'The Deuce' Goes Where Most Cable Shows Won't
The Deuce has the most dicks on TV.
I've thought about touching on this subject in previous weeks; even the pilot had at least three instances of full-frontal male nudity - which, in a show about sex work, is expected even if it's refreshing. HBO never shies away from nudity, but it's typically women who show up on camera bare-assed naked. Women are often nude on The Deuce, as well; Maggie Gyllenhaal has had at least two nude scenes in each episode. But I, for one, am grateful to see a cock or two in my prestige TV. (Thanks, David Simon.)
The reason I finally bring it up now is that this week's episode, "Au Reservoir," incorporates in its plot the first mainstream gay male porn film Boys in the Sand. Paul's friend is a featured player in the film, which was shot on Fire Island and premiered in theaters at the end of 1971. It even predates the first major straight porn film, Deep Throat (released in 1972 and alluded to in this week's episode). That gay men paved the way for the mainstream acceptance of explicit pornography - not only on a commerce level but also as art - is particularly astounding.
Frankie, however, is less enthused. He's started palling around with Ashley after she's turned her back on C.C. and the twins' massage parlor, and the two of them join Paul and his actor friend at the premiere of the film. Naturally, Frankie did not expect a bunch of dicks on the big screen, particularly in such an explicitly sexual and gay manner. After he walks out of the film - because, he says, of its narrative inconsistencies (as if Frankie is a connoisseur of art house cinema) - Ashley can't help but laugh at him. She sees dicks all damn day, after all.
Meanwhile, Eileen and Lori are back on the movie set with Harvey Wasserman, and Eileen is slowly inserting herself behind-the-scenes. First, she buys some new sheets for the bed, dressing it up a bit as an amateur art director. Then she helps direct Lori's performance - getting her scene partner to shift around a bit, to make sure he's actually pleasuring Lori (who otherwise looks bored and miserable, as she's now learned how dull a movie set can actually be). Her efforts prove fruitful; Lori gives, well, a more realistic performance. It's a perfect example of how The Deuce is actually paying more attention to female sexuality - and female pleasure - than previous shows and films about the subject. That it's happening in the same episode as some bona fide gay sex - depicted both within Boys in the Sand and later, in a sex scene between Paul and his pal - feels monumental.
This is the stuff I'll admit is much more interesting to me than the ins and outs of the porn business, or the massage parlor business, or the pimping business. This is the material that feels fresh and subversive, and it helps make The Deuce feel like something special rather than another procedural-based narrative about the gritty realities of life on the street.
That's not to say The Deuce is shying away from the latter, however. There are a few other brutal moments in this week's episode: a sex worker overdoses on heroin, a pimp meets his untimely end in the diner after roughing up one of his girls and getting shot by the line cook. These feel like specific episodic moments that aren't carrying the narrative any further, but they're still necessary to maintain the tone of the series as a whole.
And then there's Abby, who is still figuring out her place in all of this. One gets the sense that the writing staff is also figuring out who she is, other than a monied Connecticut native and NYU dropout who's provoking everyone around her into some kind of reaction (which is usually what happens when you combine "monied Connecticut native and NYU dropout" into one character). She's casually fucking Vincent, she's letting Ashley crash at her place, and she's sometimes buying books for Darlene and paying her way back home to Charlotte to visit her family.
Is she trying to be a savior or a bad girl? It's possible she's doing both. As always, there are elements of The Deuce that we'll have to leave on the back burner before we truly figure them out. I'm hoping Abby comes into her own both as a person and a character, because for now she feels a little bit out of place and still on the margins.
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