User Reviews

So far, "The Deuce" has done about everything right. It's a show about sex, sure, but it's also about unregulated capitalism and the pilot in particular explored some interesting issues regarding prostitution.

"The Deuce" avoids the easy genre trope of painting a one- dimensional picture of prostitutes. It would have been easy to show all these girls as nothing but victims who break down crying all the time, but the reality is more nuanced than that. This is highlighted by a scene in which a fat man suddenly attacks a prostitute and appears to rape her. Later, we find out he paid for that fantasy (which probably won't make her feel much better). He even apologises for going too hard on her, although he does so in a way that implies she was responsible for it. This multi-layered twist is just one example of how sex work is more complicated than it is sometimes portrayed.

Another stand-out scene for me is when Candy is paid to give a boy who has just reached the age of consent birthday sex. After a premature ejaculation, he's disappointed to find out he'll have to pay again for another round. Candy uses a very good analogy to explain: this is just business. She isn't his girlfriend, she has no emotional attachment to him, all that matters to her is the money she gets at the end of the day. A hard truth for the boy to stomach, the forces of supply and demand.

Another great scene that exposes the raw truth of this is near the end, when C.C. slashes Ashley's armpit. She, like the birthday boy, thought, or wanted to think, that this was more than strictly business. She wanted to think that C.C. took a special liking to her. This was a nasty reminder that everyone exists to serve the invisible hands, and only the people at the top, the pimps, benefit. In that sense, it's not just about prostitution, it's about capitalism in general (in the creator's perspective anyway). This is the one scene in the pilot episode that shows the girls at their most vulnerable. The effect of not showing it in every minute of the episode is that when it's truly necessary to show it in order to make a point, it works.

All of this is great, but I can't ignore that this episode is just too long. It's one thing to give time to introduce all the characters, but so many scenes are stretched out longer than necessary, which has the effect of reducing the punchiness of the episode as a whole.

Notes: -Focus on the unflattering nudity of the fat guy shows the less than glamorous reality of prostitution. -Not only the sex industry uses sex to sell. Vincent didn't see a problem with using the waitresses' bodies to increase tips. But hey, money is all that matters, right? -Capitalism isn't just enslaving the girls. It's keeping Vincent from his family.