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Deuce (new David Simon effort)

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    Deuce (new David Simon effort)

    I just saw a preview on HBO for yet another 70s retro TV show (none of them have worked except That 70s Show, which was a different type of show). The story is about 42nd Street in Times Square, nicknamed The Deuce (and the inspiration for the title). Sex, drugs, prostitution, violence, corruption.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7YMlL8x8GE

    #2
    As someone who at 15 tried to get my fake id in Times Square in 1988 (getting ripped off outside of Playland with the "you need $15 for the lamination!" hustle - where you pay $15 to the first guy for the fake id then they have you walk around the corner to the other guy with the lamination machine, who you pay the $10, then going back the first guy who's gone then running back to the lamination guy who's gone,) and as someone who worked for Palmer Video with a porn producer with butter tarter caked on his teeth and a toupee made out of Teri Weigel's shaved pubes who went out of business Boogie Nights-style when video took over, I'm looking forward to seeing this.

    Then as stated in various NYC threads over the years, when those bizarre "The Rich Are Crackpot" marquee signs started taking over from "Come One, Come All" and "Alexa Gets Assrammed XXX" signs in the late 80s and early 90s, it was certainly a vomit-inducing interesting time.

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      #3
      After that post, jv, I definitely want to see this.

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        #4
        I watched 15 minutes and decided it wasn't for me.

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          #5
          There's also this book by Drew Friedman's brother

          https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...f_Times_Square

          I'll see this tonight

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            #6
            So, HP, after 15 minutes

            Was it the Minnesota hockey joke? The bit about Nixon being a pimp? The Curtis soundtrack?

            I mean, this is brilliant so far.

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              #7
              I'm on the fence so far but it took me 3 episodes to get into Treme. The thing I'm finding about all of these 70 retro shows is that they would be better as movies. Three hours is about right. But I am looking forward to seeing the Martin Hodas character. This guy's name came up a lot in real estate maps when I was researching Times Square, but I thought he was just a guy who bought up land and rented out spaces. Reading a recent Village Voice review of the show has me much more intrigued: https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/09...-times-square/

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                #8
                Finally caught up with The Deuce in the last couple of days as i’ve had a bit of free time. I’d been avoiding it as I found Simon’s post-Wire efforts, in the shape of Generation Kill, Treme and to an extent Show Me A Hero to be more admirable than entertaining, and I expected more of the same. But The Deuce is wonderful. I thought Twin Peaks and Mindhunter were the best of last year’s TV but for personal viewing pleasure, The Deuce is better.
                Last edited by Haddock; 04-01-2018, 12:15.

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                  #9
                  Finally got round to watching Season 1 Episode 1 of The Deuce last night, and enjoyed it enough to want to stick with it. I'm a huge admirer of Maggie Gyllenhaal, and it's great to see Lawrence Gillard Jr again. Margarita Levieva was surprisingly convincing as a 20 year old student for an actress who must have been at least 35, and more probably 36, at the time of filming, certainly compared with the age-inappropriate casting in, say, Grease.

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                    #10
                    We *really* enjoyed this series, and I think it was grossly underrated. No spoilers or anything, but the final 15 minutes was some of the most moving TV I've seen.

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                      #11
                      I never came back to post about this, but I really enjoyed the series. I probably posted this above, but I really enjoyed the fictionalized approach to actual histories in Times Square.

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                        #12
                        OK, two episodes in now, will definitely stick with it. Funny seeing so many actors from The Wire. I already mentioned Lawrence Gillard Jr, but there's also Michael Kostroff and Chris Bauer, and that's just the ones I've noticed so far.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by WOM View Post
                          No spoilers or anything, but the final 15 minutes was some of the most moving TV I've seen.
                          Yeah. I play the soundtrack with Blondie's Sidewalks of New York regularly, always chokes me up.

                          Is this a SPOILER!. Don't think so but use your judgement.

                          Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 27-02-2022, 02:06.

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                            #14
                            On the subject of the Deuce soundtrack, if I got nothing from watching Season 1 other than being introduced to the music of James Carr (and I'm getting lots more of course - after 6 episodes, I think it's great), it would be worth it just for that.

                            Some of you may be wondering how I got to late middle age without becoming aware of James Carr, but for whatever reason that's the sorry state of ignorance I was in, until I heard "These ain't raindrops" this evening, featured towards the end of Episode 6 of The Deuce. So of course after finishing the episode I rushed to Youtube to learn more. It's just great finding a new artist whose stuff you love.

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                              #15
                              The music is good in the show. I think I posted this in the earworm thread a couple years back, but I really dig the re-done version of "This Yeaar's Girl"

                              EDIT: NO spoilers in the video; it's just a loop of opening credits.

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                                #16
                                Tastes differ. I really dislike almost all the music that was popular in the late 70s - punk, new wave, whatever, Elvis Costello being a prime example, that's always (ever since I experienced it in real time as a teenager) been by miles my least favourite period of music since before the Beatles arrived - so I viewed the change from the chilled out early 70s funk theme of Deuce S1 to "This Year's Girl" in Deuce S2 as a bit of an irritating downgrade. I can see it's appropriate for the drama, mind. And S2 is generally brilliant so far (just saw S2E6).

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                                  #17
                                  Where do I get this on legal TV in the U.K.? Fancied it when it first came out but we were in the middle of a house move at the time so it slipped my mind completely.

                                  My first time in NYC was summer 1987 and we were staying with friends in NJ and getting the bus over to the Port Authority bus terminal which is only round the corner from Times Sq. I never saw either sober after dark and only saw them in daylight when hungover.
                                  DONT get on or off the bus inside the PA station but wait outside as they all stop there as well was the repeated warning. One long all day and night session later we knew better. Lotta homeless and presumably junkies in there.
                                  It was just us and the driver until just before the bus pulled out a middle aged white feller jumped on and he was stunned to see anyone else. Once he heard us talking he started chatting. “Northern England but nowhere near Liverpool or Manchester yeah?” Turned out he was the ex father in law of one of Frankie Goes To Hollywood. He said he hoped he’d stay in touch as they got along great, better than with his daughter! That marriage can’t have lasted long.

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                                    #18
                                    I saw "legal TV" on the search page and got excited. But you mean TV that is legal, not a channel dedicated to re-runs of The Practice. Sadface.

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                                      #19
                                      Ok, having now finished S2, I think The Deuce is excellent. Not as brilliant or compelling as The Wire, but still superb. Only complaint so far is from way back in S1E1 where I found the twin brother thing really confusing and took ages to catch on that James Franco was playing two different characters.

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                                        #20
                                        Yeah, I liked the plotline of the brother who has his act together and the brother who is personable but flaky but that would have been better if played by two different actors. I posted this above but having done some work about Times Square, I really liked the blend of a fictional story and historical non-fiction. I think two seasons was right for that show; it didn't need to go on longer.

                                        FYI, I posted in an old Wire thread that there is a new limited series that started last week that is about cops in Baltimore, so closer to the Wire. There are some Wire actors in that one and they have moved to introduce characters right away (closer to what happened in the Deuce than what happened in the Wire and in Treme, where there was a slow introduction of a lot of different characters). This one (We Own the City) seems to have four main players with some other peripheral folks.

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