S01.E07: Au Reservoir

[Drogo]

Quote

Candy eyes a different job on Harvey's set, but Lori struggles with the demands of porn acting; C.C, Larry and Rodney worry that pimps are becoming obsolete as the police push their business off the streets; Ashley hangs out with Frankie, but later winds up at Abby's door; Alston finds himself singled out by the precinct's new captain; Abby asks Vincent to be her escort at her family's lavish party.

 

[Primetimer]

When Abby takes Vincent to a blue-blooded party, no one's as scandalized as she wants them to be.

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[TimWil]

So was it last week’s episode or the one before that when the cops were instructed to sweep the streets every night until New Years? Tonight’s episode seems to take place in late spring/summer. That’s a significant time jump.

[Rinaldo]

Things are moving along, aren't they? I wish I knew how much time was supposed to have passed -- maybe they did drop in a line and I missed it. For so many parlors to have opened up, I would imagine there'd been at least some passage of time. Eileen's subplot suggests just a month. [Edited to add: Boys in the Sand premiered at the very end of 1971, so it's probably just a matter of weeks.][Edited the next day: Nope, wrong again. See my post below.]

Unlike the last couple of weeks, I wouldn't single out any single MVP. This was an ensemble achievement. Harvey (David Krumholtz) still was given some of the best lines though, and did justice to them.

Like when he reacted to Eileen's ideas about color for set dressing with "All of a sudden I’m working with Marshall McLuhan."

Or when she was leaving the studio and reacted to his "Daddy stuff" implications with "You’re thinking like a fuckin’ degenerate." And he looked around, gestured at himself and their surroundings, and responded with "Well… I am a degenerate."

Though the prize exchange of the hour was

Frankie: "I don’t fuck up nearly as much as people say I do."

Rudy: "Well, on that inspirational note, I’ll pretend to be encouraged."

Abby may be something of a writers' contrivance at times, but in this episode, she was a very recognizable figure of the era: the girl from a "nice" background who brings home a boyfriend she desperately hopes will shock her family. (And yes, I do find it a specifically female phenomenon at that time.) What a disappointment for her when he on the whole made a better impression than she did.

Finally, a salute to Boys in the Sand. I mentioned it two episodes ago, wrongly ascribing its release to 1972. When it turned up tonight, I checked and yes, it was actually released in late 1971, though I didn't see it till the following year. It happened right in the middle of my army stint and my therapy to come to terms with being gay. And it was a genuinely big deal, and guys did "drive a hundred miles to see it" -- I took the train from DC to NYC one weekend, having read reviews of it in The Village Voice and the like. It actually beat straight porn to the punch in terms of delivering a semi-respectable feature that was written up in mainstream press and eventually shown in "regular" theaters in most big cities. Very much a first step, without any attempt at synchronized sound (the impressionistic music we heard was accurate): just one handsome man having three separate wordless sexual encounters around Fire Island. (So the mention of "vignettes" was correct too.) A real trip down memory lane for me, and good on them for including it.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Rinaldo

[SeanC]

Let's see if Abby's second stab at rescuing a prostitute from the streets works better than the first one.

That was a great, unexpected ending.

This was the first episode where I was readily able to figure which Franco brother was supposed to be in any given scene.  I liked that Abby's dad liked him fine despite Abby's attempt to stir things up.

[LoveLeigh]

Did I not hear correctly? I thought one of the pimps said to a prostitute: "Who do you think you are? Beyonce?" I could not have heard that because Beyonce was born in 1981.  

[Drogo]

The moral of the story is, everyone loves Fantasia.

[nilyank]

1 hour ago, SeanC said:

This was the first episode where I was readily able to figure which Franco brother was supposed to be in any given scene.  I liked that Abby's dad liked him fine despite Abby's attempt to stir things up.

I am not surprised because Vincent is quite likeable. He was able to calm down Reggie Love who was full of anger the whole episode until he finally got to get got.

[thuganomics85]

Oh, Frankie!  You would look at the title "Boys in the Sand" and think it's similar to Lawrence of Arabia.  He certainly wasn't prepared for that!  I was glad that his reaction wasn't as horribly homophobic as I thought it would be, and while he was clearly not a fan of what he saw, he didn't seem to really judge the rest for enjoying it. It's just not for Frankie!

I now want to see C.C., Larry, and Rodney in a movie review show.  Call it Movie Night with Pimps or something!

Totally knew Abby was taking Vincent to the party in order to piss off her parents.  I loved that her dad actually seem to like him instead.

Surprisingly happy ending for Ashley, which kind of worries me....

Candy is continuing to effectively insert herself into more aspects of the porn industry, like with art direction and even directing.  Really enjoying her and Harvey. Also, it looks like Lori could very well break out in the industry judging from the responses.

Not sure if I trust Chris' new boss or not. I do think he'll not be happy if he hears about him and the reporter.

Poor Bobby really is not prepared for the drama, violence, and bribes that come with this territory!

I figured something was going to happen to Reggie with the way they focused on the diner guy (The Wire fan in me just wants to call him Slim Charles still!) getting upset with the way he was treating Melissa, but I didn't expect to him just flat-out shoot is ass!

Finally, Big Mike's wack room for the peep shows is getting made!

[Rinaldo]

6 hours ago, Drogo said:

The moral of the story is, everyone loves Fantasia.

Mentioning it as something to go see in one special theater is accurate to the time frame, too. That was a period when Fantasia was in rerelease, available to "art houses" in cities and college towns, with an ad campaign promoting it as a psychedelic experience. (Yes, the Disney PR people were willing to avail themselves of the interest in movies that were "good to see stoned.")

[Drogo]

5 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Also, it looks like Lori could very well break out in the industry judging from the responses.

Lori is her own #1 fan.

 

8 hours ago, DakotaLavender said:

Did I not hear correctly? I thought one of the pimps said to a prostitute: "Who do you think you are? Beyonce?" I could not have heard that because Beyonce was born in 1981.  

She was asking if the girl was a prostitute or Bobby's fiancé.

[laprin]

On 10/22/2017 at 11:34 PM, DakotaLavender said:

Did I not hear correctly? I thought one of the pimps said to a prostitute: "Who do you think you are? Beyonce?" I could not have heard that because Beyonce was born in 1981.  

It was Thunder Thighs and she asked "Who do you think you are - a fiance?"  

Edited October 30, 2017 by laprin

[Rinaldo]

10 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I wish I knew how much time was supposed to have passed -- maybe they did drop in a line and I missed it. For so many parlors to have opened up, I would imagine there'd been at least some passage of time. Eileen's subplot suggests just a month. [Edited to add: Boys in the Sand premiered at the very end of 1971, so it's probably just a matter of weeks.]

Quoting my own double idiocy to show how bad I apparently am at paying attention. The showing of Boys in the Sand that they attended was not a premiere, but a celebration of its running for 100 days. Which would put this in April 1972 -- a substantial time jump from the previous episode.

And I just recalled that the first time we saw Todd, in an early episode, he was drinking at Vinny's bar, griping about how he's been trying to get legit acting jobs, but ended up shooting this thing out on Fire Island last summer. And here it is. (I had actually been worried that the show was going to make Harvey and Eileen's little movie turn out to be Deep Throat, which would defy all credibility. So I'm glad we're already hearing rumors about it being on the way, a separate phenomenon.)

Edited October 23, 2017 by Rinaldo

[AmandaPanda]

I've not been able to get this to download in iTunes.

[ahpny]

Quote

Oh, Frankie!  You would look at the title "Boys in the Sand" and think it's similar to Lawrence of Arabia.  He certainly wasn't prepared for that!  I was glad that his reaction wasn't as horribly homophobic as I thought it would be, and while he was clearly not a fan of what he saw, he didn't seem to really judge the rest for enjoying it. It's just not for Frankie!

While his displeasure was about as non-homophobic as one could hope and expect, sadly it doesn't read as credible. Though he's been shown several times to have a surprisingly deep well of good will and tolarance, almost anachronistically so, this doesn't seem to fit a middle aged, working class white guy from Brooklyn in 1971. Yes, he's the "nice one" and honest (other than the wife-cheating thing), but this is a stretch too far.

Edited October 23, 2017 by ahpny

[Mindthinkr]

8 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Surprisingly happy ending for Ashley, which kind of worries me....

I thought that she'd encounter her pimp at the top of the escalator with disastrous results. 

[Traveller519]

Vincent's honesty really makes him appealing to everyone around him. It's cool seeing a character in that situation, running those types of businesses, who isn't a bullshit artist. He tells everyone how it is, and lays his cards flat. Well most of the time, there's some lying by omission with respect to Abby and the Parlour. That honesty steered him well in the party scenes. You could tell Abby's Dad could see that he was earnest when he said he hadn't been advised of the dress code for the party, which lead him to appreciate the job performance review.

I worry about Abby, there are Pimps with self-admitted free time on their hands, and she's not doing a lot to endear herself to them. Word gets out on Ashley and both CC and Reggie Love are going to have reason to come down on her, and CC is legitimately terrifying.

From the shallow end of the pool seeing Deborah Twiss as Mindy made me happy. I've had a small Mrs. Robinson-esque crush on her since Kick-ass and she doesn't do a lot of mainstream items.

[jenrising]

Still hate Abby. 

[BingeyKohan]

Off-topic for this thread but this past weekend I went to Washington Square Park to see the Ai Wei Wei work and noticed just steps from the arch an apartment building I'm 90 percent sure is the one used for Candy/Eileen's building exteriors. There's an address on the portico they must CGI out for the shots.

In this episode when she first arrived in her john's suite she mentions a "house detective," which doesn't seem like something she would have encountered at her pay by the hour fleabags. Another way I guess the episode marked the passage of time? She's built up some institutional knowledge of passing through nicer hotels for a change?

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Pimps with self-admitted free time on their hands

That was interesting to observe. Was the advent of massage parlors on every block pretty much the end of the Superfly-style pimp in NYC or did they just move to other enterprises (like drug-dealing)? I know there are still pimps but it seems like they'd have to stay indoors and relatively nondescript now.

Hate to say it but was there anyone in the NYPD who wasn't on the take? I guess next a police records clerk is going to show up demanding that Bobby provide a cut.

[SuprSuprElevated]

17 hours ago, DakotaLavender said:

Did I not hear correctly? I thought one of the pimps said to a prostitute: "Who do you think you are? Beyonce?" I could not have heard that because Beyonce was born in 1981.  

I don't recall the scene you're referring to, but on another telecast this week, I confused the word fiance' with Beyonce.  Thinking that word could have been used here too?

13 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Surprisingly happy ending for Ashley, which kind of worries me....

Yeah, she's not gone yet...

Edited October 23, 2017 by SuprSuprElevated

[SuprSuprElevated]

8 hours ago, Drogo said:

Lori is her own #1 fan.

 

She was asking if the girl was a prostitute or Bobby's fiancé.

Oops.  RBR disorder.  (Responded before reading)

4 hours ago, ahpny said:

While his displeasure was about as non-homophobic as one could hope and expect, sadly it doesn't read as credible. Though he's been shown several times to have a surprisingly deep well of good will and tolarance, almost anachronistically so, this doesn't seem to fit a middle aged, working class white guy from Brooklyn in 1971. Yes, he's the "nice one" and honest (other than the wife-cheating thing), but this is a stretch too far.

I sort of agree.  Sacrificed authenticity for tolerance a bit maybe?

4 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

I thought that she'd encounter her pimp at the top of the escalator with disastrous results. 

Same here.  She's not up there yet...

[Silly Angel]

19 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

 

Finally, a salute to Boys in the Sand. I mentioned it two episodes ago, wrongly ascribing its release to 1972. When it turned up tonight, I checked and yes, it was actually released in late 1971, though I didn't see it till the following year. It happened right in the middle of my army stint and my therapy to come to terms with being gay. And it was a genuinely big deal, and guys did "drive a hundred miles to see it" -- I took the train from DC to NYC one weekend, having read reviews of it in The Village Voice and the like. It actually beat straight porn to the punch in terms of delivering a semi-respectable feature that was written up in mainstream press and eventually shown in "regular" theaters in most big cities. Very much a first step, without any attempt at synchronized sound (the impressionistic music we heard was accurate): just one handsome man having three separate wordless sexual encounters around Fire Island. (So the mention of "vignettes" was correct too.) A real trip down memory lane for me, and good on them for including it.

I was so weirdly pleased by the appearance of Boys in the Sand. My housemate in the late '80s had a huge selection of what now would be valued as vintage queer pornography, including this gem, and a lot of Peter Berlin sort of stuff. Most of it was almost Skinemax mild--shadowed and blurred and shot from angles that were far from hardcore, in today's terms, but they had stories, such as they were, and artistic effects. I feel like BitS was the beginning of something that was never really fulfilled. As an author of erotic romances, I think that someone could make millions producing plot-driven, romantic erotica geared toward women. And as a student of queer history, I applaud the show for recognizing that "artistic" porn was blooming not just on David Krumholtz and Maggie Gyllenhall's set, but out on Fire Island.

[BingeyKohan]

I was sure we’d see Ashley as an early porn player. Wasn’t one of our first intros into that world through her, shooting those test Polaroids? C.C. seems to have warmed to the concept...

[PamelaMaeSnap]

6 hours ago, Traveller519 said:

I worry about Abby, there are Pimps with self-admitted free time on their hands, and she's not doing a lot to endear herself to them. Word gets out on Ashley and both CC and Reggie Love are going to have reason to come down on her, and CC is legitimately terrifying.

At least she's not going to have to worry about Reggie Love coming down on her now. 

I am really loving this show. Not surprising, since it's David Simon ... but loving SO much about it, perhaps most particularly how it's resisting any temptation to be over the top.

Love love love seeing so many of my old favorite characters and/or actors from The Wire (and Treme and Show Me A Hero) ...

I DO NOT remember Slim Charles being quite that tall and in fact looked it up and Anwan Glover is "only" 6-5, but Leon looks like he's supposed to be about 6-9 or 6-10 ... I read a Baltimore Sun review of this episode, and needless to say I will always assume that whoever is doing the recap/review for that paper is MUCH more tuned into the details and nuances than I am, but I inferred SO many different things than the reviewer did and would, for example, love to see thoughts of some folks here:

Leon shooting Reggie was called "cold-blooded." While it may have been ill-thought-out because I fear this is going to send Leon to the pokey for awhile unless the cops just decide someone who is a non-lethal part of the community shooting a pimp in possible defense of someone being abused is not worth their trouble taking to court, I didn't see it as "cold-blooded murder" at all. I am not sure if Leon is secretly in love with her or just feels really protective of her, but Reggie's abuse (mental and physical) of her was clearly a building issue.

Also, whenever I see Method Man I just want to cry "my dawwwwwwwg."

And I adore adore adore as always Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. But I don't trust David Simon not to kill him off. I just want him to survive ONE show, please. 

Edited October 23, 2017 by PamelaMaeSnap

[Traveller519]

19 minutes ago, PamelaMaeSnap said:

At least she's not going to have to worry about Reggie Love coming down on her now. 

Oops... of course. With everything else that happened in this episode I blanked on Leon shooting Reggie, which speaks to how full the show is.

For what it's worth, I agree with you. I feel like "cold-blooded" gets tossed around too much these days to try and assault and murders sound especially heinous (they aren't already). 

I think we can all side with Leon's decision to shoot Reggie Love then and there. Things had gone from bad to worse with the girl (sorry name fails me here) when she showed up with the black eyes, and they looked to be finding their way to sub-worse in that moment. Plus Reggie love was disrespecting his special culinary creation. You don't do that to a man! To anyone watching (which appears to only be the audience) he was defending someone in critical danger. The the NYPD, I'm sure it will play out as black man with gun, and no witnesses, which is heartbreaking. Maybe there's some hope he gets a vigilante-inspired reduced sentence from a legal system deciding it wants to crack-down on pimping.

[SuprSuprElevated]

1 hour ago, PamelaMaeSnap said:

I fear this is going to send Leon to the pokey

That was my first thought too.

[EtheltoTillie]

A

3 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

That was my first thought too.

I have a different take on this. Call me crazy, but I did not think he was calling the cops. I thought he was calling some kind of fixer who was going to take away the body. 

[SuprSuprElevated]

8 minutes ago, GussieK said:

A

I have a different take on this. Call me crazy, but I did not think he was calling the cops. I thought he was calling some kind of fixer who was going to take away the body. 

Hmm...interesting!

[EtheltoTillie]

BTW, the shooting was a nice homage to the Godfather when Michael shoots the cop and Sollozzo. The table fell over and the other patrons ran out.  . . I'm such a Godfather geek. 

Edited October 24, 2017 by GussieK

[right]

14 minutes ago, GussieK said:

A

I have a different take on this. Call me crazy, but I did not think he was calling the cops. I thought he was calling some kind of fixer who was going to take away the body. 

I hope you're right.  Reggie Love was a scumbag and deserved to be taken out.  I've been waiting for Leon to kick a pimp's ass sooner than later.

[Drogo]

12 minutes ago, GussieK said:

BTW, the shooting was a nice homage to the Godfather when Michael shoots the cop and Sollozzo. The table fell over and the other patrons ran out.  . . I'm such a Godfather geek. 

There may have been orange juice in the scene, which would seal the Godfather homage. 

[Rinaldo]

8 hours ago, GussieK said:

I have a different take on this. Call me crazy, but I did not think he was calling the cops. I thought he was calling some kind of fixer who was going to take away the body. 

I won't call you crazy, even with your permission, because I don't know you -- but I think it's pretty definite that you're mistaken. This is based on a real Baltimore incident where a shooter did call the cops on himself using exactly these words. (See Sepinwall's writeup.)

[PamelaMaeSnap]

THANK YOU for the link to Sepinwall's column. Not sure how I missed it (other than being the most scatterbrained person ever these last two years) but I've bookmarked it ... wondering if he meant that Cutty had the same situation in The Wire or if the guy Cutty was based on did. 

[msrachelj]

On 10/22/2017 at 11:34 PM, DakotaLavender said:

Did I not hear correctly? I thought one of the pimps said to a prostitute: "Who do you think you are? Beyonce?" I could not have heard that because Beyonce was born in 1981.  

i thought  i heard that too!

[msrachelj]

i wish we would have seen vincent give abby shit about her obviously taking him to the party for shock value. which didn't work. and he is a little slow on the pick up at times, isn't he?

i also got a little skeeved out about abby borrowing the prostitutes dress. was it washed first? and then after she wore it, she just gives it back to her without cleaning it. she IS a pig. yuk. 

[NaughtyKitty]

11 hours ago, GussieK said:

A

I have a different take on this. Call me crazy, but I did not think he was calling the cops. I thought he was calling some kind of fixer who was going to take away the body. 

Maybe he was calling Ray Donovan....  (wrong decade, wrong state, wrong network....)

[Gobi]

14 hours ago, right said:

I hope you're right.  Reggie Love was a scumbag and deserved to be taken out.  I've been waiting for Leon to kick a pimp's ass sooner than later.

I think if Leon says that Reggie was trying to rob him, the cops won't give a rat's ass about it.

[Medicine Crow]

The show "cut out" as she was going up the escalator.  Did I miss anything?

[tennisgurl]

Fantasia really is awesome. I am totally with the pimps on that one. I was also really amused by the pimps wondering how they fit into the new scheme of things. With the hookers in the parlors, what do pimps do? The existential crisis of the 70s pimp community. Maybe they should start selling platform shoes? Or run a cable TV movie review show?

I wondered if we would get a reaction from Leon to all the goings on in his diner, while he was watching Reggie Love beat on the brunette prostitute, but I did NOT see that coming! he just shot him right there! Cant say I am going to be spending a lot of time being sad about it, but after spending the whole episode thinking that Ashley was going to get hurt or killed before she could get that bus ticket, I did NOT see Reggie Love being the shows first casualty. Hopefully the cops will let this slide or give Leon a slap on the wrist. With cops cracking down on the sex trade, they might just think that a dead pimp is a pimp they can deal with, while Leon is a more or less upstanding member of society, even if his diner serves a LOT of sketchy types. 

Lori was so happy with her movie performance and so proud, it was actually quite endearing. She really seems to enjoy doing these movies, and watching herself on film. Candy/Eileen is also coming along in the pron world. She is working on more technical sides, and like Lori, really enjoys her work and feels pride in it. Considering how porn is usually portrayed as super sketchy and sad, or inane and stupid, its interesting to see how much these two women are enjoying what they're doing. 

Of course Abbey brings Vincent to a fancy party to piss her dad off. Glad that Vincent actually made a good impression on her dad, and things actually went pretty well, but I am totally sure that Abbey is annoyed that Vinnie didn't make a big splash or something. Abbey is totally doing the "upper middle class girl slums it to piss off her parents" walk a bout that so many have done before, but she seems to be a basically good person. Even if she did it out of rebellion (even though her family seems nice enough) she did still help Ashley out, so that gets her some points at least. 

[sugarbaker design]

17 hours ago, Medicine Crow said:

The show "cut out" as she was going up the escalator.  Did I miss anything?

You didn't miss anything, Medicine Crow, that's exactly how the episode ended.

I happened to notice in the credits that this episode was written by the novelist Megan Abbott.  She happens to be a particular favorite of mine, I was happy to find out she's following in the footsteps of other novelists who have worked with Simon:  Lehane, Pelecanos, Lippman et al.

[planet17]

For those also curious about Eileen's interest in the business, Maggie Gyllenhal gave an insight in an interview in the Red Carpet before the series premiered. She said Eileen sees pornography as an "artistic awakening". It reinforces for me that she didn't come from an opressive background. In this episode we had another glimpse of her story, but nothing complete yet.

Next week is the season finale, so I'm sure they'll answer that question since they're teasing us since the beggining.

[Milburn Stone]

On 10/24/2017 at 6:54 AM, Rinaldo said:

I won't call you crazy, even with your permission, because I don't know you -- but I think it's pretty definite that you're mistaken. This is based on a real Baltimore incident where a shooter did call the cops on himself using exactly these words. (See Sepinwall's writeup.)

I'm not going to read the Sepinwall link, but my assumption was that Leon was calling the cops and knew he had nothing to fear from doing so. We'll see if I'm right, but my assumption was that he knows the cops care so little about a dead black pimp that the magic words "self-defense" will be the only incantation he needs to invoke.

[txhorns79]

Quote

Of course Abbey brings Vincent to a fancy party to piss her dad off. Glad that Vincent actually made a good impression on her dad, and things actually went pretty well, but I am totally sure that Abbey is annoyed that Vinnie didn't make a big splash or something. Abbey is totally doing the "upper middle class girl slums it to piss off her parents" walk a bout that so many have done before, but she seems to be a basically good person. Even if she did it out of rebellion (even though her family seems nice enough) she did still help Ashley out, so that gets her some points at least. 

I rolled my eyes at Abby showing up at that party in a borrowed hooker outfit.  I just wanted to be like: "Abbey, try to remember the party is not about you."  Dressing up in your fanciest hooker-wear is not rebellious.  It's you making the event all about yourself."  

I'm entirely fascinated with Candy's backstory.  We know her relationship with her father is bad to the point where she fled her parent's home via the back door rather than see him, but she's seemingly said during this episode that the issue was not sexual abuse (or at least that was what I thought she was saying).  I feel like she wouldn't leave her kid in that house if the issue was any kind of physical abuse.  Though her going into hooking may not have had anything to do with her father.