The Deuce: Season 2 [DVD] [2018]

The events depicted in Season 2 have moved on to the late 1970's where the porn industry has largely moved away from street prostitution into brothels masquerading as massage parlours and peep shows featuring live models controlled by the Mafia and the production of "skin flics" which are gaining a foothold in the film industry again with financial support from the Mob.The influence of the various pimps over the prostitutes operating in the area of Times Square covered by The Deuce is waning as the women begin to exert their own independence over their individual lives which causes conflicts resulting in violence and the burgeoning of the feminist movement is a running theme throughout.Once again James Franco in the dual roles of brothers Frankie and Jackie Martino continues to give a strong performance especially as Frankie who starts to have doubts about his increasing involvement in Mob affairs when all he really wants to do is run his own Club as he sees fit to cater to his increasingly diverse customer base. The stand-out performance by a country mile however is given by Maggie Gyllenhaal as former sex worker Candy who progresses into directing and producing pornographic films for mainstream cinema distribution. Her style of acting is reminiscent of Lauren Bacall at the height of her career and her luminosity shines through every scene in which she appears. Surely an Award winning performance. It is good to see that all the other supporting actresses are more centre stage this time around which avoids the "same old same old" dilemma of depicting the porn industry and full credit goes to both George Pelecanos and David Simon for keeping the documentary feel to the whole production.We end with the arrival of the VCR which will enable home viewing to flourish so it will be interesting to see how Pelecanos and Simon wrap the whole thing up in the final Season 3.New viewers to The Deuce would be well advised to watch Season 1 in it's entirety rather than rely on the Season 1 Recap which forms part of the Extras as it is somewhat perfunctory.Extras : Season 1 Recap / Candy's Back / The Height Of Porn.Audio : English / French / Latin Spanish / Castilian Spanish and German.Subtitles : English SDH / French / Latin Spanish / Castilian Spanish and German.

This show, like all other David Simon shows, plays like a novel. It's best watched in as few sittings as possible, and when it gets to the end you have the not too common feeling that you weren't talked down or condescended to in its storytelling. If you loved Treme, The wire and The Corner, this is also a show for you. I would have liked some more effort put into the Special Features. For an HBO set this is a pretty bare bones set, with only 3 very short documentaries, that seemed to be little more than trailers. Having said that, even the episodes alone are worth your money. Buy it, you won't regret it.

I struggled with the first three episodes but once past those I enjoyed the rest of the series and it didn't stop me ordering season 2.

Great snapshot of 70's seedy New York.engaging

Firstly music, style and atmosphere here are pretty good as someone who is glad to remember the 70s disco scene.But a massive reservation has to be about the plot here which is absolutely non existent. It is literally actors some of whom are supposed to be good like Franco and Gyllenhall, have jsut drifted onto the set and made it up as they go along. There are some truly uninspiring insipid boring spells here where you are left wondering why I have spent £16 on this garbage. Why not at least establish a plot of some sort before just ploughing into yet another period piece. Apart from FRanco (who really needs to get a good part at some point) and Gyllenhall, the other actors apart from some of the older cops are just rubbish, totally unconvincing. Avoid - unless youre bored stupid during Lockdown which is dull enough itself.

Brilliant! An accurate portrait of NY 42nd street in the 70s.A formidable script of David Simon. A wonderful performance from the great Maggie Gyllenhall and also James Franco in a double role.One of the greatest achievments from HBO.A Show for the ages.I would give it 10 stars if that was possible.

A riveting story of life for women living in New York in the seventies. Great follow on from the first edition with likeable characters living and working in the parlours and in the streets. Gritty tales of survival all on ths DVD.One to watch with excellent stories

Quality product and service