Who’s Who on HBO’s ‘The Deuce’

Portrayed By: James Franco
Where You’ve Seen Him: Freaks and Geeks, 127 Hours, 11.22.63, a million other things
Who Are Vinnie and Frankie? Deuce lead Franco has a dual role as brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino. We meet the comparatively upstanding Vinnie first; he’s a father and husband that works multiple bartending jobs in Times Square to make ends meet. He also cheats on his wife and dresses up waitresses in revealing bodysuits to draw in male clientele. Vinnie’s brother Frankie is an ex-marine and Vietnam veteran that’s addicted to gambling and has made plenty of enemies.

Portrayed By: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Where You’ve Seen Her: The Honourable Woman, Frank, The Dark Knight
Who Is Candy? Candy’s a hooker unlike any other in that she doesn’t have a pimp. Candy handles her own business and answers to no one–and she takes her job seriously. But Candy’s just a moniker she goes by on the street; her real name is Eileen Merrell and she has a son that lives with her mother outside of the mean streets of Times Square.

Portrayed By: Gbenga Akinnagbe
Where You’ve Seen Him: Detroit, The Good Wife, 24: Live Another Day
Who Is Larry Brown? In tackling the sex work of the early ’70s, The Deuce features a number of pimps and their “employees.” Larry is one such pimp, one that’s not as flashy as C.C. or as picky as Reggie Love–although he does love his gator skin shoes. Larry is Darlene’s pimp, and his whispered about temper is tested when Darlene doesn’t return from her night shift until well past dawn.

Portrayed By: Gary Carr
Where You’ve Seen Him: Death in Paradise, Downton Abbey
Who Is C.C.? We first meet the professional looking and smooth talking C.C. at Port Authority, where he and fellow pimp Reggie Love like to recruit new girls. C.C. sweet talks Lori and brings her into the fold, but C.C. isn’t as nice as he lets on. By the end of the pilot, C.C. has taken a blade to his former number one girl after she complained about hooking in the rain.

Portrayed By: Dominique Fishback
Where You’ve Seen Her: Show Me a Hero, Royal Pains, Blue Bloods
Who Is Darlene? Darlene is a young, sweet prostitute that works for her pimp Larry Brown in Times Square. We see two of Darlene’s encounters with men: one is a rape fantasy that gets out of hand, causing her John to slap her; the other is with a man that just wants someone to watch A Tale of Two Cities with. Darlene goes along with both. She begs Larry not to retaliate against the man that struck her, and she gets so emotionally invested in the movie that it brings her to tears.

Portrayed By: Lawrence Gilliard Jr.
Where You’ve Seen Him: Graceland, The Walking Dead, The Wire
Who Is Officer Alston? We don’t see much of Officer Alston in the Deuce pilot, but we get the sense that he knows what’s going down around him. He makes small talk with the pimps, even putting Larry Brown in his place over them not-so-special gator shoes, and he knows what Officer Flanagan really wants when he offers to give NYU student Abby a ride back to her dorm.

Portrayed By: Margarita Levieva
Where You’ve Seen Her: The Blacklist, Revenge, The Lincoln Lawyer
Who Is Abby? 20-year-old English major Abby Parker seems to pride herself on knowing the score. She seduces one of her professors and doesn’t flinch when she gets arrested for trying to score speed (to help her study, she tells the cops). Officer Flanagan doesn’t want to deal with the paperwork, so he takes Abby to Vinnie’s bar. After spending all night talking to her new favorite bartender, Abby bails on that big exam.

Portrayed By: Emily Meade
Where You’ve Seen Her: Money Monster, Broad City, The Leftovers
Who Is Lori? When we first meet Lori, she’s fresh off a bus from Minnesota. But as soon as C.C. starts his slow recruitment process, Lori cuts the crap and reveals that she ain’t so green. She infers that she’s hooked before, and she makes a nice amount of money after her first night in NYC. So far she’s only seen C.C.’s good side.

Portrayed By: Zoe Kazan
Where You’ve Seen Her: The Big Sick, Olive Kitteridge, Bored To Death
Who Is Andrea? Andrea is Vinnie’s wife, who we initially think is stepping out on him night after night. Every time Vinnie comes home, Andrea’s mom is smoking in front of the TV while Andrea is who knows where. Vinnie later tracks her down at a pool hall–and she doesn’t leave with him. The troubled couple have a heart to heart and we learn that Andrea’s way more complicated: she’s sick of being a prisoner in her own home, trapped inside night after night while Vinnie goes out to work (and also get with other women).

Portrayed By: Tariq Trotter
Where You’ve Seen Him: The Roots, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Who Is Reggie Love? This pimp served in the Americal Division during the Vietnam War and has a lot of thoughts about politics and the way Richard Nixon operates (“You can see right where the man coming from”). He’s also a little picky with his prostitutes.

Portrayed By: Cliff “Method Man” Smith
Where You’ve Seen Him: Blue Bloods, Keanu, The Wire
Who Is Rodney? While we don’t see as much of Rodney in the pilot, we get the idea that this pimp is quick with a one-liner and a bit more gregarious than Larry or C.C. He also tries to recruit Candy, offering to protect her against all the men that hurt and kill hookers. It doesn’t work, though, because Candy makes her own money.

Where to watch The Deuce