I won't miss this show, but I'd still watch it if it was renewed.

A spinoff show for Doris would be nice - it's telling that she is the character that I warmed up most to given she was never meant to be a focus point of the show.

I'm kind of glad it's cancelled. I don't think I would have been able to stomach the Richie and Patrick reunion of next season if it had been renewed, which may still happen. But at least there will be less of a torture factor to get there.

I finished the first season a few weeks ago, and while I liked it more toward the end, I still think the writing and casting for Patrick was a critical error. I never cared about which man he should be with (I thought he was horribly patronizing and dismissive of Ritchie and I hate to think this was someone's idea of true love), and that seemed to be the only real storyline the show had.

That's one of the reasons I don't understand why people were so fixated on Patrick being with Richie, when it was obvious that Patrick just wasn't very into him. I just found it sad that Richie's fans wanted that for him. At least with Kevin there was a balance of mutual feelings and respect. Patrick treated Richie like a fetish he wanted to check off on his sex list, and then didn't know how to tell him "I'm just not into you."

Some other thoughts regarding Patrick that I think kind of hit the head:

Conversely, Looking feels like a love letter to Patrick, its central character. Patrick could be Hannah’s brother; he shares nearly all of her despicable character traits: her self-centeredness, her obliviousness, her extreme lack of perspective (all characteristics also shared by Carrie Bradshaw). But Looking wants its audience to root for Patrick. They want his extreme naïveté to read as endearing, his obscene lack of self-awareness to come across as lovable. Patrick, who has a well-paying job in video game design, who leads a comfortable existence that allows him to be able to afford his humongous apartment even after his roommate moves out, whose parents are still together and accepting of the fact that he is gay, bemoaned his terrible childhood in a recent episode. When Doris — played perfectly by Lauren Weedman, and one of the few characters on the show who is not afraid to call Patrick on his bullshit — counters with the story of her actually terrible childhood, Patrick manages to admit, grudgingly, that maybe she had it a little bit worse.

The moments of comedy in Looking come from easy double entendre and catty quips, rather than the absurdity of its central character. The show takes Patrick seriously. It wants Patrick to find happiness and assumes that its viewers will follow suit. In its overwhelmingly effective second season, the show successfully pulled off a major transformation for Agustín, Season One’s most off-putting character, and explored the co-dependent, unhealthy, but ultimately lovely relationship between Dom and Doris. But it still doesn’t seem to know what to do with Patrick.

The show also bears the burden of the fact that Patrick is one of the only gay protagonists on television. In attempting to avoid cliché representations of gayness — the quippy queen, the slutty party boy — the show has instead, presumably in an attempt to make him more complex and “real,” created a character with a severe lack of redeemable characteristics. If the show leaned into his unlikability (the way Girls does with Hannah’s), instead of exalting him as some sort of golden calf for us to worship, Looking might be a more interesting, engaging show. Instead, the writers assume that viewers feel as warmly as they do toward Patrick, without expending much effort to earn those feelings of warmth.

Edited March 26, 201511 yr by Skin

I was actually hoping for a renewal as this was a pretty good sophomore season. I am happy though that there will be some sort of wrap up.

So sad. Not surprising, but sad, dammit.

ummm….who is the superman in your avatar

ummm….who is the superman in your avatar

Don't tell me you've never seen Henry Cavill in MAN OF STEEL??!!!

If anything, you put it on mute and stare at his gorgeousness for two hours!

Don't tell me you've never seen Henry Cavill in MAN OF STEEL??!!!

If anything, you put it on mute and stare at his gorgeousness for two hours!

Nope…never have…btw you got rid of the hot siggy you had of him…with it hanging up …hehehe

Edited March 26, 201511 yr by Soapsuds

Nope…never have…btw you got rid of the hot siggy you had of him…with it hanging up …hehehe

I see you have become a fan Remind me -- which signature are you talking about? lol

I see you have become a fan Remind me -- which signature are you talking about? lol

LOL…yes I have….I was looking for the siggy you had but this one is the same one but just repeats what I said in an early post…LOL

Damn.

So now that it's done...Season 1 or Season 2...do you have a fave?

I think season 2 is recognized as being the superior season by critics. There was a ton of love for the series during the last few episodes, so I think there was nearly universal critical support for the second season. Most of the criticism (i.e. Patrick is unlikable, the show is boring) stemmed from the initial first season. Most felt that a lot of the major criticisms of Looking were dealt with in the second season for better or worse outside of the Patrick issues.

Season two is my personal favorite, I felt there were more interesting re-watch material this season (2x01, 2x03, 2x08) than anything that was created the first season.

Well, for me I would say that while the writers did appear to deal with a lot of the issues they had Season 1, the problem that came out of Season 2 which was tighter for sure was that Patrick was unlikeable. When most people are liking Auggie more than the star...AUGGIE MOST HATED CHARACTER LAST SEASON...that is a problem. Of course, we still had the 'it's boring,' but whatever. And there are still people who think Episode 5 in the first season is still the high point of the whole series.

Is Season 2 my personal favorite? Hmmm...ask me after I do a rewatch. lol.

However, I have to mention that I loved the fact that Season 1 was all about Patrick and Richie who gave Pat what he needed, but not what Pat wanted. This season he got what he wanted...only to see what he wanted...wasn't what he wanted at all. He had it with the guy who gave him what he needed. Grounding. Would have been interesting to see where they went from there, but alas...

The special HBO is going to air is going to be an epic disaster I feel like. Unless they have Patrick ending up solo (which to me would mean I wasted 1.5 years of life watching a character NOT find true love) half of the audience is going to pissed no matter who he chooses.

Even now I'm not sure what I want. I think Richie is too nice and too good for him. Yet I have a bad feeling they're gonna tie it up that way

So a miracle you say...

Finishing up season 2, just watched the episode with Doris' dad's death. Lauren Weedman was phenomenal in it and it was a great way to get to know more about Doris's life and family. The moments where she told Dom she wanted to invest in his restaurant and then cried in Malik's arms were heartbreaking. And Kevin professing his love for Patrick.  Yay!