The Deuce chronicles that moment in time when sex went from being a back-alley, brown-paper-bag commodity to a billion-dollar universe in American life, a moment when ground zero for the earliest pioneers in the flesh trade was the midtown heart of the nation’s largest city, New York’s Times Square.

The Deuce follows the rise of the porn culture in New York from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world of the sex trade from the moment when both a liberalizing cultural revolution in American sexuality and new legal definitions of obscenity created a billion-dollar industry that is now an elemental component of the American cultural landscape. Beginning in 1971, the show follows a cast of barkeeps, prostitutes, pimps, police and nightlife denizens as they swirl through a world of sex, crime, high times and violence and the porn business begins its climb from Mafia-backed massage parlors and film labs to legitimacy and cultural permanence.

In addition to their work on The Wire, creators David Simon and George Pelecanos also collaborated on HBO’s New Orleans drama Treme. Simon is an author, journalist and producer whose other works for HBO include The Corner, Generation Kill and Show Me a Hero. Pelecanos is the author of 20 critically acclaimed novels, including “The Double” and “The Turnaround,” as well as a screenwriter and film producer. He served as a writer and co-producer on HBO’s The Pacific.

The cast includes: James Franco (Oscar® nominee for 127 Hours) as identical twin brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino; Maggie Gyllenhaal (Oscar® nominee for Crazy Heart) as self-made prostitute Candy; Gary Carr (Downton Abbey) as pimp C.C.; Margarita Levieva (The Blacklist) as college student-turned-barmaid Abigail “Abby” Parker; Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. (HBO’s The Wire) as police officer Chris Alston; Dominique Fishback (HBO’s Show Me a Hero) as prostitute Darlene; Emily Meade (HBO’s The Leftovers) as 20-year-old prostitute Lori; Gbenga Akinnagbe (“The Good Wife”) as pimp Larry Brown; Chris Bauer (HBO’s The Wire) as Bobby Dwyer, a construction foreman and brother-in-law of the Martinos; Chris Coy (MAXPrime’s Banshee) as bartender Paul Hendrickson; Natalie Paul (HBO’s Show Me a Hero) as reporter Sandra Washington; and Michael Rispoli (HBO’s The Sopranos) as mafia captain Rudy Pipilo.

The Deuce was created by David Simon and George Pelecanos; executive producers, David Simon, George Pelecanos, Nina K. Noble, James Franco; co-executive producer, Richard Price; producers, Marc Henry Johnson, Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The Characters

Vincent Martino (James Franco) is a successful and astute barman with a knack for promotion who finds himself – with increasing reluctance – in the center of the city sex trade after he attracts the interest of a well-connected mob player, Rudy Pipilo (Michael Rispoli). A Gambino captain, Rudy represents that New York family’s financial interests in the midtown sex business. After Abby Parker (Margarita Levieva) drops out of NYU, she and Vincent begin a relationship that ultimately challenges them both. Vince’s identical twin brother Frankie is Vincent’s freewheeling, free-spirited counterpart, who gets by on his brother’s support, but is increasingly drawn toward Pipilo’s business interests.

Darlene (Dominique Fishback), a young but street-smart woman from North Carolina, uses her savvy to manage her volatile pimp, Larry Brown (Gbenga Akinnagbe), while Lori (Emily Meade), a 20-year-old fresh off a Greyhound from Minnesota, is taken into the fold of dapper pimp C.C. (Gary Carr) immediately upon her arrival at Port Authority. C.C. is equally capable of charm and brutality in managing his prostitutes, while Larry Brown controls his stable – Darlene, Loretta (Sepideh Moafi) and Barbara (Kayla Foster) – largely through intimidation.

Meanwhile, bartender Paul (Chris Coy), inherited by Vincent Martino as he takes over a Mob-backed midtown bar, traverses the early years of the increasingly open post-Stonewall culture of gay New York, all with an eye to running a nightspot of his own. All these storylines merge as some of the streetwalkers, excited by the prospect and promise of stardom, find new work amid the rapid acceleration in pornographic production in New York.

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