up buying a printers in order to print 10,000 copies of the calendar. Irene wasn't best pleased with that.
- Denise wasn't happy with one of the dancers eating while wearing the costumes. She seemed to have taken over the choreography during Nick's absence.
- Standout music: Bradford belting out Sondheim's Someone Is Waiting had it's moments.
- Chronology: Over five days since the ending of the previous episode.

Just Business emphasised it's title quite a bit with Steve, Nick and Otis all either feeling the brunt of that saying or using it to their advantage. Now at the halfway point, things are picking a bit more and this miniseries has gotten a little more interesting with this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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