Looking Gave HBO Dramedies a Dose of Naturalism

While cinematic half-hour series that may or may not be comedies abound on streaming services today, HBO paved the way for shows like Ramy, The Bear, and Master of None during the mid ’10s by bringing several independent film directors to the small screen. Lena Dunham’s Girls has cast the longest shadow, its six-season run giving it more opportunity to endure in the cultural consciousness through clips and memes. The Tiny Furniture helmer and star’s show was also first out of the gate, premiering in 2012 and becoming an immediate sensation for both the messy millennial antics onscreen and Dunham’s inflammatory persona offscreen.

Calling Looking the gay Girls was an easy marketing tactic when the show premiered on January 19, 2014, but it didn’t capture the gentler approach of the San Francisco-set series from Michael Lannan and Weekend writer-director Andrew Haigh. The ratio of cringe-inducing drunken outbursts to moments of heart-shattering tenderness was decidedly different, the dialogue prioritized realism over snappy delivery and getting laughs, and moreover, everyone in the friend group seemed to genuinely enjoy hanging out.

Looking followed Patrick (Jonathan Groff), a 29-year-old video game designer whose goody two-shoes image gives way to something much messier; his roommate and college friend Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez), an artist who’s spent more time assisting established creators than making anything himself; and Dom (Murray Bartlett), 10 years their senior and dreaming of opening his own restaurant after decades of waiting tables. Seen through the dreamy haze of Karl the Fog, the aesthetic immediately drew comparisons to Instagram filters (remember those?), but felt authentic and lived-in, capturing a moment in real time with a soundtrack dominated by artists from the electronic label DFA Records.

It became obvious Looking had something special in its fifth episode, “Looking For The Future.” The core ensemble had been established enough to allow individual characters to break away from the central friend group, which also included Dom’s high school girlfriend Doris (Lauren Weedman) and Agustín’s boyfriend Frank (O-T Fagbenle). After a disastrous attempt at a first hookup, Patrick gets another chance with Richie (Raúl Castillo), a Mexican-American barber that he met on the train, calling in sick to work so that they can spend the day together.

They walk around the city opening up to each other about their families and first sexual encounters, and it’s a beautiful tribute to the possibilities that can exist between two people — not to mention a more nuanced take on interracial dating than the Donald Glover arc on Girls. Though the episode drew clear comparisons to Haigh’s breakout feature Weekend, itself indebted to Before Sunrise, it seemed to signal a shift on television, especially after Master of None dropped “Nashville” the next year.

Of course, Looking invited debates about whether or not its portrayal of modern gay men was good representation, but such is the burden on any piece of media about a minority group in an environment of scarcity. The HBO series was noted as the only gay show on television at the time.

“‘There was too much sex.’ ‘There was not enough sex,’” Groff summarized in a 2015 interview with the New York Times. “It was full of gay stereotypes, or there wasn’t anything stereotypically gay about it.”

Amidst the criticism, Looking was also accused of simply being boring. Elsewhere, the show’s “gay normcore” was praised for its realistic relationships. Before Mark and Jay Duplass launched their short-lived series Togetherness, Looking brought mumblecore to HBO when Joe Swanberg was enlisted to helm an episode; the Drinking Buddies director went on to create the relationship-focused Netflix series Easy, in which Castillo also appeared.

“I completely understand there is a desire as gay people to see your lives reflected on screen — because it's not been there — but I can't do it,” Haigh said in a Guardian article that called Looking “post-gay.” “It would be an awful show if we tried to represent every type of gay person who exists, because every gay person is different. All I can do is tell the story of three characters and their friends.”

Looking’s characters were not always the most likable people making good decisions — Patrick cast aside the loyal, loving Richie to embark on an affair with his boss Kevin (Russell Tovey), while Agustín got into hot water with Frank over introducing sex worker CJ (TJ Linnard) into their relationship for a supposed art project — but they weren’t as easy to hate as the girls of Girls or their nerdy neighbors an hour’s CalTrain ride away on Silicon Valley. While higher highs and lower lows might make for a more traditionally riveting watch, watching these characters grow out of their selfishness in ways that felt true to life carried a gentle catharsis that still packed a punch with fans.

Though the second season’s episode order expanded from eight to 10, Looking did not pick up a large enough audience to get renewed again, with Vox naming it “the best show no one’s watching.” Instead, the show was given the opportunity to wrap things up in a feature-length special. As The Guardian noted upon its 2016 release, Looking the Movie did not feel strictly necessary when everyone ended up pretty much where it was expected they would be in the Season 2 finale, but it’s a testament to the strength of the characters that seeing them get their happy endings was still a powerful experience.

Taking a look back at a show like this demands asking what it would be like if it were to be released today. That question becomes a lot thornier when HBO and its rebranded streaming service Max have become much more synonymous with canceling series and films following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. A notable number of LGBTQ+ shows have ended up on the chopping block, including Los Espookys, Genera+ion, and Legendary, though the former’s co-creator Julio Torres has already been enlisted for a new project.

The beloved (HBO) Max original series Our Flag Means Death was imagined as a three-season arc by creator David Jenkins, but the end of the second season was written with the possibility of impending cancellation — and rightly so, as the pirate rom-com was recently canceled. While The Other Two was allowed to come to its planned conclusion and Somebody Somewhere has been renewed for a third season, the brand is in such disarray that it’s hard to imagine what could get greenlit at this point.

As for other aspects of how Looking might be received right now, the sex scene-averse Gen Zers who become the main characters of film Twitter/X every other week wouldn’t make it through the first episode. The accompanying conversation about what is or is not necessary to include in a story would also take issue with the show’s meandering pace and plotlines. On the flip side, there’s also a side of TikTok taking joy in the quotidian that is perfectly primed to gravitate towards Looking’s slice-of-life tone. Romanticize your spaghetti? Romanticize eating a bowl of mac and cheese while on the phone with your friend and lying about it being a kale salad!

TV’s reached another turning point, and even action-packed franchises are not a safe bet these days. Shows that celebrate a naturalistic approach have become much more common now, but it might not be for long. Still, we’ll always have Looking — unless HBO deletes it from the internet, too.

Katie Chow is a New York City-based journalist whose work has appeared in The A.V. Club, Pitchfork, Vice, Paste, and BlackBook.