HBO’s The Deuce continues its race to the bottom - and they're so gosh darn proud of it, too. Fortunately, the season’s almost over, but every episode lasts one hour too many. This week is no different as we get all angles of sex, both gay and straight.
The October 22 episode “Au Reservoir” continues the relationship between gay man Paul Hendrickson (Chris Coy) and his boyfriend, an actor in porn films. While the last episode featured threeway kissing between men before cutting to another scene, the latest exploit foregoes all pretenses and go straight for showing the actual gay sex. With a show like this, you knew it was only a matter of time. In fact, the writers probably consider it clean just because we don’t see a penis.
Don’t think I’m ignoring the heterosexuals either. The penultimate episode is just racing us to the end of the season with more of the R-rated body parts it can’t live without, apparently. The “high point” would have to be a moment where two topless women work on a man in a budding sex house. Describing anything that happens in this show has now required gargling soap for my efforts.
It’s hilarious that, in a time where actors and producers are acting so quickly to denounce sexual predators and crude behavior, we have a highly-praised show that focuses on both. Hollywood is apparently “enlightened” enough to realize its mistakes decades after the fact but not enough to stop using sexual exploitation of women for profit. We now have porn disguised as television for entertainment, and people still pretend to act shocked (shocked, I tell you!) when they hear about something like it on the news. The Deuce may not be a part of any sexual scandal, but it’s just another reminder of how we got there.
