Stream It Or Skip It: ‘American Gigolo’ On Showtime, A Reimagining Of The Classic Film About A Male Prostitute And A Murder Mystery

Paul Schrader’s original 1980 film American Gigolo was very much of its time, a noir film taking place in a world where Studio 54 was still operational, and a story about a male prostitute embroiled in a murder plot wasn’t all that common. David Hollander of Ray Donovan has adapted that movie for a new series, with Jon Bernthal taking the role of Julian Kaye. Can late ’70s-early ’80s noir work in 2022?

AMERICAN GIGOLO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “2006.” A closeup of a man’s profile as he sits, dazed, in a holding cell. A police detective enters and approaches.

The Gist: Julian Kaye (Jon Bernthal) is there because he was discovered by the police in bed with the body of one of his customers, her blood all over him. He’s a gigolo, catering to high-roller — and often gorgeous — customers. Detective Sunday (Rosie O’Donnell) is convinced he did it, and doesn’t believe him when he says he doesn’t remember what happened. So she persuades him to confess so he doesn’t get life in prison.

Fifteen years later, Julian has seemed to make his time in prison useful, but is shocked when he’s summoned to meet Det. Sunday again. She tells him personally that a hit man on his deathbed admitted to the murder, so he’s a free man. He first goes back to the trailer where he grew up, when he was still known as Johnny. A flashback to young Johnny (Gabriel LaBelle) shows the moment when his mother trafficked him out to a woman named Olga (Sandrine Holt), who drove a Rolls and had all of her workers hang out at her palatial Los Angeles house.

He also flashes back to the time he met Michelle Stratton (Gretchen Mol), who was married to a tech entrepreneur (Leland Orser). They fell for each other, anyway, and he goes back to her house to check in on her. She has issues of her own, namely the fact that her husband seems to treat their 15-year-old son (note the age) like a prisoner, due to his penchant to romance adult tutors.

He then goes back to his friend Lorenzo (Wayne Brady), who helped him get his bearings when he first went to work for Olga. He doesn’t want to go back to life as a high-priced prostitute, but when Sunday comes to him and tells him that the hired killer blurted out the word “Keene” to her when she asked who hired him, he knew what that meant: “Queen”, the nickname Olga’s daughter Isabelle (Lizzie Brocheré), who is now all grown up, gave herself.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The plot to this new version of American Gigolo is similar to the original 1980 film, written and directed by Paul Schrader and starring Richard Gere. The timelines have moved up, and the murder plot is more focused on what happens after Julian is exonerated, but the feel of both is the same. David Hollander, who developed the series, even uses Blondie’s “Call Me” in the first episode.

Our Take: This new version of American Gigolo boasts some pretty compelling performances, especially from Bernthal, who personifies both the man who reveled in his job, despite the tragic way he got into it. During an intimate moment with Michelle, he does say that he’s good at putting on the clothes and being the charmer who fulfills his customer’s fantasies, but the real him is more unsure of himself, and that dichotomy is apparent in his performance.

In fact, there are good performances all over this remake. The problem comes with its plot; there doesn’t seem to be enough of it to cover an eight-episode miniseries. Essentially, Julian is going to return to the sex trade game in order to figure out who framed him for that murder fifteen years prior. But if the meandering first episode is any indication, there’s going to be a lot of flashbacks, a lot of navel-gazing and a whole lot of fluff that will get in the way of the series’ central mystery.

If the idea is that suspects will abound, from Olga to Michelle’s husband Richard to, heck, even Lorenzo, there’s potential for a lot of red herrings and messy plotting. At this stage, we’re not sure if Julian is focusing all his attention on Isabelle or if that is also a misdirection on the part of Hollander and his writers. The fact that the actual reason for the series to exist didn’t come into focus until the last ten minutes of the first episode, though, isn’t a good sign of what we’re going to see going forward.

Maybe the episodes produced after Hollander was ousted from the show due to charges of misconduct are better. But we’re not going to be around to find out.

Sex and Skin: Julian is a sex worker, so if there weren’t scenes of sex and nudity you’d think there was something wrong.

Parting Shot: When Julian goes to see Olga, he sees that she’s infirmed. Isabelle is in charge now, and she demands he strip down and show her what he’s got.

Sleeper Star: Almost 20 years after appearing in a classic Chappelle’s Show sketch, it seems that Brady needed another role that went against his squeaky-clean image. He comes out of the gate with f-bombs and self-descriptions about the size of his manhood, and for some reason it doesn’t feel as jarring as it should.

Most Pilot-y Line: Michelle pushes Julian away when he comes to see her, and she says, “He’ll just do it again. He’ll do it again to all of us!” That’s some pretty clunky foreshadowing there.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Despite the performances in the first episode, this remake of American Gigolo just doesn’t have enough going on to justify an 8-episode series, and it’ll likely get really boring and frustrating before it gets interesting.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast