The Deuce

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.

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.

This is a superb series. So informative, impressive, moving, funny, compelling, beautifully written, directed, acted. We also loved The Wire so we're not surprised. (We're on Season 2, Episode 10). If you are not comfortable with the realities of sexuality (and sexuality-and-money), or with the perspectives of poor black (and white) street criminals and victims, please watch this and learn. The first three episodes, explicit on the gritty awful violent demeaning desperate lives of the young and poor and ignorant caught up in the sex trade are hard to take, but staying with the series is so rewarding. Like life, the series is paradoxical, which is where the wonderful wit comes through. I so appreciate the talents assembled here to make this brilliant and worthwhile "long movie" and bring it to life. I have no complaints, only the deepest respect and appreciation for this long all-American story. Can't wait to finish Season 2 and looking forward to many more seasons!

Maybe it would be a good idea for IMDB to require would be reviewers to pass some kind of test that might weed out some of the reviews that appear to be written by contrarians who have no interest in an honest assessment or especially dim witted viewers who haven't a clue what makes a quality production. When a series has an 8.1 rating on IMDB based on over 20,000 reviews the one,two, and three star reviewers should reassess their reviewing abilities and perhaps learn to appreciate a production that recreates 1970's 42cnd street in 2017. The dozens of cars, taxi's, busses that would be on 1970's midtown streets and the hundreds of pedestrians all dressed appropriately for the era. The theater marquees showing movies from that era. All being shot in modern N Y. Huge undertaking that is done very well. To dismiss it with a one ,two, three star review diminishes you , not the series

A dive into NYC before gentrification, while TImes Square was dangerous, dirty and full of life. I like to think Vincent's bar was inspired by CBGB.