"The Deuce" - An Appreciation

Very soon the final episode of the three-season series The Deuce will air. Created by David Simon, whose previous shows The Wire and Treme examined the criminal underworld of early-2000s Baltimore and the cultural scene of post-Katrina New Orleans (respectively), The Deuce was about NYC. 

Unlike those shows, however, it was a period piece set in the 1970s and '80s. Ostensibly The Deuce was about the adult business and how it quickly rose into an almost respected art form ("porno chic") in the '70s until AIDS and videotape ruined it in the '80s. But The Deuce wasn't really about the adult business, it was about NYC -- specifically the Times Square area, and how it turned from a sleazy cease pool into a developer's wonderland. It's about how the forces of big money, real estate, law enforcement, and politicians came together to transform this part of NYC -- and, eventually, the city as a whole. In The Deuce, the adult business is an exemplar of this time in the city's history -- a beneficiary of the old NYC, a victim of the new NYC. It shows how, in detail, through the stories of its various interrelated characters, the city changed into the gentrified, clean-cut jewel-box it is today.

As I blogged about almost exactly two years ago -- two years before this show even hit the air! -- so goes Times Square, so goes NYC. The Deuce dramatized this fact brilliantly.

I'm sorry that The Deuce is going off the air after three great seasons -- each one jumped ahead several years from the previous season (1971 to 1978 to 1985) showing how the adult business and the city had changed in the interim. It'd be cool to see this show jump ahead to 2000 or 2001 -- just as the Internet was changing adult film yet again and 9/11 would change the city forever. Maybe one day David Simon will make a reunion movie.

Many thanks for this brilliant, one of a kind, only-in-NYC show!