P-VALLEY: BRACE YOURSELF…NO, SERIOUSLY

P-Valley is an American Drama Television Series created by Katori Hall, and is an adaptation of Hall's play Pussy Valley, following several dancers who work at a strip club in the fictional town of Chucalissa, Mississippi. The show premiered on STARZ in July 2020, and stars Brandee Evans, Nicco Annan, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Elarica Johnson. The second season premiered in June, 2022, and since, has been renewed for a third season.

P-Valley has received critical acclaim and has been nominated for GLAAD Media Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, TCA Awards, and NAACP Image Awards. The show currently has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an Audience Score of 94%. It also has a Metascore of 83 (based on only 5 critic reviews) on Metacritic, with a User Score of 6.6 and a 7.3/10 on IMDB (based on 11,000 reviews).

This show is a lot…it’s a whole lot. And for a show about a group of female strippers who work at a club in a small town in the Mississippi Delta, there sure are a lot of naked men involved. Now, I’m a person who has been watching nudity in indie films and on network TV shows for quite some time now, so I’m no prude, but this show takes it to a whole new level. The amount of erect penises (real or fake) that end up in shots throughout this show absolutely boggles the mind. And the genital exposure is extremely one-sided, which makes it feel even more gratuitous, to the point of being intentional (the depiction of Lil’ Murder’s and Uncle Clifford’s sexuality feels particularly superfluous at times). And when you factor in that this show was created by, written by and directed by women, it feels rather retaliatory. Now, I know some of you reading this may be thinking that women have been exploited in film and on TV for decades where nudity and displays of sexuality are concerned, and I’m not here to argue that point, but the level of nudity in this show just isn’t necessary, but I digress.

On the other hand, the stunts were absolutely amazing. Hands down the best choreography and camera work I’ve ever seen in a stripper film or TV show, and Brandee Evans appeared to bring some real pole dancing chops to her role as Mercedes. The club scenes as a whole are also very exciting. The directors did a great job pumping up “The Pynk”, packing the space with people, procuring a fitting soundtrack to accompany the action, and I have to say, the amount of money being thrown around in a club that is supposed to be located in a small, impoverished area in the poorest state in the country was more than a bit hyperbolic, but from a creative standpoint, it was very effective.

Now, with that being said, the writing was just okay. And the acting equally mundane, though I will say that Nicco Annan did a great job bringing the character of “Uncle Clifford” to life. The story arc in season one felt extremely focused, probably because I’m guessing that’s the part of the series that was based on the play. But once season 2 got rolling, the story felt more scattered, like maybe there wasn’t a clear plan set in place for it until after season 1 wrapped (which happens sometimes when you don’t know if you’ll be renewed or not).

Despite boasting incredibly high marks on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and IMDB, the high marks aren’t reflected in the shows viewership, with it only averaging around 340,000 viewers per episode for season 1 and only around 240,000 viewers for season 2, not the absolute worst show on STARZ but nowhere near the best (the shows in the Power Universe average viewers in the multiple millions, Black Sails averaged about 3 million viewers per episode and Outlander gets over a million viewers per episode). For that reason and many others, I wouldn’t necessarily classify this show as appointment viewing material, but if you’ve got a weekend to kill with nothing else to do, binging it isn’t a complete waste of time either.

You can watch P-Valley on that STARZ app. It can also be viewed on the Roku Channel (for free), YouTube (with a Primetime Subscription), Amazon Prime, Google Play Movies, Redbox, HULU, Sling TV, Philo, Apple TV and VUDU.