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.