FX’s ‘The Full Monty’ Revival Has the Heart, if Not the Nudity, of the ’90s Original: TV Review
Alison Herman TV Critic The hit British film “The Full Monty” — for a brief period in 1997, the most lucrative release in U.K. history — was, in some ways, the original “Magic Mike.” The comedy chronicled six unemployed ex-steelworkers in post-Thatcher North England as they formed a stripping troupe. (The name referred to the strippers’ willingness to bare all, genitalia included.) By treating sex work as a symbol of larger economic malaise, “The Full Monty” anticipated the approach Steven Soderbergh would take stateside over two decades later. “Magic Mike” has since ballooned into a full-blown phenomenon spanning a trilogy of films, a reality show and a globally successful stage revue. “The Full Monty” has, until now, resisted such expansion. (There have been a handful of stage adaptations, though nothing on the scale of “Magic Mike Live.”) But on June 14, FX will stream all eight episodes of a TV sequel, also called “The Full Monty,” on Hulu. The show carries the same set of core characters a quarter century into the future — minus the nudity, but retaining the same bittersweet mix of working class social realism and irreverent humor to take the edge off. Even affable British indies, it would seem, are not immune from the modern IP boom.