Story about the pimps, prostitutes, gay bath house scene and pornographers of 1970s Times Square and how they were pushed out by developers and availability of easily available porn on then new VHS. Goes into the 80s and the porn scene in L.A.
It was a long slog for me. I gave up on the show a couple times. I finally finished it (S3 final season) last night. There were some subplots that I got tired of, mainly the organizing the hookers storyline. It had some great scenes, I like Maggie Gyllenhaal and found her story line somewhat believable. Liked the love-hate between her and her porn producing partner. It really pushed the boundaries of graphic sex acts on HBO. Like GOT lots of main characters get killed suddenly and often unexpectedly.
Far from one of my all time favorites but I was glad I finished it.
Saw season 1 and liked it. Have not seen S2 or S3 yet.
Yeah, I need to go back to it. I was waiting for the season to be over so I could binge it on a lazy afternoon but forgot about it.
I enjoy most of David Simon’s work (The Wire, Treme, etc.) as I think he does a great job of portraying the types of people who typically get overlooked in American society.
The Deuce is the only show/movie where I can say James Franco did a decent acting job.
I really liked it.
I think the time-jumps sort of worked, sort of didn’t.
I always felt like they jumped over parts of what I personally would have found more interesting.
I would have liked to have seen what happened with Larry (the pimp with the heart of …gold?) We got the season 2 reveal that he was a great actor but then he’s not even mentioned in season 3.
Some of the character deaths are just so… rough.
I’ll put into spoilers the rest–
[spoiler] When Laurie commits suicide, it is shocking and then when she is never even mentioned in the final two episodes–it’s just heartbreaking
I did like the epilogue with old Vince walking around modern sterile Times Square and haunted by the ghosts. [/spoiler]
It wasn’t specifically mentioned but I think what happened to Laurie was alluded to in many of the decisions Candy made during the final 2 episodes.
Personally, I was just happy that Larry escaped the violent deaths that seemed to plaque all the other pimps.
I’ll spoiler some comments on character deaths.
[spoiler]Lori’s death was kind of a shock even though looking back, they did foreshadow it quite a bit. I thought she was digging her cigarettes out of her purse and …huh, her gun…wonder why she’s getting that out? Damn, no hesitation at all!
I too would have liked to see what happened with Larry.
C.C.'s death was satisfying. When he kept flicking that lighter I was about ready to jump through the screen and kill him myself. Didn’t expect Bobby to do it though.
Sad the way Big Mike went. I thought once he knew he was doomed he’d take out Tommy for Vince.
Was surprised Tommy killed Rudy. I thought it was going to go the other way.[/spoiler]
I thought Franco did a pretty good job but playing identical twins I wish he would have made them a little easier to differentiate. There were a couple times I got mixed up on which one I was watching.
I agree. All of his series have been at least very good, if not outstanding. I consider The Wire the best television series I’ve ever seen (just finished a complete rewatch recently).
While the story line of The Deuce wasn’t a good as some the others, it had some excellent performances.
Here’s the earlier thread I didn’t look for before starting this one. Similar thread title even.
I liked what happened with Eileen at the end.Her film was recognized as a cult classic and celebrated in arthouse circles. She finally got the respect she deserved, even if that’s after her death.
I just finished watching this in entirety over the weekend.
Damn. Tragedy and sadness in the end for nearly everyone. Eileen finally gets the respect she always sought, but only after her death. Vince was alone and everyone he knew was dead and forgotten to all but him. And the police and politicians, vis a vis the prostitutes, it was just like Alston said: they fixed nothing, they just pushed it somewhere else and moved corporate money in.
Lori, well. They were foreshadowing that ending for her from basically the very beginning; it was always going to end badly for her, it was just a matter of when and how. It seems to me that she didn’t hesitate because she had already made the decision to do it long before that moment.