HBO's Looking

[John]

comedy about three thirty-something friends living in San Francisco who grapple with all the options in contemporary life and the complexities of the modern gay experience-Futon Critic

Season one will consist of 8 episodes that will start airing on HBO in early 2014

Stars Jonathan Groff, Frankie Alvarez, Russell Tovey, Scott Bakula,

Here are some production pics from Twitter & Instagram

Edited October 10, 2013 by John

[EricMontreal22]

It seems to be being set up as a Girls for Gays. However, I have some hope--the cast isn't bad (Russell Tovey from Dr Who and the UK Being Human) Though Scott Bakula was someone I hadn't heard connected.

The main director--of the pilot and other key episodes is another Brit, Andrew Haigh who did the great UK gay film 2 years back, Weekend.

I largely hated the US/Canada remake of Queer as Folk, but I'm pretty surprised it's taken this long for cable to do another gay based drama (those cheap shows on Logo or whatever like Dante's Cove do *not* count.)

Edited October 10, 2013 by EricMontreal22

[EricMontreal22]

I actually have high hopes for this. It has a pretty good production team and cast, and I appreciate that they're focusing on characters aged 30s to 40s. Like with Girls, there has been, probably fair, complaints about it being too white (though one male lead is Asian and another Latino,) but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnGwmP8qg2c

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[Bright Eyes]

Maybe not mature of me but, there is too much beardage and that gross stache look on Murray Bartlett? ... I physically could not watch even if I wanted to. I do hope, as a fan of Groff, that it's a success though.

[EricMontreal22]

LOL yet you can't watch? It does have a bit too much of the hipster beard I guess (I say that while currently having a beard, but that's more that I've been too lazy to shave during essay/exam month ), but that's undeniably the look of a lot of guys that age, now (particularly when I was in San Fran last Spring, I noticed it.)

Edited November 25, 2013 by EricMontreal22

[Chris B]

The main reason I'm annoyed by the lack of black cast members, is because for black gay people, we really have very little in terms of an on screen image. I would've loved a more diverse cast for something like this. That was the highlight of DTLA for me, the racially diverse cast. Oh well, I guess I will stick to Noah's Arc on Netflix! No interest in a gay version of Girls with the same issues.

[YRBB]

This seems very exciting/promising. I have been thinking that I would like to see another show centered around gay men that doesn't suck I hope this is it.

Honestly, I don't think we saw that in this trailer at all.

[Faulkner]

This show is far too white, sure. The Latino guys ticks the diversity box, and let's face it - the reality is that gay communities across the country are very racially segregated, even when we share the same social spaces.

I like that it's in SF and not NYC or LA. I've never been to SF, but it is our nation's most proudly gay city.

The facial hair IS the look right now and has been for a while. (And in the behind-the-scenes, the creatives all have beardage.) But that pornstache on a beautiful man like Murray Bartlett is a TRAGEDY and needs to be shaved off or he should go all in on a goatee or beard. Hopefully there's a character reason for his look.

I'll be watching in spite of myself. And looking forward to Russell Tovey (which autocorrected to "stovetop" on my phone) in a gay role.

[EricMontreal22]

The Girls thing seems like more the marketers (for one thing, it's a generation older.)

The main director, Haigh (who, as I mentioned, directed the great UK indie gay film Weekend) said this:

"Haigh: Whenever before a show goes on air, people want to define it. The easiest way for the media to define it is to say it’s a gay “Sex and the City, or a gay “Girls.” But I think the show is different from both of those shows. Different people, different ages. It’s out of our control, and I’m not embarrassed to be compared to those two shows. They’re both great shows. But I think ours is distinct in its tone and feeling. Our characters are in their 30s, coming up on mid 40. It’s a different age group than Girls for one thing.

Haigh: I think also because “Queer as Folk” came out in America, and ran for like five seasons, ages ago now. I think a lot of execs probably thought “We’ve done the gay show now. That’s been done. We don’t need to do something else.” Our show is very different from that show. It tells different stories from a different time and, not to negate Queer as Folk - I obsessively loved the British original myself so could never bring myself to watch the remake - but this show does not focus around issues particularly, even though they'll naturally come up."

[EricMontreal22]

I doubt it will be--the talent has already shown to have a different view of the world than Girls.

I found Noah's Ark disappointing, but not because the leads are (at least the early episodes I saw) all black. Ideally I'd love a more mixed show, in either case (and in the case of Ark, one with better acting and writing although it's not at the level of something wretched like Dante's Cover -- maybe I need to give it more episodes.)

Re race... I agree the race card is a difficult issue. There's no doubt that a tv show, even cable, is more comfortable casting white (and usually straight) leads. I mostly enjoy Girls, but what bugged about when people mentioned how white it was, was Lena's reaction to the question where she seemed to not even understand the critique. If she had just tried to understand the comment, and pointed out that this reflected her experience (growing up as a wealthy New York Jew, ) and then not turned it into a weird joke by immediately casting a black boyfriend for season 2 only tohave him quickly leave because he doesn't like her characters take on race, then I woulda been more ok with it.

One of the (many) ways the remake of Queer as Folk bugged me was they set out to make it more inclusive of the gay (and lesbian) community and failed (and notably had very little in the way of non-whites either) whereas Davies with his original series flat out said he was writing about these certain characters he recognized and knew of, and that was that. On a less serious note, re beards, as mentioned obviously this reflects the creators (Groff's character started off at a no end internet job in the late 90s in SF just like the writer, etc.)

[Chris B]

Okay, this is definitely not a Comedy. I didn't find it funny at all. I found it poorly paced and pretty dull overall. I'm going to give it a couple more weeks but so far it didn't pull me in like other HBO shows or other gay shows.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

I really wanted to like it but found it meh. It's not terrible but it's not compelling either. So far, one of the lesser HBO offerings for sure.

[difficultdiva]

I thought that the pilot was good and is the show marketed as a comedy? Is it because it's a 30 minute a week program? There were moments that I laughed, but in most of the scenes, I identified and saw what I've experienced in my and my friends lives.

I hate that this show has to be compared by some critics, reviewers and the general viewing audience to Girls, but this isn't anything like that show. I don't see a "Hannah" or any of that show's females (and males) in any of these characters.

Now, as for the diversity (or lack of it, according to some). Augustin is Cuban. His boyfriend is black. Patrick just "met cute" a hot, sweet and charming Hispanic guy on the bus. Augustin is one of the three leads on the series and he seems to be in love with his man. It also seems like cute barbershop guy will be seen throughout the series.

There was more diversity and different types of gay men shown in this pilot than what had been shown in the US version of Queer as Folk's entire five seasons (while supposedly set in Pittsburgh, PA).

[YRBB]

The pilot was pretty good. Looks like it could develop into something awesome. There were a lot of relatable moments & things that rung true. And some of the lines were truly hilarious.

I didn't see any problems with pacing, Chris. I don't know what would have constituted a better pace. Within one episode they set up stories, we saw a journey for each of the three leads, and a climax that is meant to lead to more drama down the road.

I would like them to adjust the tone a little bit. It's a little too somber/serious for a show that bills itself as comedy/drama and therefore it works against all the scenes that are supposed to be lighthearted chatter and funny. Other than that, I didn't see any issues.

I thought the acting was excellent. All three main actors, as well as the guest stars, did amazing work.

All this brouhaha made over diversity and, in the end, out of the 5 guys we see, 3 of them were non-white.

[John]

Here is the pilot

http://youtu.be/r2QnA9bfFLA