Well, The Deuce 2.4 began tonight with full-frontal nudity for Larry Brown, in a series of stills on his way to becoming a porn actor. And the best scenes in the episode continued to be with Larry.
The set-up, like most of the threads in The Deuce, is trite in terms of overall movies and television. But it achieves a surprising power in The Deuce. Candy is having trouble getting a good script. She can't do it herself. She hires a young, hippy-like guy. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Larry can't remember his lines. Candy comes up with the brilliant solution: ad lib it. And it's great. Larry's no Brando, but he ad libs an effective scene.
Otherwise, the killing of one of Bobby Dwyer's working girls in a fire set by the opposition is a worse assault on decency than usual, because she is, literally, a girl, just 15 years old. The pimp and prostitute and related stories are a lot more brutal and ugly than the porn movie stories, where Candy played by Maggie Gyllenhaal adds a real spark. Similarly, Larry Brown played by Gbenga Akinnagbe is much more compelling and unusual as porn star than pimp.
The Deuce with its short eight seasons is now half over with 2.4. It's a dead certainty that the mob war over the bars and parlors will result in the death of at least a few characters. The question is not only who, but how major?
Here's my prediction, based on nothing but hunch: Frankie. The truth is, after the first episode in this season, he's had a minor role. His death would transform Vincent into someone very different. We saw tonight how Vincent was affected by the sight of someone being shot dead in plain sight.
We'll see what happens in the weeks ahead.
See also The Deuce Is Back - Still Without Cellphones, and that's a Good Thing ... The Deuce 2.2: Fairytales Can Come True ... The Deuce 2.3: The Price
And see also The Deuce: NYC 1971 By Way of The Wire and "Working with Marshall McLuhan" ... Marilyn Monroe on the Deuce 1.7 ... The Deuce Season 1 Finale: Hitchcock and Truffaut
It all starts in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn walks off the set
of The Misfits and begins to hear a haunting song in her head,
"Goodbye Norma Jean" ..
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