'The Deuce' Renewal News: HBO Orders Season 2
"The Deuce" is coming back for a second season, as HBO renews the drama series for its sophomore run. James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal star in this period piece that follows the porn industry boom in 1970s New York.
Just two episodes in, the show was greeted with high praise from fans and critics alike, possibly prompting HBO to order a second season of "The Deuce" right away. The network announced the news through a Medium news post on Wednesday, Sep. 20, confirming the good news.
James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal will be back, as well as director and executive producer Michelle MacLaren who helmed the pilots of both the first and this upcoming second seasons. Casey Bloys, president of programming for HBO, celebrated the next installment of the series led by veterans who created HBO classics "The Wire" and "Treme."
"We are thrilled to continue our creative collaboration with master storytellers David Simon and George Pelecanos," Bloys said. "Their unique gift for immersing the audience in their dark and edgy worlds brings a brilliant verisimilitude unlike any other," he continued, and critics would agree.
The show currently stands at 92 percent according to Rotten Tomatoes, which is no small feat considering that this is the show that HBO replaced "Game of Thrones" with. "The Deuce" took over the Sunday night time slot that "Game of Thrones" vacated on Aug. 24, as it premiered last Sep. 10, The Verge points out.
The name of the show refers to the old slang for 42nd Street in New York City, known in the 1970s for being one of the centers of the rising porn culture. The show explores how a liberal culture at the time fed a growing porn industry into the cultural fixture it turned into, a decade later.
The video below gives a short preview of the first episode of "The Deuce," which is now available on HBO. The third episode of the show's first season is set to air on Sunday, Sep. 24, at 9 p.m. EDT.
