Journalist-turned-TV producer David Simon is particularly good at two things: exposing the mindless, brutal institutions and systems that grind many Americans down, and humanizing people who normally exist at the margins of polite conversation.
When Simon tackled those subjects in HBOโs The Wire, he created one of the best series on television. Now heโs created the best new show of the 2017 fall season in HBOโs The Deuce (debuting Sunday), a gritty, urban drama about the moment pornography became โstreet legalโ in New York City, and the commodification of flesh became an industry. (Ed. note: This is a show about pornography, so, as you might expect, this review discusses adult themes.)
The setting for Simonโs latest urban fable is 1970s Times Square, before the days of Disney stores and chain restaurants. This is back when streetwalkers worked โThe Deuceโ (slang for West 42nd Street in Midtown) accepting occasional police roundups and overnight stays in a holding cell as the cost of doing business.
In โThe Deuce,โ Sex Isnโt Titillating โ Itโs Business
Photo:ย Paul Schiraldi/HBO
