5 December, 2017 - 08:08
First and only on Showmax from today, The Deuce chronicles that moment in time when sex went from being a back-alley, brown-paper-bag commodity to a billion-dollar industry in America, thanks to both a liberalising revolution in American sexuality and new legal definitions of obscenity.
Beginning in 1971, the show follows a cast of New York barkeeps, prostitutes, pimps, police and nightlife denizens as they swirl through a world of sex, crime, high times and violence, as the porn business begins its climb from Mafia-backed massage parlors and film labs to legitimacy and cultural permanence.
The Deuce was created by George Pelecanos and David Simon, who previously collaborated on the HBO series The Wire, widely hailed as the best TV show ever. The Deuce premiered on HBO in September to similar acclaim as one of the best shows of 2017, with Time praising it as a triumph, and, better yet, a pleasure and The Guardian calling it a dazzling achievement Simon has created his most accessible work of humanism to date, and he's done so without sacrificing his loftier ambitions of societal critique.
With a 92% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.2/10 rating on MDB, HBO quickly announced they'd renewed the show for a second season.
The Deuce stars Oscar-nominees James Franco (127 Hours) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart). Franco plays identical twin brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino, while Gyllenhaal stars as self-made prostitute Candy, who refuses to work under any of the multitude of street pimps who control much of the trade along Eighth and Ninth Avenues.
The cast also includes The Blacklist star Margarita Levieva, and, of course, familiar faces from The Wire like Gbenga Akinnagbe, Lawrence Gilliard, Jr, and Chris Bauer.
For America, flesh as a legal commodity begins in New York City, but it travels everywhere into the national life, says Simon. The fact is, we don't sell a luxury car, blue jeans or bottle of beer anymore without a certain amount of pornographic thought attached.
While The Deuce is structured as a fictional narrative, it's based on research by producer Marc Henry Johnson, who chronicled the rise and fall of the sex industry through the lives of a pair of real-life twins who eventually became Mob fronts for the Gambino family in Midtown, rising to some prominence in their own right.
Those tales - provided by a brother who passed away a few brief months before The Deuce began filming its pilot - form one essential strand in the narrative, augmented by additional research and subsequent interviews with other surviving participants who consulted on the scripts.
Our film season is here. Are you ready?
Select your Membership
Times Square in the 1970s is now chiefly remembered as the ground zero of decadence and depravity, but what's often left out of the picture is that, for many, it was a hotbed of experimentation, adventure and sexual liberation, says Pelecanos.
Three other acclaimed novelists - Edgar Award winners Richard Price and Megan Abbott, and Edgar nominee Lisa Lutz - also write on The Deuce. Price was nominated for an Oscar for The Color of Money and an Emmy for this year's five-time winner The Night Of (also on Showmax), and won a Writers Guild of America award for his work on The Wire.
Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones) directs the first and last episodes of the season, with star James Franco also directing two episodes, in addition to executive producing. James directed two well-crafted episodes while simultaneously playing twin brothers - no small feat, says fellow executive producer Nina K. Noble. He took the concept of cloning one's self to a whole new level.
Longtime Simon, Pelecanos and Noble collaborators Ernest Dickerson (The Wire, The Walking Dead), Uta Briesewitz (Orange is the New Black, Jessica Jones), Alex Hall (Treme) and Roxann Dawson (House of Cards, The Good Wife) also direct episodes of The Deuce.
Everyone involved with this project is genuinely grateful to HBO for the chance to take the narrative where it needs to go, says Simon. We knew the theme and purpose of the story, but there are many people in the entertainment industry who might not have it told, or worse, would have told it for the wrong reasons. HBO is a serious outfit. And they dont scare.
About Showmax
Showmax is an internet TV service. For a single monthly fee, get all-you-can-eat access to a huge online catalogue of TV shows, movies, kids' shows and documentaries. Start and stop when you want. No ads. Cancel anytime - there's no contract.
Stream Showmax using apps for smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, computers, media players and gaming consoles. Showmax also works with Chromecast and AirPlay. Manage data consumption using the bandwidth capping feature. No internet? No problem - download up to 25 shows to smartphones and tablets to watch later offline.
Showmax was born in 2015 and is part of the Naspers group. Showmax is currently available in more than 70 countries. For a free, no-risk trial, visit www.showmax.com.
Embedded video for The Deuce - now first and only on Showmax
Television
Africa South Africa
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
Latino Film Institute Fellows Screen Their Short Films at the Egyptian Theatre
The Inclusion Fellowship and Spark Animation Grant uplifts 15 ...
29/05/2026
GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES
This release first appeared here.
Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
5 December, 2017 - 08:08 
