David Simon is being held at an altar. Quite well deserved, on the other hand, is the world of television’s reverence for the Baltimore author. Their series draw attention, are dense and tell a world that we didn’t know we were so interested in. But it’s also true that it feels bad to be in such high esteem because his style gets greedy, sailing in a sea of vanity that can frighten away. Once this first season is over, I have to confess that I have been beaten little by little.
‘The Deuce’ is a luxurious series and it seems paradoxical because of the fact that it deals with the holes where New York’s unwanted end up. But it’s luxurious you porn because of the names that sign it, because at HBO they trust David Simon and George Pelicanos to simmer a story about a subject as taboo as the sex industry. One of the environments in which the US has been a step behind in terms of visibility with respect to most of Europe.
David Simon and HBO: the perfect couple
In ‘The Deuce’ we find the story of the evolution of the sex trade in the 1970s and the relationship between prostitution, pornography, the mafia and that small group of apples west of Times Square. We do this exploration mainly through three characters: brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino (James Franco), who find new ways to do business from specific premises to house prostitutes to booths to privately enjoy clandestine films; and Candy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who discovers in porn a great potential and an escape route to life on the streets.
Just as Simon in’ The Wire’ spins his good minutes per episode to make Baltimore as familiar as our neighborhood (or New Orleans for’ Treme’ spectators), the screenwriters are dedicated to exploring the stage deeply. In a few scenes the screenwriter tells us what we need to know right from the start of the series: Times Square’s environment is a dangerous and violent place. It’s a low ground floor in the middle of downtown Manhattan even with the lights of Broadway.
Sex and porn can be glamorous
The Deuce (a nickname given to the 42nd Street stretch between Seventh and Eighth Avenue) is an ecosystem to escape from, but it is changing. Changes that we appreciate not only because of the Martino brothers’ plans or Candy’s discovery of the porn world, but also because of the group of pimps who do not fully understand these new times that breathe “the sex trade”, including the fact that “their” prostitutes work in the movies or in the Martino’s new brothel.
This environment of change is all the more significant when one sees episode after episode, and almost more cruelly at the end of the season (with the premiere of’ Deep Throat’), that no matter how much a business evolves, the food chain remains almost intact. Both bottom and top are the usual ones: pimps will still be cool and their prostitutes and porn actresses are nothing special and will remain valuable as long as they have sex, there will always be people who take advantage of the innovation of their neighbour.