The Southern-Gothic Stripper Drama That TV Deserves

Though strippers are some of hip-hop’s most discerning tastemakers, it’s rare to see music videos, TV shows, or films treat them as anything but ornamental—scantily clad symbols of men’s power and wealth. The breakout star of the new drama P-Valley is a welcome intervention. Mercedes (played by Brandee Evans) is the dazzling headliner at the Mississippi strip club at the center of the Starz series, but she’s also an adept music critic unafraid to challenge the club’s patrons. “My booty can’t bump to this,” she tells a young rapper after he plays her his music. “Ain’t got no tremolo.”

is concerned, first and foremost, with the many sides of the women, by the Memphis-born writer Katori Hall. The show’s minimally censored name functions as a knowing wink toward the viewer: understands that audiences are intrigued by the same kinds of seductive performances that draw patrons to The Pynk, and it delivers on that promise. But where other productions might center on male protagonists who bandy about business schemes while dancers adorn their laps or perform acrobatics overhead, grounds its stories in the strippers’ lives.