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.
