Finish It

I take my hat of, bows, and salute this ending. Just beatiful! Masterfully done.

The Deuce finale brings a poignant conclusion to the arcs of numerous characters and finishes with beautifully made sequence of reflection.

What it does particularly well is show the impact of the social and economic changes on the environment and characters. For it to have the full effect you need to have invested in characters like Eileen, Vincent and others, but there is no denying the quality of filmmaking.

Is there a hint of romanticising of the area before it became so disneyfied? Arguably there is and I'm sure there are many who are glad to feel safer walking the streets now than back in the 70s/80s. Have the social problems been rectified or just shifted away from the tourists and gentry? I think so.

All actors are on great form as ever and visually it is amazing, particularly the final sequence.

Amazing character development, you almost feel that you're are part of the story in this episode.

So sadly we have come to the end of this enthralling yet admittedly grimey series, where we have uncomfortably learned to ride along with the cast of often unlikeable characters, but also see the self-destruction of plenty of other decent others.

It was a short window for this world in New York, and here we see the sharp collapse of their world as the spectre of Aids arises, the move from professional theatre porn to low cost/low stature VHS smut and a gentrifying New York.

Our cast is older and wiser, but the cracks are still there, and it was interesting to see the arc of Lori Madisson and Candy develop further, when I thought they had closed off Lori's tale. Lori's tale is a sad story as you see that she has little escaped the hell she was trapped into, and now is under the clutches of others as despicable as her old pimp. Candy on the other hand is stuck trying to win over those who don't want to be, possibly naive of the changing nature of the market and who her customers really are.

The rest are still there and as this is the final season you see some quick kill offs too as is the norm. You watch as everything yet nothing changes in their lives, be it personal or work. The mob is still there and everyone is still under their thumbs.

This season has been fabulous, even till the last episode. The jump in time for the story I guess was as they had to call time on it early, which is a shame as there was still so much to tell. We all loved this more than we should have.

How Maggie Gyllenhall didn't win awards for this season's work really baffles me, and it shows that this is a show that is possibly counter to the prevailing social mores at the moment. She deserves better.

I'm going to watch it again sometime. An eye opener and one that hits the mark. Thank you to all who put this together, a wonderful treasure, and a wonderful send-off.

Season three of "The Deuce" is a wonderful conclusion to this Macro/Micro story about the changing fortunes of the New York district.

Now in the mid-1980's, times are changing still. The arrival of home video and cheaper recording equipment has moved the porn industry out to California and though Lori Madison (Emily Meade) is still one of the biggest stars, the proliferation of actors, producers and titles means that more and more is asked of her, for less and less reward. Candy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is still making films in New York, but she's still desperately trying to find a worthwhile story to tell. The plans to redevelop the area are relentless though, and the HIV epidemic might be just the excuse needed to close the brothels and bathhouses for good.

It's hard to not talk about "The Deuce" without drawing comparisons with David Simon's "The Wire", and I think the comparisons are fair. The show concentrates on the individual stories of characters' lives, but their lives are influenced by wider context, as all our lives are. This is never more apparent than in this third season, as the Deuce is effectively "cleaned up" to make way for the Times Square that we have today. The story is so smartly done, as cause and effect runs around the storylines. The prostitutes discovering that life is better in hotels, rather than parlours, means the parlours have less money to kick up to the mafia, which encourages a movement towards drug dealing that the older captains were unwilling to do.

The performances are really fantastic too, Maggie Gyllenhaal has been criminally underappreciated for her performances throughout this run. But I don't think there's a weak link in the whole ensemble, top to bottom. Personally, I don't think the show feels like it's been cut short - we're at the end of a number of character arcs and it feels like the war for the Deuce has been won by the developers. An excellent series.