HBO has released a brief The Deuce trailer. The new series from David Simon (The Wire) stars James Franco as both Vincent Martino, a struggling bartender, and Frankie Martino, his ne’er-do-well brother. The Martinos were key players in Times Square who became involved with the mob by providing fronts for the sex industry’s early days.

It’s hard to get a grasp on all of the players from this brief teaser, but I suspect that at least on a surface level, it will be like most other HBO dramas: big cast, it drops you in the middle of the action and expects you to keep up, and top-notch production value. Sometimes that leads you to something like Game of Thrones and The Sopranos; other times it leads you Vinyl. That being said, I think Simon’s going to be a big draw here as the pedigree of The Wire has only increased over time. The titillating subject matter should also be draw and also meet HBO’s demand for gratuitous nudity.

I am somewhat curious about Franco playing dual roles. It’s tough to get a handle on him playing characters because he thinks they’re neat and subversive, or if he’s actually found a human element to latch onto. To his credit, Franco’s not shy about tackling challenging roles, but his ability to give a memorable performance varies from project to project.

Check out The Deuce trailer below. The eight-episode series premieres September 10th on HBO and also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Deuce:

Created by George Pelecanos and David Simon and starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, THE DEUCE follows the story of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world at the pioneering moments of what would become the billion-dollar American sex industry. George Pelecanos, David Simon, James Franco and Nina K. Noble executive produce.