The Deuce
ザ・デュース
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Times Square 1971–85 and the birth of the porn business, seen through a street worker who becomes a director.
In 1971 the Deuce, the block of 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, belongs to pimps, street workers and the men who profit from both. Vincent Martino tends bar to support his family while his twin, Frankie, gambles himself into debt with the Mafia. The capo Rudy Pipilo sets Vincent up in a bar of his own, the Hi-Hat, and then in a massage parlour run by their brother-in-law Bobby Dwyer, with the police paid to look away. Eileen Merrell, who works the street as Candy without a pimp and whose son lives with her mother, sees a way out in the pornography that looser obscenity laws are making legal, and learns the trade from the director Harvey Wasserman. Lori Madison, newly arrived from Minnesota, goes to work for the pimp C.C. Abby Parker, a college student who walked out of an exam, pours drinks at the Hi-Hat and begins a relationship with Vincent.
By 1977 Candy is directing. In Los Angeles a producer makes sex the price of money for her adult Little Red Riding Hood, and she pays it; when the film premieres, two mob families own it. Lori is a star and still C.C.'s property. When the mob buys out her contract he rapes her on their last night, and soon afterwards Frankie kills him in a fight at Bobby's parlour. Dorothy, who once worked for C.C. and now helps women leave the street, is found murdered.
By 1984 video has carried pornography into the home, and AIDS is emptying the gay bars. At an anti-pornography meeting Andrea Dworkin tells Eileen that her films are part of the problem. Frankie is murdered on the twins' birthday; Vincent kills the killer, and Rudy is murdered by his own associate, Tommy Longo. Abby, who had urged Vincent not to take revenge, leaves him. Lori, worn down by degrading shoots and cocaine, comes back to the Deuce, sees one last client and takes her own life.
In the final episode the city pushes the street trade out of Times Square, and the policeman Chris Alston shows a city official where it has gone: the Bronx. Harvey tells Eileen, ready to abandon her film, to finish it without the sex scenes. Vincent pays Tommy $200,000 to let him out. In 2019 an old Vincent, in town for a wedding, reads that Eileen has died; her last film, a failure on release, is now honoured as a classic. He walks through a Times Square of musicals and neon, sees the dead of the Deuce as they were, and goes down into the subway beside Frankie. Abby passes in the crowd, a lawyer in a suit.
Starring
James Francoas Vincent and Frankie Martino
Twin brothers from Brooklyn: Vincent, a bartender who becomes the Mafia's front man in Times Square, and Frankie, a gambler always in debt.
Vincent and Frankie Martino’s story
Vincent is tending bar seven days a week in Brooklyn when he leaves his unfaithful wife, Andrea, and takes the capo Rudy Pipilo's offer of a bar of his own, the Hi-Hat. Each favour ties him closer: a massage parlour he lets Bobby run, a mob-backed disco. By 1977 he wants out of the parlours and dreams of a quiet life in Vermont, which Abby does not want, and Tommy Longo tells him he cannot quit. On the twins' birthday in 1984 Frankie is shot outside the club and dies in his arms. Vincent finds the killer and kills him, and Abby leaves. He pays Tommy $200,000 to let him go. In 2019, old and living in Florida, he walks through Times Square among the dead of the Deuce and goes down into the subway beside Frankie.
Maggie Gyllenhaalas Eileen "Candy" Merrell
A street worker without a pimp who moves into pornography and fights, for fifteen years, to direct films on her own terms.
Eileen "Candy" Merrell’s story
Eileen works the street as Candy, answers to no pimp, and leaves her son with her parents. After a client beats and robs her, she goes to Harvey Wasserman and starts over in front of his camera, then behind it. By 1977 she is directing; to fund her adult Little Red Riding Hood she agrees to the sex a producer demands, the film ends up owned by two mob families, and her father bars her from seeing her son. In 1984 she refuses her boyfriend Hank's money, hears Andrea Dworkin call her films part of the problem, and loses Lori. She leaves Hank rather than back out of a contracted porn scene, and on Harvey's advice finishes her own film without the sex scenes. By 2019 she has died, and that film is honoured as a classic.
Emily Meadeas Lori Madison
A young woman from Minnesota who becomes a porn star while her pimp, C.C., and then cocaine keep their hold on her.
Lori Madison’s story
Lori arrives from Minnesota, sees through C.C.'s charm and works for him anyway, sure she can use him as he uses her. Filling in on one of Harvey's shoots opens another trade, and by 1977 she is a star with an award, which C.C. smashes when she says she is done with the street; when a manager, Kiki, offers to take her on, he hits her. She plays Red in Eileen's film. When the mob buys her contract, C.C. rapes her on their last night; told that he is dead, she cries, then laughs. By 1984 she is in and out of rehab in Los Angeles, trying music and pushed into degrading shoots. She takes a part in Eileen's new film, goes back to the Deuce, sees one last client and takes her own life.
Margarita Levievaas Abby Parker
A college student from a wealthy family who drops out, runs the Hi-Hat and shares Vincent's life while siding with the women of the street.
David Krumholtzas Harvey Wasserman
A quick-witted porn director who becomes Eileen's mentor and argues with her over how much art the business can afford.
Chris Baueras Bobby Dwyer
The twins' brother-in-law, a construction foreman and family man who ends up running the Mafia's massage parlours.
Why it matters
The Deuce follows a trade in which women's bodies are the product and nearly everyone around them takes a cut: pimps, the Mafia, the police, landlords and, by the end, a city clearing Times Square for a different kind of money. David Simon and George Pelecanos track the legalisation of pornography through three eras, from the street to the parlour to home video, and keep asking whether a woman like Eileen can take the camera for herself or only changes her place in the same machine. The series gives the case against her to Andrea Dworkin and does not settle it. Behind the camera, at Emily Meade's suggestion, the production brought in an intimacy coordinator for its sex scenes, something Meade said she had never had on a set before. What stays is the last walk: an old man in a bright, clean Times Square, seeing the people the street used up.