What is ‘P-Valley’ About and Where is it Filmed?

Starz digs into the lives of strip club dancers in its new series, P-Valley. The drama comes from playwright Katori Hall, who wrote the 2015 play “Pussy Valley” and adapted it for television a couple of years later. While the show is about dancers, it’s not all about what happens on stage — the characters have complex lives and pasts, and Hall frames the series to show how difficult stripping is and how much work goes into performing each night.

“People have to eat,” Hall told the New York Times last month. “People have to shelter themselves. And so, for me, the major political act of the show is saying that women’s choices, women’s lives, all women’s lives, are worthy of being excavated.” P-Valley drops its audience right into the strip club, with the sound of flesh sliding down a pole and the click of heels across the stage. Before you start catching up on one of the summer’s best dramas, here’s everything you need to know about P-Valley.

WHAT IS P-VALLEY ABOUT?

P-Valley is a new Starz series about the strippers at a club in the Mississippi Delta, or “Pussy Valley,” called The Pynk. The women there act like family and take care of each other, but when one of the club’s lead dancers announces her plans to leave and new girl shows up from out of town, drama ensues. On the same night that Mercedez (Brandee Evans) reveals she’s retiring from The Pynk after years of working there, Autumn Night (Elarica Johnson) arrives and makes her debut on the Pynk stage during amateur night, impressing the crowd and the club owner, Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan).

There’s plenty of mystery surrounding the new girl and her past, and now that Mercedez is planning to dance her final dance, The Pynk is set to rake in much less cash than they normally would on “Mercedez Sundays.” Uncle Clifford has to find a way to keep his club up and running, and as the series progresses, we learn more about why Autumn came to The Pynk and why Mercedez is leaving.

IS P-VALLEY A REAL PLACE?

Not exactly —”Pussy Valley” or “The Dirty Delta” refers to the Mississippi Delta, and while the show takes place in a town called Chucalissa, the town isn’t a real place in Mississippi, and The Pynk is not a real strip club. But there’s a reason that it feels so authentic; Hall has done plenty of research to create the fictional environment. The P-Valley creator spent six years visiting strip clubs, even spending her birthday a club in the Bronx one year.

WHERE IS P-VALLEY FILMED?

Since P-Valley isn’t technically real, you’re probably wondering where the series actually takes place. P-Valley is still filmed in the South, but not in Chucalissa. Instead, the Starz series is filmed in Atlanta, Georgia.

Where to watch P-Valley