There is a tendency, especially among men of a certain age like yours truly, to romanticise the grimy heyday of New York in the 1970s, especially the cesspit of vice in the 42nd Street area of the city - hell, there's a Facebook page devoted to the area and the era titled Dirty Old 1970s New York City that has close to 250,000 followers (you have to admit, that's pretty good numbers for recollections of a city on the verge of social and economic ruin).
I can't speak for the other quarter of a million or so people who dig that stroll down memory lane but I will speculate that any nostalgia is accompanied by a dash of relief. For as much as many of us like the idea of wandering to the wrong side of town, the idea of actually spending time there is worrisome.
When I first heard about the new HBO series The Deuce (the title derived from the slang name for 42nd Street), my initial concern was that it might romanticise the time, place and attitude somewhat, offering just enough grit and danger to give viewers a walk on the wild side. This despite the involvement of series creators David Simon and George Pelecanos, veterans of The Wire.
Watching the pilot episode of this eight-episode run, it was clear I was mistaken. Look, for children and/or aficionados of the 1970s there's certainly plenty of period texture to revel in (my favourite throwaway line was a pimp ribbing a cop by calling him 'A Quinn Martin Production', the maker of many of the decade's cop and lawyer TV shows), but The Deuce isn't a tourist. It's a resident.
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The area's sex trade - prostitution and eventually pornography - gives Simon and Pelecanos ample opportunity to explore their interest in systems and structure, how people operate within them and what they can do to transcend them. What they've done with The Deuce is graft that interest onto a vibrant gallery of characters whose paths seem set to intersect in compelling ways.
The pimps - primarily CC (Gary Carr, a standout), Larry (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Rodney (Method Man) - and the sex workers, such as new kid in town Lori (Emily Meade) and sweet-natured Darlene (Dominique Fishback), are deftly sketched as multi-dimensional characters in introductory sequences throughout the first episode, but the main focus is on the roles played by stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Franco.
Franco's playing twin brothers here - smart, sturdy but frustrated working stiff Vincent and charismatic gambler Frankie - and it's work that shows how dedicated and detail-oriented the often-misjudged actor can be. And Gyllenhaal is in peak form as Candy, a freelance sex worker who sees the rise of X-rated movies as a chance to reinvent herself by moving behind the camera.
You may tune into The Deuce for the 42nd Street/Times Square milieu and the adult themes it promises (and the series gets appropriately adult) but the rich, humane character work is why you'll stick around.
