Entertainment

Paul Schiraldi/HBO

Fans Are Already Eager For 'The Deuce' Season 2

by Kathleen Walsh

Every fall, HBO unveils at least one highly acclaimed and ambitious new series. This year, it was The Deuce, which centered around the rise of the porn industry in New York City in the 1970s. Almost immediately after it premiered, it was renewed by HBO for a second season. So when does The Deuce Season 2 premiere? Well, you will have to wait a while to find out what comes next. But don't worry, the seedy underbelly of what we now know as Times Square won't be gone from your TV forever. In fact, the show has performed so well that it could be HBO's next long-running drama that all of your coworkers won't stop talking about, like The Sopranos or True Blood. (I'd include Game of Thrones, but honestly, is anything ever going to top that?)

Although it has been confirmed that the series was indeed renewed, there is no information yet as to when the show will begin filming its sophomore season or when it will premiere. Generally, shows renew once a year, so it's a good guess to assume that filming will take place sometime this winter or spring, and hopefully air next fall. Clearly without any more information there's no way I can actually confirm any of that. I'm just guessing. In some cases a show takes longer than expected to come back, leaving its devotees in the lurch.

Paul Schiraldi/HBO

Set in the 1970s, the show takes place on the grimy midtown streets of New York City. What is today the decidedly family friendly Times Square neighborhood was then a hotbed of crime, drugs, and really just a general sense of ickiness. The show takes its title from an old nickname for 42nd Street. The show follows the lives of sex workers, their pimps, and the characters around them like the twin brothers played by James Franco, as they start to become involved in a new kind of sex industry — porn.

So far, The Deuce has gotten good ratings and great reviews. It boasts an impressive 93 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 86. Critics have praised the show creators David Simon and George Pelacanos for their empathetic portrayal of sex work without pandering, as well as dealing with copious nudity and sex in the show in a way that doesn't feel exploitative or needlessly prudish. It has also been called a logical successor to another widely praised show from Simon, The Wire. Just as that show wasn't really about drugs, The Deuce isn't really about porn.

Paul Schiraldi/HBO

So where will the second season take the characters? Well eight episodes in and they've really just started telling the story of getting in the porn industry. There's clearly still a lot more story to tell here. Lori is just getting started as a performer while Candy/Eileen is learning the ropes when it comes to producing porn, as well as leaving her Times Square life behind in favor of a slightly more savory kind of prostitution so she can keep making money before she makes it big. There are so many ways that this story could go from here.

While I assume that Season 2 will arrive at around this time next year, there is really no telling when it comes to prestige television. For example, last fall's exciting new show on HBO was Westworld and everyone is still waiting on the second installment of that show. And Game of Thrones probably won't return for its final season until 2019. But in any case, it's at least comforting to know that more episodes of The Deuce are on the way.

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