HBO's series Looking offers up the unfiltered experiences of three close friends living — and loving — in modern-day San Francisco. Friendship may bind them, but each is at a markedly different point in his journey: Patrick (Jonathan Groff) is the 29-year-old video game designer getting back into the dating world in the wake of his ex's engagement; aspiring artist Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez), 31, is questioning the idea of monogamy amid a move to domesticate with his boyfriend; and the group's oldest member — longtime waiter Dom (Murray Bartlett), 39 — is facing middle age with romantic and professional dreams still unfulfilled. The trio's stories intertwine and unspool dramatically as they search for happiness and intimacy in an age of unparalleled choices —and rights — for gay men. Also important to the 'Looking' mix is the progressive, unpredictable, sexually open culture of the Bay Area, with real San Francisco locations serving as a backdrop for the group's lives.
Looking is likely the most realistic depiction of living as a modern gay man that television has ever seen. It’s groundbreaking stuff — stunningly honest and brutally fair with its flawed characters’ search for meaning in love and life. The series follows Patrick and his two friends Agustin and Dom, as they maneuver through their 20s and 30s in San Francisco. The title borrows a term from gay hook-up culture — the message “Looking?” on an app such as Grindr is simultaneously a salutation and an invitation — and alludes to the search for oneself.
Created by Andrew Haigh and co-written by Michael Lannan. Two seasons plus a film downloadable on this link. And wait for the music that comes with the final credits. Unmissable. Totally!
1 comment:
I saw all of Looking and the movie. I have so much to say about that show and have gone on many long talks about the show. To be honest, I actually really didn't like it and I found the main three guys to be super shallow and at times insufferable (even though I know that was kind of the point) but it was really fun/awesome to watch the show to see different parts of San Francisco, other parts of the Bay Area, and trying to figure out where it was being shot. It was funny because the Directors were really trying to make it feel timeless San Francisco, but a lot of things/places that they shot at don't exist anymore (or stopped existing like a year after the show finished or even before the show ended). There's so many parts of the show that are very real to San Francisco even down to the youth organization Larkin Street that Augustine's boyfriend worked at (that helped me get my footing in SF when I moved here at 19), or the GaymerX gay gaming convention (which I attended one year), or the (last) gay bath house in SF, Eros. The apartment that Patrick and Kevin moved into in the show was right across the street from where I used to live at the time (with a roommate that I lived with for 6 years), John Muir Woods is one of my favorite places to go and I even buried a friend’s ashes there, and Dolores Park, where the guys are often hanging out, is right across the street from where I live now and I can actually look out to the part of the park where they were always sitting in the show. So that part of the show was really magical, and they did a really great job of capturing so many wonderful and real things about the Bay Area and doing their research of San Francisco life and culture at the time (even if often felt a bit surface level).
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