We’re finally at the season finale for HBO’s The Deuce, and, as expected, the only joy I had was knowing I can spend a year never seeing it again. As far as finales go, you won’t be seeing anything new you couldn’t already get from seven episodes of sex, sex, and more sex with a dash of gay agenda thrown in for good measure.
The October 29 season finale “My Name Is Ruby” pretty much covers the gambit of the season with nude women and the prevailing “sex sells” idea through both porn and prostitution. Frankie (James Franco) successfully sets up peep shows with his associate Rudy Pipilo (Michael Rispoli), Eileen (Maggie Gyllenhaal) rises up the social ladder in the porn industry, and we’re all a little worse for having to watch the gradual process over the season.
When it comes to the now-regular gay propaganda, the finale provided us with a moment between Eileen and her brother, who is currently residing in a mental hospital where their father placed him for electrotherapy for wearing his sister’s dress. It frankly comes out of nowhere, but hey, we have to fill those quotas in somewhere:
Warning: Explicit language.
Eileen: You got my letters, right?
Patrick: They were funny. ( Laughs ) I read them a bunch.
Eileen: Yeah, shit. I should've come by more often. I'm sorry, I... I just lost track of time.
Patrick: Hey, there are a couple of years there I don't even remember. ( Chuckles )
Eileen: That's not any better?
Patrick: I don't know. They say it is.
Eileen: Are they still doing the electric shock stuff?
Patrick: No. Mostly meds for me now. I don't think the shock treatment thing is something they want to do anymore.
Eileen: Dad was so quick to sign off on that shit.
Patrick: He thought it would help.
Eileen: Oh, fuck him. I hate him.
Patrick: The look on his face. Like I was gonna wear it out and... ( Both laughing ) ...Walk down Queens Blvd.
Eileen: Hey, that was my fucking dress, remember? You could've gotten married in it for all I care.
Patrick: Hmm. Leenie, the joke is I wasn't even into that. I just tried it on for a laugh. Dad didn't laugh, though.
Eileen: Patrick, Dad doesn't give a shit about you. Or me. Or who we are. He only cares about how it might look to everyone else. How the rest of the world might see him if his daughter gets knocked up, if his son likes boys. Fuck him. Seriously, Patrick, who gives a fuck what Dad thinks about anything?
Patrick: I'm not homosexual.
Eileen: Patrick, come on. It's me.
Patrick: He knows I'm not.
Eileen: It's okay.
Patrick: He knows. The doctors, they know.
Eileen: Hey, I've known you my whole goddamn life.
Patrick: I like girls.
Eileen: Name one girl you were ever with. Shit, I'm sorry. Patrick, the world... it's changing. And most people don't fuck with you, not like they used to. Dad would fucking hate it.
Eileen is right on one thing. The world is changing, but clearly, it’s not always for the better. While no one would see the lifestyle of these characters as ideal, we seem perfectly okay with watching them for entertainment and we get reviewers who praise this depraved show for treating “stereotyped and dismissed groups with respect” and finding “hope in new avenues of opportunity for them” because "there’s something to be said for the kind of agency porn provides women."
If you ask me, I think everyone deserves better than this. Women deserve better than to be seen as powerful for directing a porn film. Gays deserve better than to be used as sexual pieces for an agenda. And we all deserve better than The Deuce.
