BROOKLYN, NY – SEPTEMBER 15: Andrea-Rachel Parker attends Finding Ashley Stewart 2018 at Kings Theatre on September 15, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Ashley Stewart)
Last Sunday, HBO’s standout drama The Deuce returned for its second season to give viewers another retrospective into the sex trade in the 1970s. I caught up with star Andrea Rachel Parker, who plays Bernice on the show, and she said we can expect more depth of the characters and story line this season.
“[You can expect] more building of the characters but mainly it is going to get set into a new world,” the former POWER guest star told me at the Finding Ashley Stewart finale yesterday (Sept. 15). “You’re seeing how the sex work industry has changed and how it’s going to go more into porn. You also see the backstory of more characters and the a lot of the trials and tribulations of being in that field and the subtle interactions and nuances of the “escort and carrier” relationship.”
For season two, the show is set in 1977, described as the “the apex of the Golden Age of Porn, when the dream of a mainstream X-rated film business is suddenly a credible reality, and the culture of pornography and its blatant commodification of sex is finding increasing traction among more and more Americans.” The show also shows the intersectionality of sex work, police corruption, the LGBTQ life post-Stonewall and the disco scene.
Parker said shows like The Deuce are needed because it shows us “what role sex plays in different ways” and normalizes conversation around sex.
“The world revolves around sex right now. It’s what attracts us. It’s a primitive, natural instinct that we all have: a sex drive. I think because it drives dollars and because its something that we all understand we are at a peak of seeing everything about sex.”
Catch The Deuce every Sunday on HBO at 9 pm.
