David Simon brings double the Francos to our first look at HBO’s The Deuce

By Katie Rife | March 2, 2017 | 6:42pm

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HBO will be attempting a mulligan on series set in the sex-and-drug-filled underbelly of ‘70s New York City with The Deuce, an upcoming series exploring Times Square back when it was full of peepshows and porn theaters rather than costumed characters and blasphemous simulacra of classic American comfort food. (Which incarnation is the superior one remains open for debate.) The series is being produced by The Wire’s David Simon and George Pelecanos, and stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as Eileen “Candy” Merrell, a prostitute with ambitions beyond walking the streets of The Deuce, and James Franco as Frankie and Vincent, twin bartenders at a hardscrabble dive that also serves as a Mob front.

And according to the Entertainment Weekly article accompanying first-look images from the show, Franco took full advantage of his exponential screen time, like we all suspected he would. Franco directed two episodes of the series, and says one of them “turned out to be the episode with the most twin scenes in the whole season. Now that I look back, I do think it was pretty crazy.” You can see the double-Franco craziness for yourself, along with an image of Gyllenhaal on the job, below, courtesy of EW.