Praise the Lord, HBO’s The Deuce is finally airing its third and final season. Although the network still has a sick obsession with sex and nudity, we can at least close the book on this awful series pretty soon. Until then, we have to contend with more sex, drugs, and porn films even within this season premiere. As a bonus, the David Simon produced series even throw in a little blasphemy.
The September 9 episode “The Camera Loves You” catches us up on the characters on New Year’s Eve 1984, seven years after the last season. Eileen (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is still making pornos, Lori (Emily Meade) is out from rehab only to land right back into snorting coke, Vincent (James Franco) is still running a bar and dealing drugs, and Frankie (also James Franco) is trying his hand in the adult film industry. The latter plot leads us into our obligatory nude scene as Frankie shoots a scene of a naked woman receiving oral sex.
“Now, Melissa, just talk to him a little bit. You know, like, uh, like you're prayin',” Frankie instructs the girl. Off that remark, she starts riffing off a version the Lord’s Prayer moaning, “Oh, Father who is in heaven, forgive me for my sins...” Frankie then has to stop her, telling her to just stick to things like, "God. God. Please, oh, God. Fuck. God." The girl apologizes saying, “Oops, sorry. Lapsed Catholic.”
Because seeing prayer and the Lord’s Name butchered on a porn shoot by a naked woman is supposed to be hilarious.
It’s clear from the start that the no one in the show or even working on the show has improved over these years. Eileen is still upset that the porn industry caters mostly to men, like that’s some sort of bizarre concept. When even this series reminds us there are women against porn, it’s hard to see what Eileen does as “feminist.”
Vincent’s life is also still falling apart as he maintains an open relationship with his old girlfriend Abby (Margarita Levieva) as well as his ex-wife Andrea (Zoe Kazan). “There is no cheating at all,” Vincent says to Andrea, as if that changes anything. All it really does is remind the audience how there’s barely any character that remotely aims for decent behavior. Considering series star James Franco has been accused of sexual misconduct multiple times, I’m not sure they even care.
Such things are commonplace in a show like The Deuce, and such things will finally end in 2019.
