I suspect that P-Valley (Starzplay) did not find an enormous audience in the UK for its first season, being tucked away on a subscription channel within a subscription service. But as it returns for a second run, this excellent, highly original drama about a strip club in America’s “dirty south” deserves a far bigger audience.
In the fictional town of Chucalissa, Mississippi – and if this series teaches us anything, it’s the best way of remembering how to spell Mississippi since Miss Honey’s class in Matilda – there is a club called The Pynk, run by boss/manager/mother hen Uncle Clifford (a wonderful, star-making turn from Nicco Annan). The first season racked up tales of murder, fake identities, abusive relationships and illicit queer affairs, to a soundtrack of largely female rappers. It dug its nails into power and politics, and refused to choose the easiest path to the finish line. Its dancers were not the cliched catty rivals, but fully fleshed-out Black women with believable, complicated lives both in and out of the club.
