HBO's Looking

[Taoboi]

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*

[difficultdiva]

I watched episode 3 as well. Another great episode.

[Taoboi]

Oooooo...goody.

I will wait to discuss it since I don't know how to use spoiler tags.

[SouthOfSoap]

I just watched the first 3 episodes back to back. There isn't much going on, it's more like a pastiche of gay characters.

Jonathan Groff's portrayal irks me though (could be the writing though). He is clearly meant to be insecure and type-A, but acting easy going to try compensate for that. Only Groff alternates between the two states rather than display the simultaneous farce. We've all met that person in real life a million times, so shouldn't be too much of a stretch to nail, but Groff fails at it. It's a shame because he did really great work on season 2 of Boss.

I think I like Murray Bartlett's character best. His fag hag is great too.

Russell Tovey is ick (I expect to be pelted with tomatoes for that comment)

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

If Tovey is the guy who had the threesome then yeah he's very sketch to me as well.

I also saw episode 3. I can see why people liked it a lot more but it still seemed to miss that spark of life which makes for compelling TV. I just don't buy the relationships that the show is trying to sell me. Aside from the older guy and the "hag" I just don't feel a real connection between the main three like that.

[juppiter]

Agreed. I wanted to like it but it is too boring.

How come True Blood and Game of Thrones are softcore porn and "the gay show" is so boring. Like, shouldn't it be the other way around?

[John]

Isnt Russell Tovey's Kevin Patrick (Jon Groff's) Boss???

Edited February 1, 2014 by John

[Taoboi]

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?

[difficultdiva]

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".

Edited February 1, 2014 by difficultdiva

[SFK]

Last week someone made a snarky comment on my friend's FB page about seeing him on some show, it totally went over my head, but turns out he was the escort on tonight's episode. Small world.

The main character annoys me. His new boss reminds me of Ricky Gervais. And I did NOT realize that was the dude from GL. He looks so much older.

[DRW50]

If anything I thought the early QAF stories were more ridiculous than some of the later ones (aside from nonsense like Emmett's affair with the football player).

Gale and whoever played Justin started phoning it in long before the last season.

[Taoboi]

And that is why I like it. It is relateable for the most part, is actually challenging my point of view on some things, and keeping it refreshing.

And the writer in me is seeing it doing what I love to see down...THE SLOW BURN. I think it is setting up a lot of things that will snowball into serious drama. Cuz (just speculating) we totally know that Patrick is probably make some in-roads with the boss and it will get complicated probably in time for the Latino guy to enter the picture again.

[difficultdiva]

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.

[EricMontreal22]

The story that really turned me off I think was mid series (season 3?) where Ted became a sex obsessed meth head. I dunno why, but it just rubbed me the wrong way (sure, it could be argued it's an important story to tell, and one that certainly happens, but it felt particularly nasty to me to show Brian daily do drugs and hook up but make it all work, and then poor unattractive Ted does the same thing and falls into some gay porno Hell with all his friends writing him off.) 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.) By the final year it did just sorta putter along -- I still watched every week but only because it was a social thing with some of my friends, I barely was even paying attention.

[EricMontreal22]

I feel absolutely the same--the third episode especially. I guess it's really just an issue again of there being so few "gay" shows, so a number of people who probably would never have seen Weekend either, are disappointed that they don't immediately relate with it, or do find it boring (which seems to be the main criticism.) I don't, *shrug* I just hope HBO decides to at least give it a second season.

BTW you mentioned Lorimer the short film that inspired it--I've been trying to track that down. Did you see it online?

I had no idea Randy Harrison was so vocal about his role on QAF in the end, but I can't say I blame him==most of the time I wanted to punch Justin in the mouth. 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 (there were plans for a sitcom spin off involving Vince's mother and her group but for whatever reason it never happened, though I believe scripts were written.) Of course that was a problem with the North American QAF in general--they felt like they had to, and were, representating every type of gay and lesbian character, and I think ultimately that meant they didn't do a great job with any of them. Davies got in some flack for not having the lesbian characters very prominent but as he pointed out, that wasn't who he was telling his story about. In that instance I think Looking is similar, and I appreciate that, though I suppose I can appreciate that that means if an audience member doesn't want to spend 30 minutes with those characters than they're not gonna like the show.

Edited February 4, 2014 by EricMontreal22