Blu-ray reviews: ‘The Deuce: The Complete First Season’ and ‘Homeland: The Complete Sixth Season’

Here’s a look at a few adult-themed, cable-television series now available in the Blu-ray format.

The Deuce: The Complete First Season (HBO Home Entertainment, rated TV-MA, 500 minutes, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, $59.99) — Creators David Simon and George Pelecanos (both from “The Wire” and “Treme”) offered HBO viewers an urban crime drama that delivered an unwelcomed look at New York City during the 1970s.

Now compiled on a three-disc Blu-ray set, the show depicts a rotting Big Apple overrun with prostitutes, peep shows, drug addicts, cop corruption and mob influence — centered around Times Square — just as the rise of massage parlors and the porn industry takes hold.

Performances shining amid the depressing squalor include James Franco in a dual role of an entrepreneurial bar owner Vincent Martino and his gambling addicted brother Frankie, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Candy, a prostitute and porn pioneer.

Quirky characters also abound, including disillusioned college student-turned-bar maiden Abby Parker (Margarita Levieva); midtown cop Chris Alston (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.); construction foreman turned massage parlor owner Bobby Dwyer (Chris Bauer); and fierce pimp Larry Brown (Gbenga Akinnagbe).

Despite the excellent acting, I found little to appreciate in the mature-rated subject matter spotlighting too-real sex scenes, profanity and unrelenting violence between pimp, john and streetwalker.

Even worse, at only a measly eight episodes for the first season, it’s barely a binge watch for the potential fan with plenty of subplots unsatisfactorily still percolating.

I suggest crime drama fans rewatch “The Wire” or “The Sopranos” until “The Deuce” bulks up on episodes through multiple seasons.

Best extras: An optional commentary track on the pilot and final episodes is most notable and packs in analysis and memories from Mr. Simon, George Pelecanos, Miss Gyllenhaal, Mr. Franco, executive producer Nina Kostroff Noble and director Michele MacLaren.

Also, a too-compact overview of New York in the early 1970s clocks in only at 12 minutes as the cast and crew try to enlighten viewers about the realities of the racketeering, racism and raunch covering the time period.

Suffice it to report, a real and longer historical documentary would have been a much better extra, especially if it offered a snapshot and analysis of how bad things got on the Times Square area. I’ve heard some real horror stories from friends.

Homeland: The Complete Sixth Season (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, rated TV-MA, 600 minutes, 1.78:1 aspect ratio, $49.99) — Former CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) was back and busy in Showtime’s award-winning espionage drama. Living in Brooklyn, she was helping an old friend, multiple Muslims wrongly accused of terrorism and even offering words to a female president-elect.

A three-disc Blu-ray set allows binge-watchers to dive through 12 episodes in high definition loaded with deep-state intelligence shenanigans and terrorist threats in the Big Apple.

Besides wondering when Carrie is going to start pouting about any emotionally charged dilemma, the most compelling subplot of the season presents what’s left of former black ops CIA agent Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) after he was poisoned by sarin gas and left for dead by bad guys last season.

Suffering from the effects of a brain damage, drug addiction and PTSD, he struggles to regain any semblance of his former self while living in Carrie’s basement apartment and ultimately proves to be the hero one more time.

It was another strong season for the show with additional support from Mandy Patinkin as Carrie’s former CIA boss, F. Murray Abraham as a black-ops bureaucrat and Elizabeth Marvel as the new president, who has a well-founded negative bias against any of the government spy agencies.

However, what’s always stunning to me throughout is the lack of care Carrie demonstrates for her young daughter Frannie. This time, she leaves her alone with her buddy Peter and that turns into a dangerous situation that’s so insane the girl gets taken by child protective services.

Best extras: Sans no optional commentary tracks, the best bonus is a 55-minute-long session at the Paley Center for Media featuring a question-and-answer session with Mr. Murray Abraham, Mr. Patinkin, Miss Danes, director Lesli Linka Glatter and executive producer Alex Gansa. Josh Elliott from CBSN is the moderator.