Imagine if there had been a funny, sassy TV drama that revelled in the same small-beer-problemy stuff as Sex and The City or Girls except instead of being about heterosexual women in New York, it was about homosexual men in San Francisco. A show about attractive thirtysomething guys with silly jobs and complicated love lives, and all you had to do was sit down and enjoy the ride(s). A show that was all, “Do you think he’s cute?” and “Which artisanal bakery shall we hang out in today?” and “Wanna go have sex in a luxury log cabin?” Well, friends, if you’re looking for that the show, that show was Looking. And if ever there was a time to lap up, wallow in, and gorge yourself on small-beer problems, that time is now.
Created by Michael Lannan, Looking follows three friends – geeky video games designer Patrick (Jonathan Groff), mercurial artist-cum-party-boy Augustin (Frankie J Alvarez) and buff wannabe-restaurateur Dom (Murray Bartlett) – as they try to carve out their little chunk of happiness in the world by working out who they are and what they want. They’ve got ambitions and dreams and neuroses and flaws but they’re also happy and healthy and handsome and loved. Which is not to make light of the significance of Looking, which ran for two seasons on HBO and received plenty of critical praise, despite disappointing viewer numbers leading to its early demise.
The series put LGBT characters at the fore without feeling the need to explain, or apologise, or self-censor for the sensibilities of a notional “straight” audience. Yes, Dom picks up men in the bathhouse; yes, Augustin doesn’t mind a snifter of GHB; and yes Patrick has mixed feelings about being a bottom, but this was a show about love and friendship – yes, gay love and gay friendship – and these were just some of the things these particular characters happened to like to do. (It feels crazy to say it, given that it premiered just seven years ago, but if it had debuted now might Looking have received, as has Russell T Davies’ powerful recent drama series It’s a Sin, both the acclaim and the audience it deserved?)
Right now, of course, there is a certain vicarious pleasure to be had in watching people, irrespective of anyone’s sexual preferences, doing all those things we can’t: going on awkward dates, giving each other sweaty hugs at a party, having quick sex in the bushes (though not sure Boris Johnson has issued specific guidance on that one). Looking has plenty of moments of high-impact socialising to envy from your by-now heavily indented sofa. However, what is even more delightful about watching the show – and perhaps more subtly absent from our real lives – are the moments of tenderness.
A surprising amount of each 30-minute episode, many of them overseen by the British writer-director Andrew Haigh (Weekend), is given over to characters just hanging out together, having a sweet time. (It probably helps that one of them is Patrick, who exudes a kind of puppyish joy that it is completely winning; if Jonathan Groff isn’t a total sweetheart in real life then, on the plus side, he must be the greatest actor who ever lived.) In one of the most affecting episodes, Patrick and his kind-of love interest Richie (Raúl Castillo) spend the day together, mooching around Golden Gate Park. At one point they sit down, side by side, to look at the view and talk. It’s a self-contained study of small gestures and nuances, with a gentle undercurrent of flirtation and of vulnerability, that celebrates the preciousness of sharing a casual moment with someone else. Not much, maybe, but from where we're sitting, also kind of magical.
Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox
Need some positivity right now? Subscribe to Esquire now for a hit of style, fitness, culture and advice from the experts
Miranda Collinge is the Deputy Editor of Esquire, overseeing editorial commissioning for the brand. With a background in arts and entertainment journalism, she also writes widely herself, on topics ranging from Instagram fish to psychedelic supper clubs, and has written numerous cover profiles for the magazine including Cillian Murphy, Rami Malek and Tom Hardy.
