A lot of gay men are always going to hate on a product about gay men. That's just gotten worse with social media. Sometimes I think it's extreme and clearly just based on self-loathing and trying desperately to seem edgy and cool online. Some criticisms are valid.
One positive of Looking, unlike Heartstopper, Heated Rivalry, and so on, is that it never became the property of weird stans or of women who fetishize gay men onscreen while in real life ranting against gay marriage, surrogacy, adoption, and the existence of gay men altogether.
I do think some of the complaints were valid in that I didn't find Patrick overly compelling as a lead and I didn't think he and Richie were a couple worth investing in. Patrick treated him in a patronizing way even as Patrick was meant to be the central focus (in that sense I can see the Carrie Bradshaw comparison). Once they had Patrick having an affair with Kevin, the stories were more interesting as Kevin was very messy and not there to teach Patrick how to be a good gay. There were also more moments I thought suited Jonathan Groff and some lovely set pieces, like the scene where they are dancing to "Lost in Music."
I do see where they shifted focus from Augustus after the first season (I got the sense he and Patrick were meant to have more of a what-might-have-been thing - as time passed this went more toward Patrick/Dom [and if I had written the show I would have ended it with Patrick and Dom]).
I don't remember watching the second season as closely. If I ever have time I will try to go back again but I'm mostly good with my memories. There's a certain stillness and innocence which I take away from the show which you wouldn't get in today's choppily edited, bleakly lit, excessively self-aware, smugly vacuous landscape.
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DRW50 ·
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