September 20, 2017

The Deuce “Show and Prove” Review: Chim Chiminy

The iniquity of 1970s New York hangs over the characters of The Deuce’s second episode, “Show and Prove”, like ash on chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins-era London. That comparison isn’t just out-of-the-blue; it’s inspired by a conversation Vincent and Frankie Martino have about celebrity sightings they’ve racked up in Manhattan. Jerry Van Dyke came into Vinnie’s bar to order a Mai Tai while Dick Van Dyke was (the superior of the two Van Dyke’s, according to Frankie) ordering a sausage and onion slice at Di Fara’s on Avenue J.

The wheels are still slowly grinding into place, but the details are as rich and vibrant as they were in the pilot as the show becomes more of an engaging history lesson than a fictional TV drama and I’d much rather feel like I was watching the time period play out naturally than have some half-baked conflict ruin the illusion.

For instance, the title of Episode 2 actually refers to a practice done by the NYPD with prostitutes in which they could receive vouchers for a certain number of hours spent in a precinct cell that would essentially act as get-out-of-jail-free cards. If you were a lady of the night and could show and prove that you had racked up a certain amount of hours with your card, you weren’t taken in to the station. Think of it like a redeeming a free frozen yogurt after ten hole punches, except with sex. Like I said last week, the Nixon days had character.

And even if you did get picked up, you could just lounge around the precinct, eating Chinese food with the cops who know you by name. Speaking of cops, the Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio, makes his debut in this episode as a plain clothes vice cop. In fact, we open on him and his partner having a debate on the amount of superstar Jewish athletes throughout sports history like Sandy Koufax and Mike “Super Jew” Epstein. “You know why they call him Super Jew?” Macchio, inquires. “Because he’s the only one. Did you ever hear anyone talk about Mickey “Super Gentile” Mantle?” That line tickled my funny bone and I can’t help but think it was written by the show’s Jewish co-creator David Simon whose father served as PR director for B’nai B’rith for two decades.

Candy’s caught the acting bug, or at least taken in interest in the X-rated filmmaking industry after making one Viking-themed porno in a seedy basement, recorded by a guy dressed like Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver where the Money Shot is faked using cold potato soup. It’s funny just how tame the pornography scene was back then because we’ve become so jaded by the Internet. In the early ‘70s, if you wanted to screen adult flicks, you couldn’t show penetration, not in the theaters and not in the nickelodeon-esque machines in the sex shops (if it’s a documentary, however, you’re good). If you wanted the real hardcore stuff, you’d have to buy the movies that were kept in taboo brown paper bags as if they were alcohol in today’s day in age. Just something to think about in this ever-changing world of ours.

Anywho, the extreme contrasts for Candy’s character so far have been heartbreaking: She’s standing on a street corner one moment and playing Mouse Trap with her son the next. It’ll be interesting to see how she makes the transition from hooking to movie making titan.

Then Vinnie’s getting into bed (figuratively, of course, although from most of this show you wouldn’t know it) with a mafioso, Rudy Pipilo (Michael Rispoli), in order to pay off his brother’s gambling debts, which ropes his brother-in-law in as well as they concoct a plan to turn weekly paychecks into cash that I did not fully understand. But Rudy’s offering Vincent a chance to run his own bar so working for the mob can’t be all bad, right? I don’t see anything going south on that plan.

Everyone is pretty much whoring out their integrity to get ahead, to get a piece of the world for themselves, even if they’re not aware of it. Let’s just hope they can extricate themselves from the crime and indecency when it’s all said and done.

PS: Didn’t mean for that to sound like a fire and brimstone tent revival meeting, I just thought it’d be a cool ending line. Besides, did you ever hear anyone talk about a Jew at a tent revival meeting?

SONG PICKS OF THE WEEK:

• “Don’t Pull Your Love” — Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds (1970)
• “Lovers Who Wander” – Dion (1962)
• “Rock & Roll” – The Velvet Underground (1970)