The long-promoted TV show 'Looking' finally premiered last night on HBO. Brought to fruition by Andrew Haigh, the creator of the much-praised UK film Weekend, and Michael Lannan, one of the people who helped helm Interior. Leather Bar. and I Want Your Love, the promos of 'Looking' looked like a modernized and Instagrammed 'Queer as Folk', a 'Girls' for the gay boys of the 21st century.
The hazy glow of San Francisco is perfectly rendered, with foggy nights and sun-dappled days. The perfectly-rendered cramped apartments and bustling downtown make the backdrops of the multiple dating/relationship dramas sometimes overwhelm the action, especially when it centers around Patrick, a milquetoast blonde twink who doesn't like men "too hairy"(a park tryst), or "too chubby" (his ex's new fiance). This blank everyman finds his visual mirrored twin on a first date with a blonde doctor who drops him mid-date for being shallow. Signs, people!
One of the more interesting characters is Agustin, an artist's assistant with a boyfriend contemplating both three-ways (yes) and moving in with his boyfriend...in Oakland (possibly?) It's interesting how the affordability of SF is only brought up this one time in the debut episode. I wonder if this looming social trend will reappear in the series.
The other lead character is Dom, an approaching mid-life waiter who thrives on his Romeo status and measures his worth on his skills of racking up interested men. Cliche? Yes. But it will be interesting to see this character get his comeuppance or at least maybe a sea change of ideas towards ageing gracefully.
These two co-leads threaten to take over their drippy, dull friend Patrick as the real points of interest for this series.
The laughs are very subtle, the character-building is slow, but 'Looking' has a shot at becoming the next series about gay men with actual legs to stand on.
No comments:
Post a Comment