The Deuce

I lived in Manhattan during this time period and this flick is brutally and amazingly well executed. Times Square, 42nd Avenue (The Deuce, get it?) is so accurately represented it is like like a trip in Sherman's Way Back Machine. The XXX theaters, John Waters films on the Midnight Movie marquees, the peep shows, SROs, adult bookstores, dive bars, the drugs, hookers, pimps. It's all there.

I was a disco DJ at the Limelight, I was a very bad boy. I get it.

in 1995 I took my new wife to Manhattan, for my cousin's wedding. We were living in San Diego.Drove in from Newark, parked at the Port Authority. Our first stop was to be the grit and scum of Times Square.

I did not the memo that Guliani had "cleaned up" Times Square. We were eager to explore. Imagine our disappointment that it was all gone. Scoured, wiped clean, spic and span. I almost cried.

This film scratched the very old itch. What an amazing job. Yeah, it ain't perfect, but it is an awesome watch. Strong eight of ten.

Unless you don't like gritty, visual, intelligent, beautifully artistic dramas? Then go watch ya some Kardashians, moron.

Just watched the pilot and was blown away. It took me back to 1974 New York. I was 23 years old and landed a job at a massage parlor near 54th and Lexington called the Playmate Club. You had to walk up a narrow flight of stairs, just like the hotel in The Deuce, and at the top of the stairs was a narrow door with a big heart on it. I got to work the streets all night passing out promotional cards and touting the benefits of a champagne bath. The girls on the street all wanted to work for the massage parlor because they said it was safer to work indoors and the pimps were not happy to see me. The costumes and street scenes of The Deuce are exactly as I recall. I was paid $5.00 an hour plus free meals at the Taft Hotel. They had an all you can buffet in the basement. I bought this incredibly shimmering pimp shirt that had narrow black and white vertical stripes that was impossible to bring into visual focus. It had very wide collars. I learned a few things that summer. A big bus load of Irish clergymen and nuns pulled up in front of the Waldorf and I gave each one of them a card as they stepped off the bus and I said "welcome to New York." The next day Paula, the lady in charge of the Playmate Club, told me I was doing a great job and wanted to know if I could explain a huge run of Irish customers the night before. I told her what happened and we all, including the girls, had a big laugh. I ended up in some trouble with the law, but nothing a quick flight back to Los Angeles didn't take care of. I am looking forward to the next episodes of this masterpiece.

Where do all the lousy reviews come from? Millennials? Never seen the dirt of the seventies ? Just cause you grew up in a sterile world without any idea about history whatsoever does not mean it was always so! So one said : Why make a serie about such a dirty time? Well why make a movie about WWII? Or about Henry the 8th? Just watch and learn about the time I grew up in. And a lot of others. Yeah that is right we survived the gore and the secondhand smoke. The filth and not to forget the best music there was. This is a great serie. The whole setting is real to life and I just love it.

The Deuce is one of the most underrated HBO shows there is. It's obviously not one of their best because they have done so many great shows, it's just among their most underrated. The entire cast is excellent, especially James Franco who plays twin brothers. The acting and writing are so good that you really come to care what happens to these characters. The attention to detail in this is terrific, even though I wasn't born yet it really does look and feel like the 70's. It went for three seasons which was perfect for a show like this, it didn't get watered down trying to go too long and the ending was perfect.

The Deuce is a violent, intelligent, sexy, fun show that is absolutely worth watching. It shows the rise of the sex trade industry in New York during the 1970's. It's a story the involves everyone from the police, pimps, prostitutes, bartenders and other night life people who navigate the sex industry. What makes this show so good is the writing and the cast (James Franco, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Margarita Levieva, Emily Meade, Chris Bauer, etc.). It's created by David Simon, the same person who created The Wire and it has the same type of realistic feel to this show. If you're looking for a new show to binge then give this a try.