Looking

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Three gay friends–Dom, Patrick, and Agustin–all live in San Francisco. All three guys are looking for love.

Main Characters

Patrick is the main character. He’s a 29-year-old game designer. He wants to form a meaningful connection with another guy, instead of just hooking up.

Dom is the oldest of the trio. (He turns 40 in the first season.) His dream job is to open his own restaurant, not just wait tables. He finds himself in an open relationship with Lynn, a guy around his age.

Augstin is an artist. He wants to keep making art, even when he doubts himself. He moves in with his boyfriend, Frank at the beginning of season one. He and Patrick lived together as roommates for several years after finishing college. Now, at the start of the series, Patrick is left adjusting to having his own place.

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Thoughts on the Show

After wanting to see this show five years after it aired on HBO, I finally got all the DVD’s (including the movie) and slowly popped each one into my computer. (I wanted this show to last, given that it’s only got two seasons.) This is a show that I’ll want to watch again, because there’s interesting characters and good character development. (I love Doris. She’s hilarious.)

Each of these characters have to figure something out in the show. Despite only two seasons, and a movie, these are the things that I think each of the guys are looking for in life:

For Patrick, his life isn’t all loud and proud, but rather just a fact of life. Yup, he’s gay, but he loves hanging out with his friends, and testing/designing video games. He continually makes mistakes when it comes to commitment in his relationships, and he’s gotta learn how to fix that.

For Dom, he has to navigate getting older, and figure out what that means to him professionally and personally. He also has to figure out a way to get Dom’s Chicken off the ground as well. And what does his open relationship with Lynn mean, anyway?

For Agustin, he’s got to face the challenges of defining what his relationship with his boyfriend is, and how they’ll stay together (or break up). He has to learn how to accept that it’s OK to make art, even after years of self-doubt and anxiety that you’re stuff isn’t good enough. He also learns about what it means to find the right person, the guy that you want to stay with you in your life.

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All three guys, and Doris, develop and change as characters. Looking was deemed a slow start, but garnered a healthy following.

Looking recieved critical acclaim who hailed it as a fresh take on gay themed drama and acclaimed the performances of its actors in particular of Groff and Tovey.

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of critics gave the first season a positive review based on 37 reviews, with an average score of 7.6/10. The site’s consensus states: “Funny without being obnoxious, Looking provides authentic situations that feel universal with its subtle details and top-notch performances.”

Keith Uhlich, writing for the BBC, opined that Looking “is one of the most revolutionary depictions of gay life ever on TV – and that’s because it makes it totally ordinary.” Sonia Saraiya of Variety described the finale film as “moving and beautiful”, and Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter called it “essential viewing”.

Wikipedia article for Looking

If you’re looking for something fresh, funny, and heartfelt to watch this Pride Month, you should defiantly put Looking on your watch list. It’s quickly become one of my favorite shows. I really wish that it had at least one more season to round it out before the movie.