difficultdiva

Dang it.

I forgot to DVR this. I have to check when this episode re-airs.

Dang it.

I don't think that Agustin's "toxic". I just think that since he's still all over the place, in regards to his professional and personal situation, he may be hoping that if things go sour with Frank, Patrick will be there to help him pick up the pieces. Without having to also deal with Patrick having a boyfriend.

So it goes down to whether he will let himself grow or stand in place if standing in place means he just might remain alone.

See, that's what I currently see happening with Agustin and what had happened with Dom from so long ago.

We have Agustin, who has a support, cute and sweet boyfriend, Frank. Yet, he's still not happy (with himself). So, in my eyes, it looks like he's looking for something outside of himself, that will explain (to him, at least), why he's miserable.

Dom, let EIGHT YEARS of his life go by, without any sort of achievement. Yes, he's still hot and could get any hot guy he wanted, but he's bored and miserable about his life. He's trying to change it.

Patrick's on the cusp and at least he's aware that he's got to take some kind of leap.

Just got done waiting. (yes, I know I should be in bed).

Loved that.

Did a little shriek when I saw Richie. Though I see chemistry with Patrick and Kevin.

I see why people already seem divide between the two.

So happy that Patrick stepped out and lived a little.

Doris rocked. And NOW it looks like a friend unit which is kewl.

Also loved Dom and Lynn together.

I clapped my hands like a happy seal, once I saw that it was Richie in the club.

I can see why viewers are torn between Kevin vs. Richie regarding Patrick. Groff was able to show how attracted Patrick is to both characters, but I think that pursuing a relationship with Kevin will just mess up Patrick even more.

Kevin's definitely attracted to Patrick, but he's also still somewhat committed to his current boyfriend. Patrick would be putting himself and his career on the line for Kevin to maybe realise that he doesn't want to let go of his current relationship?!

Then there's Richie. Patrick's messed up with him, but he still gives him a chance. I think that Patrick will definitely have to open himself up, in being honest about who he is, the things that he wants and really filter out the things that his friends (particularly Agustin) may positively or negatively say about his pursuit of Ritchie.

At times, I think that Agustin wants Patrick to not be able to find "the one" for him, because then he wouldn't be always there for Agustin and his troubles.

I do find it interesting that Dom's not so involved in Agustin's and Patrick's lives as much. I think he realised after the visit by his horrible ex, that he has got to take charge of his life and he can't let himself be misdirected anymore by his disappointments, sex drive and/or his decade's young pals.

I'm so glad Patrick ran into Ritchie.

Agustin, even though he's going to mess up his relationship with Frank, called out what Patrick was letting himself do with Kevin. He was involved in some fantasy relationship with his boss.

Kevin is hot, but he is still his boss AND in a relationship.

I want Dom and Lynn to be together.

Another great episode.

Looking does upload their episodes in YT. Well, at least the first episode.

I wasn't looking that close to try and see anything.

WWHL was a fun show last night. Tamar seemed smitten with Groff (as everyone should be).

EM22 - Well, I'm glad that Fraser had a great time with his fellow writers. Just from that interview he gave, it seemed like the writers had to stick to a particular set of directives regarding how the characters were written during that time and they couldn't go down another direction for them.

Jonathan Groff's on tonight's "What What Happens Live" with Toni Braxton.

Taoboi wrote:

Mostly the bold. I also am suspecting this is more a case of trying to be everything to everybody when it should...just be. FOR NOW that is.

I don't find it boring at all. And I hope that it is allowed to grow. Typically, it takes a show two seasons to even find its footing.

Exactly. It's an 8 episode 30 minute series -- for a drama (or however its classified) that's not really a lot of time. I suppose if people already find that boring than they should just move on, but... I do find some of the more critical reactions on blogs funny, though. One person will complain that the show simply is not gay enough, another person complains that, for example, they show a bathouse, cruising in the park and dancing to 80s music like Erasure so the show is somehow out of touch with the times (whatever that means,) etc

I have the same wish for HBO giving the show a second season, but I don't think they'll change how they'll write the characters and their storylines. I don't think we'll have QAF Ted/Job like problems happening to Patrick, Agustin or Dom in the second season (if it happens)

That's why I find the constant need to compare Looking to all the other shows, especially QAF so unnecessary and even more limiting to viewers. They're trying so hard to categorize the show, that they're not letting themselves to let go and just watch the show. Go on the journey with these characters. The issues with how much/not enough sex, the ways that they go about having sex and the music thing is odd. These characters are not sexless gay characters, quick with a flippant comment, always fabulous aka "on" and their lives are in the forefront, without them ALL needing a "Grace" to their "Will". Now, some complaints about there not being enough females in all the characters lives. This show isn't supposed to focus on those characters.

Clubs, even ones in this day and age will play Erasure, Bronski Beat, etc. Those groups and their songs still inspire DJs, musicians and little gay/bi boys and lesbian/bi girls out here in this world today.

I think some folks just want to feel apart of this, even if they hate the show and will continue to watch and come up with new topics to pick on during each new episode.

EricMontreal22 -

Brad Fraser, a Canadian gay playwright who I really admire, and have some sort of "facebook" friendship with (Mia Kirshner and Thomas Gibson were in a movie of his most well known play, Love and Human Remains) was one of the main writers for the final seasons of the show, and while his plays are always over the top and sexually graphic I was disappointed that he didn't seem to bring much of what I liked about his work to QAF (I have to be careful what I say on FB about the show, lol.)

Of course part of the issue was simply that the show had to keep Justin in Brian's orbit, probably partly due to uninspired writing but also due to the fanbase. I remember Davies said one reason he couldn't see QAF going on long was that he just didn't think that the equivalent character, at his age and experience, would stay in the same social world as the others for long.

Brad Fraser spoke about the limitations of what the writers had to come up with stories for all the characters due to how the fanbase didn't want Justin to exist without wanting him to constantly be beside Brian (and in his bed) AND how they always wanted to see Brian succeed in the things that he wanted: his job, his friends, his Justin (even when he was treating them like trash).

Fraser gave an interview on some Canadian entertainment show, in which he said QAF was written with the mindset of entertaining bored, fat middle-aged housewives. Ultimately, he was right. I don't think that he received any flak from his bosses, but the fanbase was riled up for quite some time. Then the final season happened with Brian purposing marriage and wanting to by a home for him and Justin. It felt like they were taunting the audience, who so wanted to see that happen for the couple. They couldn't stand it that Justin chose to leave Pittsburgh and Brian, in order to pursue his career and that Brian stayed in town, still friends with Michael.

For Lorimer, I found a link to the short film, back in early 2013. Of course the link isn't active anymore.

Oh crap. I don't watch WWHL. Does Bravo air those episodes on their website?

The slow burn is better than the fast pace, chop chop and exciting things that another person might have chosen to do, if they had created the show.

DRW50 - It was Randy Harrison, who portrayed the Justin Taylor character. I think he's actually a talented actor, but he really couldn't keep his distaste and growing dissatisfaction with what was being written for his character from being seen (and at times read about in the press) from the viewing audience. Especially the ones who became shippers of Brian and Justin. I felt some sort of empathy for him, because he had watched both seasons of the UK original and he assumed (just like I had done), that the tone would be like the one created in Manchester: a world that people could look into and somewhat identify with, regardless of where you come from in life. He also made a point to stress that he was absolutely nothing like the character of Justin, that pissed off a lot of his fanbase.

I do wonder how much more mileage they can get out of Stassi/Jax/Kristen/Tom/Ariana musical beds. Stassi is a great character who is oddly lovable in spite of her narcissism and cruelty, but she could easily become unbearably shrill.

And it feels like a reality TV version of Torchwood in that every character does something ridiculous that would have gotten them fired in any other universe, but they stay on for the sake of the TV show. (Well, until everyone got killed off.) It all makes Lisa look silly and unprofessional.

I know. I'm up right now watching the Cabo episodes. Between pathetic and drunk Katie, Kristen calling Lisa, her boss and demanding that Ari be fired and Stassi's narcissism being cranked off the charts "because, it's MY BIRTHDAY!!", I'm trying to remember if being this cray cray was a growing pain of being in your early twenties or if this stuff is just manufactured BS for this group of individuals.

The only one that seems relatively with it and has their stuff together, is the single girl with the tiny butt. I can never recall her name, because she has no damn drama churning around her.

Lisa must have employees who are way more professional for both her restaurants, than the ones featured on her show. She wouldn't be able to keep her places of business, if everybody was like this motley crew of narcissists.

Now, I have to play catch up on watching the episodes I had missed.

Tovey is the boss.

So did anyone see WEEKEND and wasn't prepared for this given who was the co-creator and director just going by articles read or is this 'the cheese stood alone' kinda of thing?

I don't get it either. I've watched both Weekend and the small film, Lorimer. I also read the interviews with the three male leads. I did not see how Looking would or could ever be the gay version of Girls or SATC and the modern take on Queer as Folk US.

Neither HBO or any of the folks working on this series (from the producers, writers, directors and actors) promoted this program as any of the other series. It was reporters, commentors, reviewers and bloggers who had to find something to use as a barometer to discuss what they thought Looking was going to be about BEFORE they even saw a clip of any episode. Once they got their screeners and watched them, that's when all of their initial writings on the series couldn't match to what they were viewing.

Why can't Looking just be what it is? A reflection of what these three characters are experiencing in their lives in this fictional world. A world that is "normal, everyday, complicated, sort of boring, with not too many over the top situations".

I hate to admit, but since I work in the restaurant industry...watching this is putting my workplace to shame right now. Probably which I can hold some of the details. LOL!!!

And thanks for the Tom and Adri info. I was so confused on that.

I wasn't confused on the Jax and Kristen stuff. Wow. He really will bang anything, won't he? And her? No words.

Same.

Has Tom lost his mind and gone after Jax over what he did with Kirsten? After all the subtle hints that Jax was saying about Tom and the other bartender messing about with each other, he's the one that screws his friend's girl?!

Now, I don't like Stassi (and her ridiculous name), but at least she backed up what she's always told that other ridiculous girl (Schema?!) she would do if anybody she knew had sex with Jax.

She would beat their ass.

Still liking it.

Loved the scene in episode 2 with the Easure song.

And...*watched Episode 3 and was great to as a lot of things starts*

I watched episode 3 as well. Another great episode.

Yes.

And I enjoyed Stassi going in on that trifling h*.

The last time I watched one of the episodes, was when Kirsten left the restaurant when Stassi (and her other scene folks) told her that they wouldn't listen to her complaining about her boyfriend anymore, after she took him back.

Was there anything going on between him and that other female bartender?

Is Kirsten the Olive Oyl looking one on this show?

I wasn't shocked by that conversation between those three characters. They are supposed to have a long history with each other and friends do talk that way to each other about things going on in their lives.

Patrick and his issues, yet again got the best of him and he screwed up on his date with Ritchie. I still don't think it's the last we'll see from him, but I think he just didn't want to be "uncut Latino meat" to Patrick.

Dom's ex certainly proved that even a recover meth head could still be a user and jerk.

I love how supportive Agustin's boyfriend is about his art. I feel that Agustin thinks that he shouldn't want to enjoy spending time at home, eating pizza with his man, but he ends up being happy anyway.

I'm glad I appreciate that many people--people whose opinions I respect--love the US/Canadian QAF. I've noticed most of them didn't see the original till after (there are comments on Amazon that complain about the original how ugly the actors are and the sex is toned down. I guess I prefer somewhat realistic looking men who can act, and the sex was actually more graphic but also more realistic--no TV montages, so...)

The second episode airs this week, its the third episode (and 6th I think of Girls?) that airs the sat before the Superbowl, though they will repeat it Sunday. I think that makes sense--I hate when they take a break (and for an 8 episode series that's pretty deadly--interesting the UK original QAF was, I think, 8 30 minute episodes as well.)

Same for me. :-) I still recall the first episode of QAFUK and how those characters came across to me as people that you could meet in real life AND I really liked the fact that none of them were out of this world pretty. I found Stuart Alan Jones to be very charismatic, even though he was violatile, hard to deal with at times and didn't want anyone to know that he actually cared about folks (especially Vincent) in his life. I also loved how Stuart seemed to enjoy sex and how he was able to "pull" the guys he met each night. It didn't seem like some burden that his US counterpart had to face, because he (Brian Kinney) was seen and deemed as this "sex god".

I was fortunate to watch QAFUK when it initially aired and even with it only being 8 thirty minute episodes, they steadily grew an audience in the UK (with gay male and to their surprise female audiences) and gained critical acclaim in the UK and US. Entertainment Weekly wrote an article up about the series at that time and said that it was the best "cult show that nobody in the US could watch", unless they knew of somebody in the UK who could pirate them copies of the show. If QAFUK hadn't been created, who knows if Aiden Gillen or Charlie Hunnan would have been cast in US series "The Wire" or "Sons of Anarchy".

With gays feeling increasing scrutiny over gay marriage and adoption, some homosexual viewers may have become exasperated with the promiscuity of several Folk characters, not wanting to watch a show that some say enforces stereotypes."

http://www.medialifemagazine.com:8080/News2005/jul05/jul18/3_wed/news4wednesday.html

(I love how they didn't mention that people maybe just got tired of how increasingly ridiculous QAF's stories got as being a reason... And the fact that five years, even if the show were great, is around when viewers really drop off for most cable shows.)

Thanks for finding and posting that article about the ratings for QAFUS. I recall that the show had steadily lost viewers over time.

The storylines did become ridiculous on QAF after awhile, because I think the show's creators were just treading water until the series finally ended. The actors portraying Brian and Justin at that time were certainly done (in their minds and in their portrayals of their characters) by the beginning of the fifth and final season.

I do think it's interesting that some of the initial selling of "Looking" in the media chose to use "Girls" and "Sex and the City" as the barometer instead of QAFUS. I wonder why that was the case?

Is the show airing the 3rd or 2nd episode on Saturday night to avoid competiting with this year's Super Bowl telecast?

Eric - I have the same feelings towards QAFUK vs. QAFUS.

Why do people always think HBO has tons of gay content?? I don't get this.

I think people have that opinion because of OZ, the series based on the maximum security prison that was on before The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under took over HBO and in became the darlings of media critics.

That series, during that time (1997 - 2003) was the only program on cable that featured stories about sex between two men (be it rape or consensual) and they had one of the very first love stories between two men on screen (Beecher and Keller), even though it was a highly dysfunctional relationship throughout the series. They also had full frontal male nudity and gay characters.

I do think that Showtime had other programs on their network (Beggars and Choosers and Brothers) that had gay characters, but those shows were pretty tame in comparison to OZ.

So the Jamey was complaining that the Roy/Haley story made many US websites when "characters on US Soaps try to kill themselves all the time". I know most people here have mixed feelings about today's Corrie and all but you can't really compare a storyline that went on for months and ended with Haley taking her own life with Maxie being suicidal for one episode of GH.

I'm sorry, but Jamey should really think about the things that he complains about, due to be angry over the media (outside of the soap world) interest in certain things pertaining to soaps. You're correct. There's a huge difference in what Corrie has done, to what YR, DAYS, GH and even BnB have failed to do in the past regarding illness and suicide storylines.

The outside media would pay attention, if the folks in charge of daytime soaps made some sort of effort to bring SOME sort of reality and truth to their need to "entertain" in these fictionalized worlds.

It was NOTHING like Girls. It was not "funny" at all. Not bad, just not funny. I'll see what episode two is like, I thought episode one was just fine. But compared to that Sunday evening's Girls and True Detective, it was the weakest of the night's offerings. I won't judge though, because a pilot is a pilot. Slowness is par for the course.

I will say though, I had to catch myself when I asked myself, "So what makes this show special? How is it different from QAF?" The problem with such questioning is, it's totally unfair to compare a "gay show" to another "gay show" just because it's gay. That's like saying Good Times is superfluous because Sanford and Son was already a black sitcom. I'll give this show a chance because I tend to trust HBO's offerings on gp. We'll see.

I agree. I've already seen suggestions from viewers saying that more sex and witty banter needs to be added to make the show more interesting to them. Maybe that does happen, but you have to be patient and give the show a chance.

Great comparison to how different all the black sitcoms have been developed throughout the past 40 something years. Nobody should want to expect "The Game" to be somewhat like "The Jeffersons" and that should be thought about in regarding new series being based on gay characters.