Jump to the good stuff: The Story | Some Thoughts | The Final Verdict
The Story:
Looking is a romantic drama about three close friends living in San Francisco. The main characters are, Patrick (Jonathan Groff), who is 29 and a video game designer; Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez), an artist who went to college with Patrick and is his roommate; and Dom (Murray Bartlett), a 39-year-old waiter.
The series begins with Agustín moving in with his boyfriend, Frank (O. T. Fagbenle). As Agustín settles into life with Frank, Patrick meets Richie (Raúl Castillo), a barber who also works the door at a local gay bar. Patrick and Richie start dating, but the romance is it at odds with Patrick’s interest in his new boss, Kevin (Russell Tovey), who is in a committed relationship but shows an interest in Patrick.
Meanwhile, Patrick and Agustín’s close friend, Dom, is feeling as if it’s time to stop waiting tables and do something with his life. When he meets the owner of a local flower shop at a bathhouse, Lynn (Scott Bakula), he begins to consider opening his own restaurant. And with the emotional support of a roommate, Doris (Lauren Weedman), he begins taking steps to make it happen.
And with all that, the drama begins.
Some Thoughts:
Looking plays like a realistic soap opera with good acting. The stories are your basic romantic fodder, but they’re easy to digest because the characters are relatable and the acting is good. It also strives for hyper realism, complete with body odor, halitosis, and apartments that appear to be in the characters’ budgets. The pacing is solid, as is the overall look.
The only problem I have with the series is that the story never moves beyond romance. There are momentary promises of deeper topics, but they never get fully explored. The two that come to mind are Dom feeling stuck in his present life, and how Doris’s emersion in gay life is at odds with her heterosexuality. The subjects are brought up, but they quickly become romantic plot points and never come to fruition.
While the drama that unfolds from these guys dating various men is entertaining for the first season, it gets tired by the middle of the second. The series maintains its look and feel throughout, but the story becomes stagnant because it never evolves past the obvious. By the end of season two, I was ready for it to be done, despite enjoying the characters.
The Final Verdict:
Looking begins strong but quickly devolves into a trite soap opera by season two. With its talented cast, director, and writers, it could have been much more.