As some of you may know, HBO launched a series on 19 January called Looking. It is a comedy-drama series 'about a group of gay friends living in San Francisco' (Wikipedia). Most notably, the series stars Jonathan Groff (Glee, Frozen, best friend of Lea Michele). Having kept up to date so far, I am somewhat disappointed, mainly due to the acting and writing, but also because of the depiction of the 'gay lifestyle', as well as gay people themselves. Although the show claims to provide a realistic and accurate representation of what it means to be gay, I feel that it offers a very limited scope on the matter, addressing a very narrow, almost stereotypical image of gay males. Three quarters of the interactions between characters revolve around the sexual and romantic aspects of their lives, leaving very little in the way of character development outside of their sexualities. This leaves the uneducated viewer the impression that the only thing on the mind of a gay person is when they're going to next have sex. These all work to promote the stereotype of promiscuity and moral vacancy often associated with the LGBTQ community. I am interested in your thoughts, as this is only my opinion and I am open to criticism of it. I am unsure of whether a discussion thread for this particular series already exists, and apologise if that is the case.
To be frank, I haven't heard about that TV show. It would be rather disappointing of HBO to release something with low standarts. Spreading harmful stereotypes be media is an awful thing. You got me intrested, I will have to check if that series is really so squishy.
I started a thread on the show a few weeks ago but it kind of petered out. I for one actually like the show, but I know from what I've read around the interwebs that it's pretty divisive. Some think it's too boring, some think it's actually not sexually explicit enough, and so on. I think it's got a tough thing going for it because it's never going to be representative of all gay men, and thus no matter what it does it's going to seem lacking to a good chunk of people. There are certainly things about it that speak to me, as a guy in his late 20s not knowing what he's doing with his life. I'm interested to see how they develop the characters going forward, but I'm guessing it probably doesn't get a second season since the ratings are pretty low (and as someone who doesn't have cable, I guess I'm not helping that).
I saw the first episode. It didn't really grab me, for the reasons you just listed. If I happen to catch it on again I might watch it out of boredom though.
In all honest, this is essentially the center of it's genre. Does it paint a realistic picture of the lifestyles of homosexuals? No. Do shows centered around heterosexuals paint realistic pictures of heterosexual lifestyles? No. Average lifestyles simply aren't interesting. People wouldn't want to watch an entire season of a drama about someone working on their career and finding inspiration in their life. We might root for that character to succeed, sure; however, seasons worth of completely realistic and commonplace lifestyle wouldn't be interesting. It is still more detrimental for an African American to be portrayed as uneducated or unsuccessful than a Caucasian. There will always be some ignorant individual who chooses to base their perception of others on fiction and generalizations; it is just a reality. We don't need to convince every heterosexual that homosexuals are angelic creatures by portraying picturesque lifestyles without flaw. We need to stop wasting our time trying to prove ourselves to them.
I feel a little bit like a one-man cheerleading squad for this show here, but I'm going to highly recommend this week's episode. I mentioned on the other Looking thread (and I might repeat some other points too) that this show would work a lot better as a one-hour format than a half-hour, because the stories don't quite have enough room to breathe considering the style is a bit more naturalistic. But last night's episode (minor spoiler) focussed entirely on Patrick and Richie as they spend a day out on the city together. Without having to cover too much ground with the other characters, it really got to more meaty character work than having to focus on plot. As a guy who is only recently out and hasn't started dating yet, I can't speak much to the authenticity myself, but I like that the budding relationship doesn't only focus on topics where one could easily swap out the gay couple for a straight one; there are uniquely gay things discussed there, in addition to very universal new couple things. And it was just a very sweet episode of television. Another thing that really grabs me about this show, in a similar way to the movie Weekend (the director of which has done a lot of work on this), is that there seems to be some parallels between the state of the characters at points in their lives and the development within the queer community as a larger whole. Again, I'm speaking mostly as an observer, but I noticed a bit of tension as to how the community is developing, particularly in light of increased public support for LGBTQ issues. I had a discussion with an old lab mate back about how the awareness of the political aspects of Pride Week had been dwindling, which was something he was a little bit more acutely aware of since he was muslim and grew up in Africa. Anyway, perhaps I'm reading a bit too much into this because I tend to like picking out the broader political stuff. But its something I can sort of see being intentional based on the way shows how each character deals with their relationships, their careers, their comfort with their sexualities, and so on (which again makes me wish this was a full-hour show; these could be explored so much more fully if there were a little bit more time to flesh out some of the scenes). And there are just a lot of other things I like in general about the show. I personally like the writing and acting, which is pretty low key in comparison to something like Girls (which I also like). The characters are appropriately flawed, and the writers I think trust the audience enough to gradually reveal backstory in small, subtle ways. And I like the style, which is fairly cinematic for a half-hour show. Unfortunately for its longevity, these aren't necessarily things that will grab audiences beyond a small niche, and, also unfortunately, it's already cutting down on potential viewers by being a queer show. If anyone has actually kept up with this show, feel free to cut down my arguments, as I haven't had any real opportunity to discuss.
It's definitely gotten better with each passing episode. Last night's episode in particular was easily the best yet I thought - simply amazing on every level (from the scripting to the performances).
I found that episode that only dealt with Patrick and Richie allowed for more character development, within the 30 min format at least it felt like we were finding out more about them (conveniently as they were discovering each other). If this amount of detail and exposition would have been present in the pilot rather than finally at episode 6 maybe it would have had better reviews/following. However I get they were trying to introduce the 3 main characters, together and in their respective lives. Maybe the whole series is a case of 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound sac?
I agree with you Awesomeyodais. Patrick, Richie, and Kevin are infinitely more relatable than the other main characters at this point. I loved the most recent episode. Even though Patrick has been drawn towards Richie, I still hope that we see more of Kevin and his experiences in the future. August, Frank, and Dom are all much more flat in my opinion. Not completely flat, I'm not necessarily bored on their sections, but I have noticed that I am very apathetic as to whether Augustin and Franks relationships works out or whether Dom finds a long-lasting relationship.
I really like this series. The first episode was rather bad, but I really like it now, especially the last episode. It's a good show.
Just finished watching the season one finale... some strong dialogue (I'm this close to letting me fall in love with you, but I don't think you're ready - wow and ouch), the obligatory cliffhangers (so what next), anyone looking (pun intended) forward to next season?
Yep I just watched the finale as well. They've renewed Looking for season 2, which made me quite happy because this show is too good to end here. Doris, Richie, and Kevin were promoted to be part of the main cast. It seems like a logical move because those three seem to play an important part of the main characters that they associate with most. Here's to season 2, woot! HuffPost made a list of things that they wanted to see next season. I was wondering if any of you guys agree or disagree. Or what would you want to see included? What We Want To See In 'Looking' Season 2 I would like to see even more racial diversity in the cast. I understand that representing every racial minority in the gay community is a difficult task to achieve. But if the writers somehow put such characters into next season, then that would make the show stand out. However, I don't want the racial diversity to be mandated, i.e. "the feedback from viewers has been to include more minorities, so let's do that". I would rather see incorporation of racial diversity as the writers' initial intent rather than as a reaction to feedback, as the latter comes off as forced and insincere.
