HBO's Looking is the US cable network's attempt to make a new, relevant gay dramedy - the gay Girls, if you must. But years/decades on from Queer As Folk (1999), Tinsel Town (2000) and Tales Of The City (1993 - set in the '70s) and we find San Fran gays are still dancing to Erasure and quoting The Golden Girls. Save us.
And the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend...
But Looking is less Girls, more Sex & The City (minus Carrie). These aren't post-teens facing down dreams of success. These 30+ boys are facing down the realities of life choices made and commitments committed too. Patrick (read: Charlotte) has the dream job of games designer but can't make a relationship last. Murray (read: Sam) has the gig that keeps him social but has the emptiness that keeps him chasing anonymous Grindr hook-ups. Frankie (read: Miranda) is the sensible one moving to the suburbs with the boyf.
It's also not gay soap: there's no coming-out tales, no HIV dramas, no one pretending to be straight. But Looking wants you to know it's capital-G Gay. There's outdoor cruising sex, threesomes, bathhouses and leather pride festivals. But fear not, there's no lips below hips... actually there's nothing below the hips at all - they could have safely cast Ken and GI Joe - there's more naked action in Girls just when Hannah answers the phone.
A GI Joe picnic.
The first two episodes set up various stories with a lot of talking. Talk about past relationships (exes in rehab vs exes getting married), talk about changing career focus (sex industry vs art commerce), talk about future relationships (uncut fuck buddy vs going steady with a doctor). The talk is of the wise-cracking variety:"I never cheated on Jason." "You didn't have time!" Ziiiiiiiiing.
The promised "rawness" is missing. But its other promise to "continue the conversation" of earlier landmark gay series, is kept. This could easily be the post-AIDS sequel to Tales Of The City or even a Queer As Folk spin-off. But, there's a shift in episodes three and four as a couple of less one-dimensional characters come into orbit around the central trio (who by the way, include Glee's Jonathan Groff, Australia's Murray Bartlett and UK actor/past Doctor Who guest OT Fagbenle). UK Being Human's werewolf Russell Tovey is a straight-acting boss who is the outsider to the gay SF life. And Scott Bakula adds depth as an elder statesman of the SF scene despite making his entry is nothing but a towel.
Scott Bakula, not in a towel.
Much has been made of Looking not opening itself up to the criticism aimed at Girls' mono-ethnicity. It even flirts with subtext about exoticism of ethnicity as racism. However, there is a lack of actual girls. Former Daily Show correspondent Lauren Weedman is the only regular female presence. However, Weedman gets less airtime than the music of 2 Bears and John Grant. It's also as if the choice of edgy alt.pop anthems is a signifier that maybe some of these new TV gays have moved on from Erasure.
But until they can also leave behind The Golden Girls and Sex & The City, Looking remains vanilla compared to the melting rainbow Paddle Pop TV that is RuPaul's Drag Race and its various spin-offs (Drag U, Untucked, Beyond Belief). For now, Looking's a conversation behind the gay neighbours of The Sarah Silverman Program who listened to metal, played Dungeons & Dragons, adopted a robot and had female friends.
