When it comes to HBO’s The Deuce, the only surprise is how much lower they're able to go week after week. On a show which has yet to feature an episode without aggressive nudity, it can be a hard border to cross, but here we are. The latest episode reaches their new peak of depravity by featuring a three-way homosexual make-out session, along with some questionable underage activity.
The October 8 episode “What Kind of Bad?” gives us a closer look at the life of a gay bartender named Paul (Chris Coy). After receiving oral sex during a movie, he follows a male friend to a club where they get high on drugs and begin a night of heated dancing and kissing. That passion continues back to Paul’s apartment where they interrupt Paul’s roommate, but that doesn’t matter. Pretty soon, all three men are engaged in kissing, disrobing, and caressing for a long night ahead of them.
The show hasn’t been shy about having gay characters, but this episode was certainly a tipping point. More liberal writers should probably learn that just because we’re aware gay men kiss each other and have multiple partners doesn’t mean we want to see it. Where it stands, we should only be glad they haven’t yet showed homosexual sex to the same degree as heterosexual sex. However, the keyword in that sentence is "yet."
If that’s not enough, prostitute Darlene (Dominique Fishback) brings a fresh face from her hometown to work for her pimp. Though the girl claims to be 20, the pimps hardly believe her story. Sadly, in the perverse world of the show where selling bodies for sex is the norm, little details like being of legal age mean next to nothing anymore, except for maybe a little extra work. Listen to their description of her.
Warning: Explicit language.
Larry: She said she’s 20. Looked like jailbait. Fifteen would not surprise me.
Rodney: Fake id, homeslice. Ain't no thing.
Larry: Maybe. All the same, I don't need another child to support.
Rodney: Start calling you Charlie Brown. Good grief, motherfucker.
Larry: Plus, she's gonna be a lot of work. I mean, like, from the ground up type work.
Rodney: Shit, I'll take her off your hands.
Larry: You want her, you buy her.
Rodney: She a looker?
Larry: Eye of the beholder.
Rodney: Bring her to Leon's. I like what I see, I'll throw you 2k and maybe a player to be named later.
Larry: Mm-mm, you too good. Keep your player. 2-5.
Week after week, The Deuce continues to show how television now attempts to be the best by showing us the worst. The depravity to which it has fallen is lower now than it has ever been. This new development, unfortunately, proves that TV can always find a new way to go lower.
