Written proudly in the Mississippi vernacular, P-Valley tells a story of sex, trauma, and ambition in a totally unembellished way. There’s something decidedly un-Hollywood about it, both in the way it embraces its Black and Southern roots and in how it portrays stripping as the athletic feat it truly is. So even if the show deals with adult subject matter it’s never lurid or exploitative, and it becomes a series just as much about the craft of exotic dancing and hip hop as it is about money and struggle. Even the more unwieldy parts of the series’s storytelling help add up to an authentic portrait, bathed in gorgeous night club colors and crisp Southern images.