Scott T.,
I lived the glamorous life in Chicagoland with the platform shoes and the rabbit fur jacket. Your review nailed what the girls went through because they had no choice. Things have to simmer...it makes you wonder, what will happen to Lori, will she leave CC? Or will he kill her? Will Connie confront his girl Abby? And will a tired, put upon Eileen come out on top? The Boss?
I'm torn between what I perceive as unrealistic pimps (who don't beat the crap out of their 'girls' i.e., C.C. upon Lori's return (why didn't she stay in LA??) or again, C.C. not doing serious damage to 'his' former prostitute) and my desire not to see women being assaulted as in many a David Lynch production.
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“It’s a parody of ‘Westworld,’ but instead of cowboys and indians, it’s sex robots.” Not even a period show is free from a little corporate synergy."
As it was the first 'adult film' I had the pleasure of encounter as a kid, I can attest that this was a real film titled (what else) 'Sex World.'
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Along with 'Iris' from Taxi Driver, I'd also mention the notorious 'Minnesota Pipeline,' the now near -forgotten late 70's media meme referring to the express delivery of young mid western teen age girls to the hardscrabble streets surrounding Times Square. It's a subject we don't hear much about anymore, but oddly, in this Trumpian era of stagnant wages and a bereft working class, one would think it still has relevance. Which brings me back to Iris. Nobody makes movies about girls like Iris anymore. The 70's, for whatever it lacked, certainly suffered no shortage of movie and TV exploitation melodramas - typically paraded as moral cautionary tales - about teenage prostitutes working the streets of NYC. Simon's 'The Deuce' is, in part, a descendant of that particular subgenre, though its clear that unlike its cinematic forebears, 'The Deuce' isn't out to shock with prurience while simultaneously wagging his finger. David Simon is too smart for that. So, leaving a quaint moral caution to the wind, what is 'The Deuce' really about? An exercise in seedy 70s nostalgia? A halycon memory of an old school New York secretly preferred to the city's present plutocratic, disneyfied incarnation? Is the Deuce an act of romantic indulgence? And for what? Old movies like Taxi Driver? I like the show, and maybe that's enough, but I don't understand how to connect it with the present.
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I love this insightful comment. The Deuce is trying so very hard to be historically accurate but it is only about 60% accurate to the timeperiod and location.
My sense when watching the Deuce is that it is more impressionistic than anything real or realistic. Especially with the quick edits and short scenes and 40 different characters in every. single. episode.
In terms of direction -- It clearly aims to be more like The Sopranos (episodic with a mix of violence and sex) than anything like the moral grey-tones of Taxi Driver.
I like The Deuce but it has strayed too far from the 1970s to be anything historically accurate. It would be a better experience if it centered on Maggie Gyllenhal's character more: she is great and the character is pivotal to the story the show is trying to tell. Similarly, there dont need to ten different pimp characters. Two of those is enough and then actually Develop those characters.
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@K Henderson Trying to be more like "The Sopranos" would be a big NO. Simon shows are an ensemble collection and always have been. If you think this show has many characters then avoid "The Wire". That was the best TV show I ever saw.
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@Chris Excellent! The 70's 'Deuce' was a struggle between gender and power when civility was a handicap; the 80's 'Deuce' is clearly unaffected by movements and legislature that succeeded beyond 42nd St. between 7th and 8th Avenue in mid-town Manhattan. Fellatio may very well be a path to success, and a retrovirus is waiting to wreak havoc on enlightened citizens, so I'm interested to see if Simon will tackle this, or end it kindly with viewers wondering what they think about perpetual revolution.
David Simon always puts out a good program.
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