The Deuce
2017
Original language: English
- drama
- crime
The story
The story of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early ’70s through the mid ’80s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence of the area.
What it’s like
Grimy 1970s Times Square rendered in warm, smoky interiors and sodium-lit streets, with the palette shifting over the seasons from amber and brown toward colder, harder blues and fluorescents as the decade wears on. The show is handheld and observational in its crowded bars, peep-show booths and sets, yet it lingers on quieter two-shots and empty late-night sidewalks, and its period detail (shag carpet, wide lapels, Polaroids, bulky tube TVs) feels lived-in rather than costumed. The score is sparse, with soul and funk cues that drop out in favour of street noise and rain. Its pace is unhurried and ensemble-driven, with loose, shaggy episodes that build into a slow, bittersweet elegy for a scene that is dying. The emotional register is wry, melancholic and frank, following hustlers, pimps, filmmakers and small-time operators whose ambitions and dignity slowly erode. Intensity is high: explicit sexual content and nudity, prostitution, drug use, frequent strong language, and occasional sudden brutal violence, with the AIDS and cocaine-era darkness treated seriously rather than sensationally. For adult viewers who like gritty period drama, character-led crime stories and a melancholic sense of a city changing.
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