In the first episode of HBO’s excellent “The Deuce,” a teenage boy rolls up to a dirty New York street corner with a group of his friends. It’s 1971, and they’ve pooled together $40. They pick out Candy, a prostitute played by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
“We’re gonna party,” she tells the boy. But it quickly becomes obvious that this is just her job.
There’s no party in David Simon and George Pelecanos’s “The Deuce,” a study of scrappers trying to work their way out of a cesspool, through any job they can get. Even a gimmicky dual performance by James Franco, as twin brothers, doesn’t bring any joy.
What “The Deuce” does offer is mercantile sex, drugs and downtrodden characters like the ones who walked Simon’s “The Wire,” for which Pelecanos also wrote. “The Deuce” may be an even heavier watch than that classic look at the collapse of American systems.
In Sunday’s pilot episode, expertly directed by Michelle MacLaren, Franco plays a bartender named Vincent who is stuck working two jobs, while his brother Frankie is a reckless gambler who owes the mob big. A pimp played by Gary Carr lends nurturing, paternal advice to his newest girl Lori (Emily Meade), fresh off the bus from the Midwest, but the cliched pimp-prostitue dynamic shifts in unpredictable ways.
Candy, meanwhile, is slightly awed by women in porn videos or in Vincent’s bar who use their bodies “discreetly,” getting paid by men who only want to look at them.
“The Deuce” is fascinating for taking us back to a time when any kind of porn imaginable wasn’t available on whatever device you’re using to read this. Pelecanos and Simon immerse us in a period when people got their smut in bizarre ways, and slow burns to the point when the characters realize porn could be the answer to their prayers.
“The Deuce” needlessly delves into side plots — like the health problems of Vincent’s brother-in-law — that add unnecessary bleakness to an already sad enterprise. They feel reminiscent of the homicide-drama tacked onto HBO’s canceled “Vinyl,” which had the exact same setting as “The Deuce.”
But that show was about successful people, and “The Deuce” is about the people just trying to clean some dirt off — by spreading the dirt around.
“The Deuce” premieres Sunday at 9/8c on HBO.
25 Shades of James Franco - His Most Bizarre, Funniest and Sexiest Instagrams (Photos)
Bed selfie. (Is the internet sick of them yet? Judging by the "likes", Apparently not.)
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Franco posts then quickly deletes this nearly-naked photo to Instagram sparking a social media frenzy
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No doubt -- even in character as "Spring Breakers" Riff Raff, James Franco could still get a lot of posse.
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Good morning world.
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Flashback of a young Franco and Jason Segel.
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Bed Selfie!
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Charming and cheeky - Franco defaces the "Bates Motel" sign.
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Even men need beauty rest and James Franco isn't afraid to admit it.
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James Franco steps up his bed-selfie game with help from "Pretty Little Liars" bud Keegan Allen.
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When Franco posted this pic, we weren't exactly sure what was going on here either.
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Bromance Alert: Seth Rogen and James Franco's outdo their Kimye music video parody with a Vogue Magazine spoof.
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Blurred Lines? Franco turns the tables on female objectification. Honorable yet odd.
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James Franco shows off his pineapple express in tights, white tights. 'Nuff said.
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James Dean Franco
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James Franco actor, writer, director and zoo keeper?
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James Franco dresses in drag for Candy's ad.
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Barbie doll selfie! Franco with his character from "Oz: The Great and Powerful." Inanimate photography is officially cool.
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James Franco channels inner dork Napoleon Dynamite.
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James Franco shows us his serious side with a dead-panned camera glare.
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Franco selfies himself in front of a light blub calling it "James Franco has an idea."
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"But first let me take a selfie"
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Franco photographs young girls on a shoot he calls "Romeo and Juilet."
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Franco reveals grand-master painting
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What would James Franco be without the occasional Instagram foodie post? Pre-Oscar Hamburger, anyone?
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Actor, painter, musician and show-off, Franco is the King of the World! - er - Instagram!
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The multi-hypenate sparked a social media frenzy when he posted — then deleted — a racy shot to Instagram, TheWrap picks some of his most provocative shots yet
Bed selfie. (Is the internet sick of them yet? Judging by the "likes", Apparently not.)