VividSimon Simply Perfect

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

mrblue96 Good stuff...really good stuff! Love the premise, the characters, the acting, the whole thing! Intriguing...enlightening...disgusting! What more do you want?! Franco & Franco are awesome! Can't wait for the 2nd season!Having been born in 72, I can relate to the clothing, the cars, the music. Growing up, you occasionally come across stories/history regarding Times Square back then b/f Rudy took over...great period piece to say the least.

HalBaker_MA I guess I'm in the minority in that I think Franco is maybe the only good thing in this series. The rest is just bleh! And maybe, meh! While the show has the look of the era, the cast seems cartoonish at best. Not one visually appealing cast member. Impossible to watch any episode in one sitting. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Falconeer This HBO production really pushes the envelope with the explicit sex, but anyone familiar with cinema of that time, knows it is just keeping things authentic. Dark, gritty, sometimes even disgusting reenactment of the time in New York City history that will never be repeated, "The Deuce" follows the lives of the pimps and prostitutes who inhabited the Times Square scene of the Golden 1970's. If you were there, this is surely a nostalgia trip, and if you were too young, or too sheltered to have been there, you might find it to be merely seedy, and even horrifying. Whoever was in charge of art direction deserves high praise for recreating this look, in a city that has changed so much since then that it is barely recognizable. The filmmakers had to travel up to Washington Heights to find an area that still has this "old New York" look, and they really succeeded in bringing 42nd Street (the Deuce) back to life. Performances are all around very good, with Maggie Gyllynhal a particular standout as the independent hooker, living a double life, who refuses to take on a Pimp, and later finds out why having a man on the street can come in handy. James Franco admittedly hogs up more screen time than necessary, casting himself as identical twin brothers working in a seedy Midtown bar, but he is still good in the dual role. I must admit that it's a breath of fresh air to see how people interacted with each other before cellphones turned everyone into lobotomized zombies. People back then actually connected with each on a human, physical level back then, before phones and internet took that away. It shows that in certain ways, we have declined as a culture. "The Duece" is a good show, but really is intended for an adult audience. The clothes, the hairstyles, the cars, the music, and the lingo of the 70's will really bring you back to the era that is now just a memory..

Paul Creeden I lived in Spanish Harlem in the period of this series. As a new college grad, recently a dental school drop out, I ventured to Oz. I walked the length and breadth of Manhattan in my wing-tip shoes. I couldn't find work. I was laughed out of clothing stores where I applied for sales jobs by gay clerks who correctly judged me as a provincial. Yes, it was a tough town.I partook of 42nd Street entertainments occasionally. Times Square and 42nd Street were shabby and inhabited by street people of every sort. The vibe was similar to what we can experience today in large cities of Africa, South America and South East Asia. Why? Because Manhattan then was a place where run-down housing was cheap. Hordes of disenfranchised young people fled there from every corner of America. The false promise of success drew them. Yet the aristocracy still ruled and exploited them. This series has captured the mood of 42nd Street and Times Square of that time. It has even brought back to me some of the smells of that district. It was pungent with cigarette smoke, burned grease from shabby diners, cheap perfume, and disinfectant. Cars spewed unfiltered pollution. Cabs honked incessantly. Loud voices pierced the din. Wary tourists gawked and skittered.I appreciate the show's avoidance of retrospective political correctness. Hookers, pimps and corrupt cops were not gentile. Perhaps the show softens them all a bit, but the basic content is accurate. As a young gay man of a politically aware nature, I lived the experience of being hunted by crooked cops and exploited by mob venues. I winced when James Franco first appeared as identical twins in the pilot. I doubted the show's ability to pull this off, but it has remarkably well. Maggie Gyllenhaal does an exemplary job as an aging prostitute, independent of the pimp patriarchy. Her character exposes the underside of pre-feminist independence for women of the 1950's and 1960's. While Katherine Hepburn was playing upper class women of stature, the reality on the ground was quite different, especially for working-class women and women of color.This is the kind of programming which might save channels like HBO in an age of increased streaming competition. I place it on a tier with Showtime's "Ray Donovan". Gritty drama with suspense and good character development (writing) seldom fail.