Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Bryan Kluger The new show 'Looking' from HBO was billed as 'Girls' meets 'Sex and the City' in its promos. In its first season at least, none of that seemed to ring true other than the story focused on a few friends, but what show or movie doesn't do that. Show creators Michael Lannan and Andrew Haigh have given a fresh and original, if not somber and depressing look at the life of a group of gay friends living in San Francisco.This show is billed as a comedy-drama, but it was difficult to find where the comedy was here, as it focuses on the melodramatic aspect more than any laughs here. And there is zero characteristic where one of our characters examines his or her own life like they did in the previous HBO shows mentioned. Instead, it seems like a true to life account of a few semi-successful people trying to make it through each day in California. And I applaud the creators for this, even though the show is a bit dull. So many times in film and television, we have seen gay characters who are extremely wealthy and successful with luxurious homes and apartments, who are always witty, funny, and have a wild adventure. That's not the case with 'Looking'.These characters are not successful, but are rather awkward, unfunny, and don't always know the right thing to say. The show centers on Patrick (Jonathan Groff), a video game programmer who is coming to terms with his ex boyfriend now getting married to someone else. This causes Patrick to question his own lot in life and become depressed in if he will ever find someone to love him. He becomes so nervous on how others think of him, that he usually says the wrong things and ruins any date he has. In his haze, Patrick takes a liking to Richie (Raul Castillo), a barber and nightclub bouncer who is uneducated, but a bad boy and fun. To add insult to injury, Patrick's new boss at the video game company, Kevin (Russell Tovey), is smart, handsome, and successful, which is something that Patrick is trying to be, causing him to also become infatuated with his boss.Patrick's best friend, Agustin (Frankie Alvarez), seems like the voice of reason here, and tries to cheer up and give advice to Patrick on his dating life. But Agustin has problems of his own who moves in with his boyfriend, who believes Agustin will once again become the great artist he once was. The other friend in this group is Dom (Murray Bartlett), a 40 year old man who is a sommelier at a trendy restaurant, but isn't happy with his station in life due to his age and not being the successful story he wanted to be, which was to open his own restaurant. Luckily for him, he crosses paths with a man named Lynn (Scott Bakula), a very wealthy business owner who seems to like Dom and might give him the chance he has been wanting.Through each episode, each of these characters struggles with their own insecurities as they try to find the reason to get up each day and continue on and of course find someone to love them. It's not always roses and chocolate though, as everyone seems to self sabotage their own happiness, giving this series outlook a grim setting, literally. With filming in the gorgeous California city of San Francisco, the filmmakers decided to mute all colors and film in a greenish blue setting as it looks like things are ugly and decaying. Even the Golden Gate Bridge looks rusty and bitter.But that's the goal of the show, which is to show us a realistic group of people who are trying to find their own happiness. 'Looking' is a good show, but it might be a little slow and uneventful for most people, who want to tune in every week.

Jeffrey Roegner "Looking" is sort of this generation's "Boys in the Band", the 1968 play (and 1970 film) that centered on gay men living in New York. We follow three men living in San Francisco, each at different stages in their romantic lives. One, Agustin, is moving in with his long time boyfriend, leaving behind perpetually single, and possibly commitment phobic Patrick, while their friend Dom is weary of growing older and hooking up with younger men. As the season progresses, these story lines get more complicated, as Agustin's carelessness jeopardizes his relationship, Patrick finds himself in a love triangle, and Dom finds himself falling for his older business partner. The show really just employs traditional soap opera conventions to it story lines, but what strengthens it are the actors and the writing. Jonathan Groff is likable and believable as Patrick, as is Murray Bartlett as Dom, and Frankie J Alvaraz, who plays Agustin is good in his role, but his character is unlikeable (and maybe deliberately so). The supporting cast is fantastic too and the scripts are both witty and engaging, Russell Tovey is fantastic as Patrick's new boss. The show's story lines are fairly realistic, and the characters are three dimensional and develop as the season goes along. They are selfish, they seem like real people. This is one thing I really liked about Looking. I can't wait for more.

Rubens Junior Most of the shows that tell stories about gay men usually are abusive with the clichés. Of course that HBO's "Looking" couldn't be different, but what saves the entire show is that it isn't appellative at any moment like the ostentatious and unrealistic porn-ish Queer As Folk, a show that unfortunately dictated somehow the gay culture because they used stereotyped characters as examples of what an utopian gay world should be in the future... and that future for the show is: countless friends with benefits, party at Babylon every night, drugs, riped muscles and six pack abs. All of that became reality when audience itself did start acting and pretending to be as those awful under constructed characters and their surreal fantasies. And if you are claiming right now that I am wrong, look around you for yourself.HBO takes its philosophy serious again taking real interests, facts and situations and placing them properly into a show. So even Looking be dealing with clichéd situations so far, the acting is real as well as the situations and the interests. You are not forced to believe on what is happening, you just take it as believable because the tone is coherent to what the characters are living at that moment and place.Of course that the three main characters are stereotypes of what we usually see in gay culture: the nerd and naive one that is single and looking hopelessly for someone; the beard one that has an open relationship and is looking for a true meaning in life; and the narcissistic metrosexual that is worried about his 40's and looking to be a successful chief... Which means that, unlike most people might think, this show isn't about people looking for encounters, this is all about looking for something in a very competitive place as San Francisco, from encounters to epiphanies.We never know how this three different characters became long time friends, as well as we never knew how Carrie Bradshaw became friends with her gals in the original Sex And The City series, but we stop caring about that when the show starts to get its way, growing gradually among the episodes. Once again the best thing of the show is that it never forces the audience to accept their friendship because they are not inseparable, and what holds the episodes is their lives individually.Eight episodes isn't enough to give a fair review about the show, but what is fair to say is that its few episodes gave it opportunity to conquer its place and become a high level one promising more relevant and interesting issues for next season more than casual sex and workout tips that we use to see everywhere. The ensemble cast calls its audience's attention because they know exactly what they are doing and they clearly are doing it to make it right.

beeeeeewitched As someone who used to love Queer as Folk, I can say that this show is nothing like it. And that's a good thing. In Looking not everything is about being gay. It's sort of accepted, unsaid, but obviously there. It's about the characters' development - characters who happen to be gay - every day problems, joys and disappointments. Life. What I loved most about this first season of Looking was how much I came to care about the 3 main characters. And that shows me that they are well thought-out characters, not some superficial gay stereotypes, whatever their age might be. I think the only minus for me was Richie. I didn't really get him, I wasn't really feeling the chemistry between him and Patrick. He went from super-being into Patrick to I don't even know, at one point I wasn't even sure he was gay and out. Some of his scenes were painful to watch honestly. Dom's character grew on me, and I became really invested in his relationship with flower-guy (hope to see more of them!!!). And the whole Patrick/Kevin thread was so subtly done, always giving us just a little more and then withdrawing that connection. So many possibilities for the characters storyline-wise to go to. I just want more of them, know more about them. Really impressed by the whole thing so far!