There have been gay focused shows in the past, but the focus has always been on hedonism and drugs for the most part. A bunch of guys who are well off and just f**k, snort and pill pop their way through life. This is a type of life for some, but worryingly it seems to be an overall perception of the gay scene. The reality is that whilst this is part of the gay scene, it isn't the gay scene as a whole and for many gay guys their lives are pretty 'scene' free. But it is the easiest picture to paint. Many gay TV dramas in the past have played up to this image and as a result have not done a great deal to dispel it. The focus on these TV shows has always somewhat shown how destructive the gay scene is and the way in which it damages men to a degree. But there has never been a focus on love and gay guys wanting what many of us as human beings want - to find love and seek acceptance. To find your true calling. To advance in your career. The stuff that we get in those 'straight people' shows, because d'ya know what - gay guys have to deal with this shit too.
HBO's new TV gay focused drama claims to be different and place emphasis on a group of friends who are all on the path to finding themselves and there-in find love. Looking is all about the journey to get there and boy does Looking take you on a journey...at a snail's pace. A whole season and only in the final 2 episodes do we get some form of character development and a bunch of things happen which we knew would always happen and should have happened about 4 episodes prior. Some critics have been overly harsh on this show for different reasons. My main irk with this is show is that it it treading ground which has been tread so many times before, yet it takes forever for the show to find itself.
Looking centres around 3 friends who are all striving for different things and are having to navigate their way not just through the minefield of dating and finding somebody on the gay scene, but dealing with life. What makes this group dynamic is that combined, they just about form an ideal man. As with Sex in the city, each of them has a very distinct trait which the other lacks, and their journey involves fumbles, tumbles and the imparting of wisdom to one another along the way.
Patrick is the youngest of the trio. A 20-something guy who works for a video games studio. He is the most sexually inexperienced, has never been in a long term relationship and is still figuring what he's into sexually and how to field the world of men and dating. He is level headed and his moral compass always points in the right direction; but he struggles to be himself when he is around guys and is constantly worrying other the perceptions of others. Agustín is Patrick's best friend who is in a long term relationship and decides to move in with this boyfriend. However, he finds it difficult to know where the lines are drawn in the relationship following on from a threesome he and his boyfriend have with another guy. Despite making the commitment to move in with his boyfriend outside of the city, he begins to miss the sense of freedom he had before and the compromises that he continually has to make as a result of now living as a true couple. Dom is the tall, hunky, sexually assertive guy - confident and always gets the guy he wants. But he is in a dead end job which he hates and is still scarred by a past relationship which left him broke, broken and constantly seeking validation.
The mix of characters in this show is strange because on their own they aren't that likeable or interesting. Patrick and Dom have their moments, but Agustin is a complete arsehole. He is arrogant, rude and just a shit bag. He is quick to judge others and shit on other people's life situations when his life is the messiest out of the trio. Augustin is the character who goes through the most transitions and arcs in the show. It's almost as though the writers realised how much of a piece of shit he was coming off as towards the end, as in the finale Augustin's edges are sanded down and he becomes somewhat likeable for about 15 minutes.
It's the supporting cast who are the most tangible and the ones you find yourself rooting for. When the main cast interact with these characters it rounds them off and makes them more interesting, because the dynamic of their character changes. But the problem with this is that these characters do not surface until 3 episodes in and their appearances are sporadic. Russell Tovey plays Patrick's boss who is gay and in a relationship, but the chemistry between him and Patrick is obvious from the start. Scott Bakula of Quantum leap fame plays Lynn, the first guy in Dom's life who is his own age and isn't interested in him for sex.
The broad age range they span between the three of them (Patrick is 29, Augustín is in his 30's and Dom is in his 40's) means that you're bound to see relate-able traits in at least one of them. The chemistry between these 3 actors / characters is cool in the beginning, but quickly becomes old because their interactions with other characters are so much more interesting. Then there's that Augustin prick who just salts every single scene. If he was to be written out of the show or end up dead at the start of season 2, I honestly wouldn't care. Bump up one of the supporting cast into a regular in his place. Nobody will care.
The nice thing about Looking is that whilst it features enough for gays to claim it in a sense, the over arcing themes and the fundamental things which the characters seek are things that many of us universally look for. Whether it's acceptance, balance within a relationship or somebody we can explore things with sexually. Looking does a good job of making the characters' desires clear, without it feeling overbearing. The relationship between the 3 characters and each of them being so different also causes certain scenes to play out nicely. Whenever one of the guys is in a situation or dilemma, the other two guys act as opposing voices of the reason the angel and the devil on the shoulder respectively. In this sense it's very similar to Sex and the city. Nowhere near as bold and there are no exchanges as iconic as those between Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. But the premise is somewhat similar.
Patrick could very easily have been made out to be the Alex of Hunting season or the Samantha of Sex and the city - an individual with a good career who just fucks around and gets with guys, but his innate awkwardness around guys makes it difficult for him to be 'that' person. Every encounter he has with a guy where he tries to project a persona that he thinks will get him to point b, ends up with him being left at square one. He tries to hook up with an anonymous guy in the bushes mistaking the act of sex with intimacy. Kissing the guy just for him to pull away and give him the 'Na-uh'. Asking him what his name is as the guy is undoing his jeans, just for the guy to tell him to stop talking. He embarks on a date with a guy and opens up about his fumble in the bush thinking the guy will find it funny and endearing, only for him to immediately judge and bring the date to an abrupt end. He then embarks on another date, and comes on really strong with a guy thinking he will relent and just skip straight to the sex, just to find that the guy isn't all about sex and gets turned off the second he realises that Patrick only wanted to get with him because he wanted the D. Different outcomes and representations of gay guys are explored within the first 3 episodes, which is refreshing, because it starts to present something other than the gay archetypes we've constantly gotten in the past. But the problem with this is that sometimes Patrick's lack of awareness feels and naivety feels too overwrought. Can a guy who is 29 with a good job in San Francisco who is good looking and has 2 best friends who are gay and know how to 'navigate the scene' really be this dense and clueless? In this regard it doesn't feel believable. Patrick isn't completely unlike-able, mainly because Johnathon Groff plays him adorably. But Patrick feels too wet behind the ears and his love story arc is cliche'd. He begins to date one guy just because he can, but it's evident he's only with him to be with him and that he really wants to be with somebody else - Kevin.
Looking picks up significantly within the final 3 episodes, but by this point not only is it too late, but all of the story arcs which finally arc were things you always knew were going to happen. To an extent, it feels as though the writers copped out on having these arcs play out in an earlier episodes just for the sake of saving it for the finale. It needn't have taken 7 episodes for at least 2 of these things to have happened.
The season finale is predictable, but it at least gives the characters more facets and it also gives more of what we should have gotten from the start. Character development, messy ass triangles and uncertainty. There were some nice twists though. Richie being the one to end things with Patrick in a moment where you probably would have expected Patrick to be the one pulling the plug. Augustin being likeable for the first time ever and Dom finally finding his feet and his footing and being sure of something for the first time.
At the current pace the show is moving at, 30 minute episodes don't feel like enough. Each episode feels almost like a trailer or a preview. Not enough happens from episode to episode. I admire the more laid back approach to the pacing and allowing the characters to breathe, but at times it feels like you are watching situations and days in the lives of these characters in real time. Looking moves far too slow with very little in the way of plot, character progression and revelations. At times the pacing is so slow that episodes lost my attention - which was never an issue when I was watching something like Hunting season where episodes felt jam packed, brisk and succinct.
Where Looking really hooks is that it touches on the small nuances and things that most gay guys have gone through at some point. Resorting to hook-up apps to validate yourself. Wondering if that lingering look from the guy on the train was because he was into you. Burying yourself in dating sites and if you will ever find that someone. That awkward date with a guy who is after something more than what you are. The one night hook-up. Seeing a guy that you like, wondering if they're straight or gay and playing Poiroit to get that info out of them and come out of it unscathed. It doesn't make a big deal of these things because for many these are all parts of their life as a gay guy in the 21st century. But other shows such as webisode Hunting season managed to pull this off so much better because it threw viewers into that whole world without ever feeling the need to introduce them into it - because it is what it is. Whilst the softer approach with Looking is admirable, there were moments where more punch was needed, so that scenes felt as though they had more of a narrative purpose.
I'm not sure how I feel about Looking as a whole. On one hand I like the difference in pace in comparison to other shows of this nature, but on the other hand I feel as though it's just another gay set of cliche's wrapped up in a mundane package. The show never seems sure of what it wants to be. In one episode there is no nudity, no sexual suggestives depicted on camera, and then in a following episode the opening scene is Patrick getting his dick sucked and then taking a shower in which you can see his arse, followed by Augustin sitting on the floor naked with his bush in full view.
The final 2 episodes were legitimately good episodes which left things in an interesting enough position that season 2 could be something wholly decent worth buying into. But the pacing and the writing needs to be taken up a few notches. Episodes need to be condensed down, because the current medium isn't long enough for many of the slow scenes and walk sin the park that this show seemed to insist taking viewers on constantly within the first season.
HBO's new TV gay focused drama claims to be different and place emphasis on a group of friends who are all on the path to finding themselves and there-in find love. Looking is all about the journey to get there and boy does Looking take you on a journey...at a snail's pace. A whole season and only in the final 2 episodes do we get some form of character development and a bunch of things happen which we knew would always happen and should have happened about 4 episodes prior. Some critics have been overly harsh on this show for different reasons. My main irk with this is show is that it it treading ground which has been tread so many times before, yet it takes forever for the show to find itself.
Looking centres around 3 friends who are all striving for different things and are having to navigate their way not just through the minefield of dating and finding somebody on the gay scene, but dealing with life. What makes this group dynamic is that combined, they just about form an ideal man. As with Sex in the city, each of them has a very distinct trait which the other lacks, and their journey involves fumbles, tumbles and the imparting of wisdom to one another along the way.
Patrick is the youngest of the trio. A 20-something guy who works for a video games studio. He is the most sexually inexperienced, has never been in a long term relationship and is still figuring what he's into sexually and how to field the world of men and dating. He is level headed and his moral compass always points in the right direction; but he struggles to be himself when he is around guys and is constantly worrying other the perceptions of others. Agustín is Patrick's best friend who is in a long term relationship and decides to move in with this boyfriend. However, he finds it difficult to know where the lines are drawn in the relationship following on from a threesome he and his boyfriend have with another guy. Despite making the commitment to move in with his boyfriend outside of the city, he begins to miss the sense of freedom he had before and the compromises that he continually has to make as a result of now living as a true couple. Dom is the tall, hunky, sexually assertive guy - confident and always gets the guy he wants. But he is in a dead end job which he hates and is still scarred by a past relationship which left him broke, broken and constantly seeking validation.
The mix of characters in this show is strange because on their own they aren't that likeable or interesting. Patrick and Dom have their moments, but Agustin is a complete arsehole. He is arrogant, rude and just a shit bag. He is quick to judge others and shit on other people's life situations when his life is the messiest out of the trio. Augustin is the character who goes through the most transitions and arcs in the show. It's almost as though the writers realised how much of a piece of shit he was coming off as towards the end, as in the finale Augustin's edges are sanded down and he becomes somewhat likeable for about 15 minutes.
It's the supporting cast who are the most tangible and the ones you find yourself rooting for. When the main cast interact with these characters it rounds them off and makes them more interesting, because the dynamic of their character changes. But the problem with this is that these characters do not surface until 3 episodes in and their appearances are sporadic. Russell Tovey plays Patrick's boss who is gay and in a relationship, but the chemistry between him and Patrick is obvious from the start. Scott Bakula of Quantum leap fame plays Lynn, the first guy in Dom's life who is his own age and isn't interested in him for sex.
The broad age range they span between the three of them (Patrick is 29, Augustín is in his 30's and Dom is in his 40's) means that you're bound to see relate-able traits in at least one of them. The chemistry between these 3 actors / characters is cool in the beginning, but quickly becomes old because their interactions with other characters are so much more interesting. Then there's that Augustin prick who just salts every single scene. If he was to be written out of the show or end up dead at the start of season 2, I honestly wouldn't care. Bump up one of the supporting cast into a regular in his place. Nobody will care.
The nice thing about Looking is that whilst it features enough for gays to claim it in a sense, the over arcing themes and the fundamental things which the characters seek are things that many of us universally look for. Whether it's acceptance, balance within a relationship or somebody we can explore things with sexually. Looking does a good job of making the characters' desires clear, without it feeling overbearing. The relationship between the 3 characters and each of them being so different also causes certain scenes to play out nicely. Whenever one of the guys is in a situation or dilemma, the other two guys act as opposing voices of the reason the angel and the devil on the shoulder respectively. In this sense it's very similar to Sex and the city. Nowhere near as bold and there are no exchanges as iconic as those between Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. But the premise is somewhat similar.
Patrick could very easily have been made out to be the Alex of Hunting season or the Samantha of Sex and the city - an individual with a good career who just fucks around and gets with guys, but his innate awkwardness around guys makes it difficult for him to be 'that' person. Every encounter he has with a guy where he tries to project a persona that he thinks will get him to point b, ends up with him being left at square one. He tries to hook up with an anonymous guy in the bushes mistaking the act of sex with intimacy. Kissing the guy just for him to pull away and give him the 'Na-uh'. Asking him what his name is as the guy is undoing his jeans, just for the guy to tell him to stop talking. He embarks on a date with a guy and opens up about his fumble in the bush thinking the guy will find it funny and endearing, only for him to immediately judge and bring the date to an abrupt end. He then embarks on another date, and comes on really strong with a guy thinking he will relent and just skip straight to the sex, just to find that the guy isn't all about sex and gets turned off the second he realises that Patrick only wanted to get with him because he wanted the D. Different outcomes and representations of gay guys are explored within the first 3 episodes, which is refreshing, because it starts to present something other than the gay archetypes we've constantly gotten in the past. But the problem with this is that sometimes Patrick's lack of awareness feels and naivety feels too overwrought. Can a guy who is 29 with a good job in San Francisco who is good looking and has 2 best friends who are gay and know how to 'navigate the scene' really be this dense and clueless? In this regard it doesn't feel believable. Patrick isn't completely unlike-able, mainly because Johnathon Groff plays him adorably. But Patrick feels too wet behind the ears and his love story arc is cliche'd. He begins to date one guy just because he can, but it's evident he's only with him to be with him and that he really wants to be with somebody else - Kevin.
Looking picks up significantly within the final 3 episodes, but by this point not only is it too late, but all of the story arcs which finally arc were things you always knew were going to happen. To an extent, it feels as though the writers copped out on having these arcs play out in an earlier episodes just for the sake of saving it for the finale. It needn't have taken 7 episodes for at least 2 of these things to have happened.
The season finale is predictable, but it at least gives the characters more facets and it also gives more of what we should have gotten from the start. Character development, messy ass triangles and uncertainty. There were some nice twists though. Richie being the one to end things with Patrick in a moment where you probably would have expected Patrick to be the one pulling the plug. Augustin being likeable for the first time ever and Dom finally finding his feet and his footing and being sure of something for the first time.
At the current pace the show is moving at, 30 minute episodes don't feel like enough. Each episode feels almost like a trailer or a preview. Not enough happens from episode to episode. I admire the more laid back approach to the pacing and allowing the characters to breathe, but at times it feels like you are watching situations and days in the lives of these characters in real time. Looking moves far too slow with very little in the way of plot, character progression and revelations. At times the pacing is so slow that episodes lost my attention - which was never an issue when I was watching something like Hunting season where episodes felt jam packed, brisk and succinct.
Where Looking really hooks is that it touches on the small nuances and things that most gay guys have gone through at some point. Resorting to hook-up apps to validate yourself. Wondering if that lingering look from the guy on the train was because he was into you. Burying yourself in dating sites and if you will ever find that someone. That awkward date with a guy who is after something more than what you are. The one night hook-up. Seeing a guy that you like, wondering if they're straight or gay and playing Poiroit to get that info out of them and come out of it unscathed. It doesn't make a big deal of these things because for many these are all parts of their life as a gay guy in the 21st century. But other shows such as webisode Hunting season managed to pull this off so much better because it threw viewers into that whole world without ever feeling the need to introduce them into it - because it is what it is. Whilst the softer approach with Looking is admirable, there were moments where more punch was needed, so that scenes felt as though they had more of a narrative purpose.
I'm not sure how I feel about Looking as a whole. On one hand I like the difference in pace in comparison to other shows of this nature, but on the other hand I feel as though it's just another gay set of cliche's wrapped up in a mundane package. The show never seems sure of what it wants to be. In one episode there is no nudity, no sexual suggestives depicted on camera, and then in a following episode the opening scene is Patrick getting his dick sucked and then taking a shower in which you can see his arse, followed by Augustin sitting on the floor naked with his bush in full view.
The final 2 episodes were legitimately good episodes which left things in an interesting enough position that season 2 could be something wholly decent worth buying into. But the pacing and the writing needs to be taken up a few notches. Episodes need to be condensed down, because the current medium isn't long enough for many of the slow scenes and walk sin the park that this show seemed to insist taking viewers on constantly within the first season.
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