After i saw this episode i was thinking to myself, this is one of those shows that are probably going to be very good, but it is going to receive a lot of hate just because of it's nudity.
Then i come to think about the insane laws we have surrounding nudity, that a movie that shows "a nipple" instantly receive a R rating, while a PG-13 movie can have people killed in the hundreds, just don't show too much blood. There is something fundamentally wrong with the society when sex shown on a TV screen feels forbidden to watch.
Of course the creators of this show knows this, they are going to do every thing in their power to shock you, but why are we so easily shocked by sex?. I don't get it. Think about it, sex is one of the most normal things any human can do, we are here on earth to do three things. Evolve, survive and reproduce, that's it. There is no other meaning to life.
99.99999% or something around there of all people that ever lived on earth, did so because two people had sex, someone inserted something into something and something happened. Shocking, i know. You need to get over yourself and look at how stupid these censuring laws are. Our kids are not allowed to watch naked people do what we are here to do, but it's OK to watch people get murdered, cheated, tricked, lied to, deceived, terrorized and so on. But not a single nipple can be shown, that's where we draw the line.
Many people watching this show will indeed feel this, that nudity is disgusting or provoking. Protip : We are born naked. I'm thinking this problem is especially big in the United States and other highly religious countries, because religion has somehow managed to get into peoples heads, that nudity is a sin. Holy cow.
Well anyways. I'll tell you something about the real world, people is going to have sex. A LOT OF IT!. And people are going to be violent towards one another, and people with power and money is only going to want more of it. This show truly captures the gritty and dark sides of this. Imagine if all countries could just legalize prostitution, so that they could pay taxes of their work, they would have benefits, they would have protection and security, and people who need to buy sex would get it without risking to be thrown in jail.
So it's no wonder why prostitution, drugs and violence go hand in hand at some point, when we basically made having sex illegal for anyone else than those that get married. It's absolutely insane if you think about it.
This show is set in the early 70's, when we had the rise of the famous American porn industry that would eventually bring us stars like John Holmes, Traci Lords, Linda Lovelace, Debi Diamond, Amber Lynn, Seka and Ron Jeremy. The business in the 70's was dirty and gritty and under ground, it was something you could call a dark period. But people watched the films, they were very popular, and when it's popular, people earn money from it.
I grew up watching some of the 70's porn movies, but mostly 80's, when the industry had matured a little bit. I even remember how me and my friends used to go to some shady shops out on the country side to buy porn movies, and could not even look the shop clerk in the eye while doing it. It was grab a film, put it on the counter, pay, just keep the change, and run the hell out of there.
Today we have pornhub and youjizz and xvideos and all these other sited that basically makes the access of porn so easy, and studies show that porn is just as popular among women as it is with men.
But i remember in the old days, where me and my friends we used to talk about the men and the women in these films, we were wondering who they were, where they came from, how they ended up in the industry and how it all came to be. This is exactly what this show is now doing, and since it is about this, it also needs to tell the true story. You can't make a cooking show without cooking any food, makes no sense.
So this is so far extremely interesting, the show is building slowly, and so did "the wire". It took several seasons before people started understanding how great and important of a show "the wire" would eventually become. I'm pretty sure "The Deuce" is going to do the exact same thing. But you need to get over yourself about the nudity, it must be shown and told, but yet so many negative reviews already is about this show having too much nudity. Like: It's a great show and all but i saw a penis OMG.
If you think this is too much nudity, you should go out and find someone to do some bed gymnastics with, you might need it. For all of you that have no issue with foreskin and nipples, this show is something you need to give a chance. I can't wait for episode 3.
But if you only want a pretty accurate short story, you can watch movies like "Boogie Nights(1997)". Which is also pretty great.
