The Deuce 3.7: Who Is Lori Madison?

A beautiful, tragic penultimate episode of The Deuce on HBO tonight, as I suppose intelligent stories about the porn business are wont to be.

The beautiful part was a beauty of the soul, when Candy asked Lori who she was.  Candy explained that she was two people - the former prostitute and now porn director, Candy, and the woman, daughter, and mother, Eileen.   Candy could've read some of Erving Goffman, the sociologist who said all of us lead at least two lives, our public lives that we show to the world, and private lives that we show only to our family and close friends.  Sometime they're not very different.  Sometimes they are.

But Lori was unwilling to talk, even to her benefactor and friend of sorts, Candy, about Lori's private life.  She wouldn't even tell Candy her real name.  And so we were left to conclude that Lori was missing a life.  And the most important life at that.  Her private life.  Who she was, when only those she loved were looking.  So maybe that was an admission that she loved no one, and no one loved her.  The negation of what Candy had assured Lori of, that everyone loved Lori Madison.  Because Lori Madison was not a real person.  She was just an act.

And I suppose that explains what happened at the end of the episode.  It was horrible and so unnecessary.   You get the feeling that if only Lori had given herself more of a chance, she would have been professionally more successful, on her terms, and also found somebody to love.  (Unforgettable performance as Lori by Emily Meade.)

Did Candy realize, the next day, what happened, when Lori didn't show for work?  I think she certainly sensed it.   If you haven't seen The Deuce, it's worth seeing if only for this episode.

Next week is the series finale.

See also The Deuce 3.1: 1985 ... The Deuce 3.2: The First Amendment! ... The Deuce 3.3: Love and Money, Pimps and Agents ... The Deuce 3.4: Major Changes ... The Deuce 3.5: Lori and Candy ... The Deuce 3.6: Memorable Scenes

And 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 ... The Deuce 2.4: The Ad-Lib ... The Deuce 2.6: "Bad Bad Larry Brown" ... The Deuce 2.9: Armand, Southern Accents, and an Ending ... The Deuce Season 2 Finale: The Video Revolution

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" ...

The Deuce: NYC 1971 by way of The Wire

I thought, what's not to like about The Deuce, a new series,  now four episodes along, on HBO?  David Simon and George Pelecanos, best known for The Wire (unarguably one of the best series ever on television) are producers and writers, as is Richard Price (author of the superb Bronx novel, The Wanderers, as well as The Night Of, last year on HBO).  The Deuce even has two great actors from The Wire - Gbenga Akinnagbe and Lawrence Gilliard Jr. - and a riveting storyline about prostitutes and porn back in 1971, with lots of skin in the story.

So what's not to like about The Deuce?  Absolutely nothing - meaning, it's another example of outstanding and unique television, as only HBO and sometimes Showtime, have been able to deliver.  For HBO, The Deuce is very much in The Sopranos, The Wire, and Treme lineage -- meaning, memorable characters, searing narrative, served up with vivid color and style.

Richard Price and his way with words is in evidence all over.  Barely a conversation goes by without an apt phrase and a ringing line.  Simon and Pelecanos come across with their keen eye for detail, as a character mentions Penny Lane as a good song, and the songs playing the background are always bang-on right for the time.  I walked down or close to those New York streets, and nothing in The Deuce looked out of place.

And the characters and their vectors and actors are real and rewarding, too.   Gbenga Akinnagbe portrays a pimp with heart, Gary Carr with maybe a little less kindness but more than enough swagger to make up for it.  Maggie Gyllenhaal is just right as an older prostitute who wants to be in show business aka the porn industry; Margarita Levieva is very appealing as an NYU student who drops out (where I was student just a few years later - too bad I missed her) and into porn or prostitution or maybe not, it's still too to tell; and Emily Meade as the ingenue hooker under C. C.'s thumb (played by Gary Carr) and more, as they may be falling in love, or at least something, is just perfect.

Yeah, and I haven't even mentioned James Franco, who plays a bartender turned bar owner with a heart of gold - with money put up by the mob (with boss played by Michael Rispoli, who played nearly the same role years ago on The Sopranos, but doesn't look a day older) - as well as a gambler twin brother who's not quite as golden, with his typical sensitivity and splash.

The upshot: I'm looking forward to watching The Deuce for a long time.