The Deuce (TV Series) My Name Is Ruby (2017) User Reviews

The Wire in Red Light Zone - Engrossing

[joebloggscity · 8/10 · 23 October 2018]

Just finished watching the first season, and despite the underlying premise, I really was engrossed in this series. It helps that it has the experience behind The Wire behind it to build upon, and does very well. If anything, The Wirespotting (i.e. finding actors from that season popping up in this one) is a big interest.

Concentrating on this, we have a sewer level look at the dawn of the modern porn age, and it's creepy. Yet we love & loath the myriad of characters, all with complicated personalities.

Maggie Gyllehaal and James Franco are the stars pushing this through all the way, but I'm not convinced the James Franco dual roles works (can be confusing). The myriad cast are wonderful, and you have to accept the gratuitous nudity & porn, it was never going to be Boogie Nights (and didn't want to be).

It's dark, nasty but sheds a light on the underbelly of society in the XXX world. I was engrossed, and am already looking forward to the next season. It's not one series that will have you talking about it in the office, due to the XXX aspect, but I'm sure if you recommend it to colleagues when out for drinks, then they'll be happy you recommended it.

Pass on the word...

Money before morals

[TheDonaldofDoom · 29 November 2017]

Season 1 has documented the massive cultural change leading to the sex industry becoming easier to access. It's shown who benefits from the new opportunities brought by the sexual revolution and who falls behind. "My Name is Ruby" further examines this, as well as concluding many of its characters' stories in depressing ways.

The pimps clearly have suffered as a result of being unable to adapt. An attempt to make it into the drug trade falls miserably into a sting. Ruby, unfortunately, didn't make it. She had a chance to make it out of the dangerous, potentially violent, working on the street and her mistake is obvious when a john pushes her to her death for the terrible crime of declaring her real name. She wouldn't have been in a position of a john taking back her money if she had followed the other girls into the "massage parlour".

Meanwhile, some of the characters who are benefiting the most wash their hands of what happens to those at the bottom. In Abby and Vincent's confrontation, he tellingly says "The Deuce is the Deuce". That's how it works. It's the system, you've just got to accept it. He's talking like a true businessman. And Vince clearly doesn't care to ever see his wife again, as he has judged money to be more important. The revelation of how much Vincent has changed in such a short time is the real gut punch, concluding the season in a bitter way.

The real gripe I have with this episode is that a couple of events are so convenient that they feel contrived and predictable. Take what happens with Candy, the director is late to work so she takes over and it turns out she does a really good job. It's too convenient for the plot. You could argue Ruby's death is, too, but it's fine because David Simon uses her death to make a point.

This episode, and the season as a whole, particularly the second half, has made for some of the best TV all year. Rather than succumbing to conventional modern storytelling, David Simon instead explores the way multiple characters' lives are affected by the new opportunities arising from the dramatic changes to the sex trade. This makes it TV you can properly get absorbed in, you can mull over the issues for long after an episode is finished. That is the hallmark of great TV.

From the creator of "the wire" David Simon

[DrDumb · 6/10 · 7 April 2024]

The first season of the series is to introduce what the general story is and who the characters are, just like other shows. The story is set in New York in the 70s and the 80s, focusing on how people we see everyday on streets manage to live, specifically, the sex workers and small business managers. New York is one of the biggest cities in the world, characterised by tall buildings, rich people and a decent concept of "American dream". But like the show says: outside the walls of the city, there are the lowest of the low, backwash, sex and drugs, gang activities, human wastes that fill the streets. About the characters, first we get to see Vincent and Frankie, the twins. Vincent is a hard working and conscientious person who is a family man doing things following his moral codes. On the other hand, Frankie, he's an idle gambler who roams causing trouble for his brother. He is a man who would do anything for money.(Watch how the two characters change from season 1 to season 3.) Then we will see Lori, a girl who pursues her dreams in New York but falls into the trap set out by her pimp. Then it's Eileen (Candy), a smart, money oriented and ambitious prostitute working on the streets for her son. (Watch how Candy changes throughout the whole series) Then about the cops, do they serve their city properly? Sadly no, like the mobs we see in the show, they collect money from business owners too. Some cops commit crimes to have some fun. That's all about season 1.

S1: Engages in the world well, but less so in the characters

[bob the moo · 9 March 2019]

In a way it is strange that it took me well over a year to watch this show. It has talent from The Wire and other strong HBO shows throughout the production, the critics all seemed to love it, and generally it looked like it would be a good show in that tradition. At the same time though the subject matter put me off. Well, maybe not put me off but certainly didn't seem that interesting. Quite quickly this concern fell away, because the show does build its world pretty quickly, and does so in a way that engages early on. The sense of time and place is incredibly well done, from the dirt and hustle on the street, through to the detail of costumes and design. So my way in was much easier than I expected.

As the season went on, this continued as the various characters and threads expand out. In terms of the narrative, it is bedded into the world created, and I found it convincing in the range of experiences and people in the story. In terms of character though I was not so drawn in; it has that same 'novel' feel of The Wire, but at the same time it has the open world feel of Treme. This makes the world effective, but perhaps limits how into it I was able to get. Part of this may also have been the (understandable) sexual content. Perhaps it is just me being a prude, but this didn't add as much as the music in Treme, or the drug detail in The Wire; instead it served as a distracting, showing action but not mostly linking to the characters or the plot per se. I'm not sure how I feel about it, because on one hand the regular scenes of sex are part of the world creation, but then at the same time I wanted more to happen within them and around. It never felt dropped in for titillation or outrage though.

The cats is deep in talent ranging from Hollywood stars through to HBO reliables, and everyone is great. Franco's twin roles felt a bit like a gimmick at times, and I wondered why this was written in as opposed to just having different characters - but he made it work and did well. Gyllenhaal works her character well as the other 'lead' of this deep ensemble cast. Carr, Akinnagbe, Gilliard, Fishback, Bauer, Levieva, Walker, and many others give convincing characters within this world. However this added to the feeling that they could be given more to show and work with - as good as it was, I didn't get the feeling that I got in The Wire, that every character was developed inch by inch over a season, almost without noticing it was happening.

The Deuce is an interesting and professional show, which offers a lot of quality - more than enough to come back to season 2 for, but I'll do so with the hope it can hook me into the lives just as much as it did into the world.