It’s a brave new world for HBO’s The Deuce, as the adult entertainment drama gets a full trailer ahead of the season 3 premiere in September. The third season will be the show’s last as creators George Pelecanos and David Simon take their story of the porn industry and organized crime into the 1980s, showing once again how the series adjusts to its time jumps in order to tell a more comprehensive story of the seedy businesses it’s focused on.
The first season began in the 1970s, following an impressive ensemble cast that includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Franco, Chris Coy, Mustafa Shakir, Margarita Levieva, Emily Meade, Chris Bauer, and more. To make things more interesting (or controversial), the series also features a dual performance by Franco as twin brothers/organized crime magnets Vincent and Frankie Martino. But, like The Wire, Treme, and the limited series Show Me a Hero, Simon has used his cast and characters to explore a vast array of stories set against the backdrop of an ever-changing porn industry.
In keeping with a lot of television nowadays, The Deuce is set to call it quits after just three seasons. That was apparently Pelecanos and Simon’s plan from the beginning, and from watching the past two seasons and seeing what lies ahead in season 3, it would seem as though that was the right call. If nothing else, it certainly looks as though the two have saved some of the best stories for last, as the new full trailer hints where the major characters are headed, all set to a pretty great soundtrack. Check out the trailer for The Deuce season 3 below:
Interestingly, The Deuce will move to Mondays for its final season. And while that might seem like a demotion from the usual HBO Sunday night schedule, the premium cabler has been experimenting with expanding its original content slate to other nights of the week. Most notably, the network had success with Chernobyl and Years and Years on Monday nights, showing that audiences are looking for new programming from HBO more than once a week. That, added to the fact that many viewers are likely streaming via various apps at their own leisure suggests HBO could expand its content even further.
As for The Deuce, the series has woefully been left out of major awards considering during its first two seasons. With any luck, season 3, with its exploration of porn’s shift to VHS and home video, as well as the ongoing AIDS crisis during the ‘80s will put a deserving series on the radar of more Emmy voters.
The Deuce season 3 premieres Monday, September 9 @10pm on HBO.