Browse: Home / THE DEUCE – “Why Me?”

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: Writer's Blocks
  • Lunch Links: MOOMIN
  • Film on the Internet: BASKET CASE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Taco Break: Overplayed But Still Funny

THE DEUCE – “Why Me?”

Posted By Michael Guarnieri on October 16, 2017 in Other Media | Leave a response

The Deuce, season 1, episode 6: “Why Me?”

Directed by Roxann Dawson. Written by Richard Price and Marc Henry Johnson.

 

Happy holidays along The Deuce!

Yes, we get a fairly significant time jump here in this episode — the last time we checked in with the pimps, prostitutes, prowlers, and punks along Times Square, it still seemed to be late summer, and Vincent’s “massage parlor” was naught but some walls and big visions.

Now, it’s the Christmas season, and the streetwalkers along 42nd Street shiver as they try to squeeze out a decreasing profit from their johns, who are themselves shivering their asses off (just in more clothing.) Vincent’s massage parlor is now ready for its grand opening, only it’s light on staffing — what’s a whorehouse without some whores? But this being The Deuce, success is only a business deal away as Pipilo and Longo basically rent out some women from a different massage parlor over in Queens.

But what Simon, Pelecanos, and episode director Roxann Dawson manage to do with this story is pull back our view so we can see the big picture — Pipilo’s massage parlor scheme isn’t just a wild shot in the dark, but a guaranteed Sure Thing. Y’see, Pipilo’s contacts “downtown” with the Mayor’s office and the NYPD have sent unofficial orders down to the 14th Precinct along the Deuce: crack down on street solicitation. Pimps, prostitutes, none of them are free from arrest, and Larry Brown (a very strong performance by Gbenga Akinnagbe this episode) spends his holidays bemoaning the fact that his sweet ride was be towed away and impounded by the cops. What’s the purpose of all this? To force the pimps to shift their trade away from the streets and into the “legitimate” private massage parlors that Pipilo controls. The show does something very smart here: rather than just tell us up front what Pipilo and the Mob’s plot is, Simon, Pelecanos, and company have us gradually get the idea as the characters along the streets begin to understand it. We have more knowledge than they do, but we’re only about a step or two ahead of them.

Speaking of things occurring gradually, I do wish that the season had been slightly longer, a la the 12- or 13- episode seasons of The Wire, rather than just the eight episodes we’re going to get this year. Both because I enjoy the show in general, but also because some of the character decisions or plot developments here are less clear than they should be with the truncated timeline. That’s an unfortunate bum note here — given the substantial (not enormous but still notable) leap forward in time, what should we as the audience make of the fact that Abby is still tending bar at the Hi-Hat? Is she doing it out of personal choice or merely inertia? We see that Candy has been shooting porn with David Krumholtz’s Harvey Wasserman for a while now, but we still don’t totally know how the other women on 42nd street have reacted to that change in status. In another show, that might not be an issue, but this series is very much about process and about work environments, so these changes matter, even if they’re ultimately minor in the larger thrust of the series.

On the other hand, here we get to see the genesis of an idea, a major change, within the confines of this episode itself. Big Mike, Vincent’s strong-but-silent hired muscle, has a eureka moment as he begins silently sketching the first private viewing booth on his notepad. Frankie attaches a tacky name to it — “Masturbatorium” — but the idea is quite perfect, allowing patrons to pleasure themselves in public without it really being in public. Of course, Big Mike will probably not see much money from the idea, as the big shots and fatcats with connections like Rudy Pipilo will inevitably begin to rake in the profits.

As in most things along The Deuce, it basically comes down to business and profit, labor and management — capitalism in microcosm, concentrated along a couple of blocks in Manhattan. And not the swanky part. But not everything breaks down that way — people make decisions based on personal feeling. They’re not just simple slot machines that you pump quarters into and hope to get something out of, despite the way the capitalist world wants us to behave sometimes.

No, there’s personal satisfaction, even spiritual satisfaction involved in all behaviors too. As the episode closes, Darlene is offered a pretty good deal (I mean, all things considered) by Larry — if she does more porno films, she can increase her demand on the street, and make more money off her street fame. But Darlene demurs; she asks Larry what she’d do in fifty years when she had her own grandkids, and the porno flicks were still around for all to see? Despite some prodding from the pimp, she can’t shake the idea that, despite it being essentially a promotion, she would be doing something she didn’t agree with. If we’re the so-called “normal” people, the fine, upstanding, law-abiding folk so far removed Darlene’s world, we may scoff at her decision. ‘How can a prostitute,’ we might ask ourselves, ‘think anything is below her dignity?’

We would of course be complete idiots for asking such a thing. In The Deuce, all these people are human beings trying to survive in a world they did not create and did not ask for, and they make their own personal rules along the way, holding on to their threads of humanity while they can. As Curtis Mayfield sings in the opening song, “if there’s Hell, we’re all gonna go,” and the decisions we all make, whether we’re hookers or folks who write reviews of TV shows about hookers, will be our attempts to stomach as much of our personal degradation as we can while trying to get the most out of the world around us, compromising ourselves, corrupting ourselves, finding the light in the darkness, and, above all, surviving. While we still can.

 

 

Posted in Other Media | Tagged David Simon, HBO, James Franco, Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce

About the Author

Michael Guarnieri

Michael Guarnieri is a writer and photographer currently living in Chicago.

Original work available in “The Oliver Stone Experience” by Matt Zoller Seitz.

Donate to my Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MicGuar

  • Twitter

Related Posts

MISBEHAVIN’: THE DRAMATIC COMEDY OF SUCCESSION & THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES→

Year of the Month: CRAZY HEART and Walking Hard→

Scenic Route – BOARDWALK EMPIRE, “All In”→

There’s Something in the Air. And It Ain’t Love – Ben “Bhammer100” Hammel on Oz→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    33851 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    27453 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    25068 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    20096 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    11141 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • Oh, to have the straight line just hovering over your shoulder for when you need it.

    The Friday Article Roundup: Writer’s Blocks

    March 24, 2023 / The Ploughman
  • This was a tough one to find a properly formatted header image for.

    Lunch Links: MOOMIN

    March 23, 2023 / The Ploughman
  • Film on the Internet: BASKET CASE

    March 22, 2023 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    March 21, 2023 / Greta Taylor
  • Taco Break: Overplayed But Still Funny

    March 20, 2023 / Tristan "Drunk Napoleon" Nankervis

Last Tweets

  • The Friday Article Roundup: Writer’s Blocks - https://t.co/3a4Sy0roVA, 10 hours ago
  • The witty and bittersweet short film MOOMIN doesn't require a smartphone to watch, but it helps. https://t.co/gMMYZWtxgb, Mar 23
  • Film on the Internet: BASKET CASE - https://t.co/ncsoMwqyRT, Mar 22

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!