P-valley IF YOU LIKED INSIDE THE FACTORY THEN TRY… INSIDE BRITAIN’S FOOD FACTORIES
Starzplay (on Amazon Prime channels), now streaming
Here’s a show you might not know about, on a channel you might not have heard of, featuring a cast you won’t recognise. P-valley (short for “Pussy Valley”) is set in a strip club in Mississippi – the kind of place routinely featured in movies and TV dramas to add gratuitous spice to proceedings, when women in states of undress gyrate in the background, usually out of focus, while The Men conduct their business and advance the plot. But this show is different.
It literally foregrounds those women who have previously been decorative fodder in men’s stories. We meet the mostly working-class black American women who perform at the club. There’s newbie Autumn (Elarica Johnson), dealing with a tragic incident; Miss Mississippi (Shannon Thornton), a young mother in an abusive relationship, and Mercedes (Brandee Evans), the star dancer who can reach the highest echelons of the pole onstage, but whose Christian mother wants to bring her down. In charge is Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan), the gender-fluid owner whose looks and quips are dazzlingly sharp. Then there’s the clientele – cops, city officials and a cocky, would-be rap star who thinks he deserves VIP status. Let’s just say his private dance doesn’t go how you’d expect. And neither does the show, as it subverts stereotypes and undermines expectations.
It’s no accident that P-valley is created by a woman, Katori Hall (who wrote the Tina Turner stage musical), and all the directors are female, too. They show us the harsh but captivating reality of this world. Sparkling with vigour and verve, P-valley is the very definition of a hidden gem.