Support NeoGAF

[Ampersands]

You need to watch The Wire. Characters are the strongest aspect of the show to me, and there are so many, and all so memorable.

I would like to but with my schedule, I don't think I have time to watch the entire series before The Deuce drops.

I did start watching Show Me a Hero and holy shit is it good. The main conflict in the show is a lot more black and white than The Wire or this show but the way the characters weave around it is just great. I'll try to squeeze Generation Kill in too when I'm finished.

 

[geomon]

The pilot was cool as fuck. Keep em coming.

 

[AuthenticM]

Here's hoping it's great.

 

[SeanC]

I want to watch this, but having binged past David Simon stuff I think it's best to wait for the entire season to be up then binge it. So much nuance and character stuff that I could forget if I do week-to-week.

 

[Ricky_R]

I would like to but with my schedule, I don't think I have time to watch the entire series before The Deuce drops.

I did start watching Show Me a Hero and holy shit is it good. The main conflict in the show is a lot more black and white than The Wire or this show but the way the characters weave around it is just great. I'll try to squeeze Generation Kill in too when I'm finished.

Try and catch it later on, after you finish season one of The Deuce.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I really dug the pilot. It really highlighted the chasm in writing talent between I'm Dying Up Here and this. The former clumsily tried to wear the era like a badly fitting suit. The Deuce just prances around effortlessly.

Very setup heavy episode but I'm down for the ride.

 

[firehawk12]

I really hope HBO just gives them the three seasons anyway as some kind of David Simon tribute to the TV gods like they did with Treme, because there's no one in hell this show drives subscriber numbers in any meaningful manner.

Well, unless there's dragons and incest.

 

[Cornballer]

- TVLine review

It offers plenty of local color throughout — a little messy at times, yes, but loaded with potential. In a way, The Deuce feels like HBO’s atonement for last year’s misfire Vinyl: a similar retro drama that got tripped up by glamorizing the rock-‘n’-roll ’70s. The Deuce seems to understand that this is an era you wouldn’t want to live through again, but can still be a pleasure to observe — from a safe distance.

Grade: B+

- Collider review

What really makes The Deuce so good, though, are its conversations, the cadence and truth of its dialogue, and its both bold and vulnerable performances. It captures its setting in an extraordinary way, from the cigarettes and diners and honking horns on the street to the early morning papers rustling through the gutters. Also important for a period piece: nothing feels forced, or educational, or winking in a “look what people thought in the past!” way. It’s just a new background for an age-old tale of people trying to make it, no matter where they are in the social pecking order. Some people are trying to change the game, and some people are working as hard as they can to make sure that it never changes. The Deuce finds a way to make us care deeply about both.

4 out of 5 stars

- Variety review

That’s the thing about Simon: When the story doesn’t quite make sense, the characters still do. All of them, no matter how marginal, feel like human beings at the center of their own life story.

A lot of storytelling is crammed into “The Deuce” — the regular and recurring cast fields nearly 40 characters, and it takes a minute to match rhythm with the cadence of each of their lives. But once you do, it’s a fascinating world: period but not nostalgic, lived in but not superficial. Maybe it has too many moving parts, but all the moving parts are a joy to look at.

 

[Cornballer]

- Baltimore Sun review

“The Deuce” is a series that at the very least will make Sunday nights a most entertaining place to be for HBO subscribers. But, in the bargain, it will also offer anyone willing to go on this journey with Simon and Pelecanos a chance to understand in a visceral way some of the forces that have rigged the system in the favor of a few and ruthlessly exploited many others.

There is an irony here: Since its arrival in American homes in the early ‘50s, TV has been the driving agent in American life of using sexual fantasy and desire to sell the consumer culture that lies at the heart of capitalism.

As a result, television almost never talks about the symbiotic relationship between media and capitalism. That’s too close to home.

But Simon and Pelecanos do, and HBO let’s them do it in “The Deuce.”

- Omaha World Herald review

Get in on this one early. It’s quite good, Simon’s most immediately engrossing effort since “The Wire.”

 

[HStallion]

I would like to but with my schedule, I don't think I have time to watch the entire series before The Deuce drops.

I did start watching Show Me a Hero and holy shit is it good. The main conflict in the show is a lot more black and white than The Wire or this show but the way the characters weave around it is just great. I'll try to squeeze Generation Kill in too when I'm finished.

I don't think anyone would ever dare call The Wire "black and white". It may sound like any old police procedural but it is something far grander in scope and nuanced in its characterization and storytelling. It's an incredibly gritty and vivid look into nearly every facet of the drug trade and all that goes with, both expected and many times what you wouldn't.

I want to watch this, but having binged past David Simon stuff I think it's best to wait for the entire season to be up then binge it. So much nuance and character stuff that I could forget if I do week-to-week.

Binging has its own issues with Simon shows as there is a whole lot to unpack after every episode that if you binge you can miss a lot unless you're incredibly attentive and even then you will probably still miss things in the rush.

 

[Zantetsuken]

So hyped at work now thanks to these reviews and impressions. Can't wait to get home and tune in.

 

[Addi]

Watched the pilot before realising it's an early release, now I have to wait two weeks for the next episode?! I'm hooked already Great characters and writing, it's easier to digest than the wire but you already feel it's going to be good. It's the shady dirty New York from Taxi Driver, love it.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I really hope HBO just gives them the three seasons anyway as some kind of David Simon tribute to the TV gods like they did with Treme, because there's no one in hell this show drives subscriber numbers in any meaningful manner.

Well, unless there's dragons and incest.

I get the feeling shows like this are just a little too "real" to be watched in the same way that Game of Thrones or Westworld are. Which is fine, I guess. Different strokes for different folks, just as long as HBO keeps chasing that awards love with their other endeavors.

I always say I'm going to cancel my HBO sub after [Insert Big Show Here] but they sucker me back in with something great like The Night Of or this.

 

[Zantetsuken]

Watching it now. Good to see Slim Charles, Partlow, among others.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

I get the feeling shows like this are just a little too "real" to be watched in the same way that Game of Thrones or Westworld are. Which is fine, I guess. Different strokes for different folks, just as long as HBO keeps chasing that awards love with their other endeavors.

It's funny that people always characterize it that way considering the fact that their populist stuff is what actually gets awards love. David Simon's shows almost never get nominated for Emmys.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

It's funny that people always characterize it that way considering the fact that their populist stuff is what actually gets awards love. David Simon's shows almost never get nominated for Emmys.

That outstanding drama series Emmy is still baffling to me. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

 

[Cornballer]

The official premiere is only a week away, though most of us have seen it already. More reviews are starting to come in and they're very positive. Here's Sepinwall's capsule review, presumably his full one will show up later.

The Deuce (HBO, Sept. 10)

This is the great one, as you might expect from the duo of George Pelecanos and David Simon (plus director Michelle MacLaren!), who bring some Wire-style patient storytelling to an early '70s tale of a bartender (James Franco, who plays identical twins), prostitutes (including Maggie Gyllenhaal), pimps (several played by Wire alums like Method Man and Gbenga Akinnagbe), cops (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.), wiseguys (Michael Rispoli), and more dealing with the relaxing of public standards as the pornographic film industry became very public. Smart, honest, and almost shockingly fun, it's among the most purely entertaining things you'll see on TV this year.

 

[Cornballer]

- Sepinwall's full review

Every character is given such a vivid inner life, and the show pulses with such energy, that it — like The Wire (and, to a lesser degree, Tremé) before it — manages to get away with various indulgences that have dragged down too many other recent dramas that have aspired to follow in Simon’s footsteps. The story drifts, with little delineation from one episode to another beyond “this is what happens next,” and it takes its sweet time getting around to the porno movie of it all, not really spending much time in that arena until the last few episodes. Doesn’t matter. The world and its citizens are so rich that it’s a pleasure to spend time in it at all, as written by this team, as directed by the great Michelle MacLaren and others (including Franco for a couple of episodes), and as performed by this superb cast.

I'll post a full OT sometime this week.

 

[ComputerBlue]

This looks really good, but I'm going to wait until it airs to watch it so the wait between episodes isn't long if I end up liking it.

The atmosphere looks amazing, love old gritty NYC.

Good to see positive feedback.

 

[Cornballer]

The Deuce OT is up.