For me, the ongoing discussion about representation and if the show is doing a good or bad job of that was further reason to keep the show going. Obviously these were issues people felt passionate about and stirred up a lot of conversation, and that was really exciting to me, and it further proved the point that having a show like this on the air is really important.
It also taught me something I didn’t know about the gay community: We’ve reached a point now where the gay community is so broad, in its ages, its feelings and its stories. It’s now a teenage boy bringing his boyfriend to the prom, as much as it is a 55-year-old man. Literally, a 55-year-old man came up to me at the stage door three weeks ago to tell me that Looking is saving his life and he’s thinking now about coming out of the closet. There’s such a broad range of experiences, and the gay community is in such an interesting place, where we’re so multifaceted and multidimensional.
To me, the response to the show demonstrated that there’s so little gay programming and so many gay stories, so a lot of people wanted it to be their story. Hopefully one thing that’ll come from the show is that more people will feel inspired to share their stories.”
— Jonathan Groff, who played Patrick in HBO’s Looking, answering Attitude’s question about how he processed the mixed reaction to his series from members of the gay communities
Alan down in Florida
To those of you Groff haters your hate is self-loathing. Jonathan is an extremely talented openly gay performer as well as a good human being.
Charlie in Charge
I fell into the trap of wondering if Queer as Folk was representative when it was on. In its own way it did try to tell all of our stories. With Looking, it was telling the story of a small group of friends in San Francisco and I think it did that rather well. Just as How I met Your Mother didn’t try to tel the story of all straight people, Looking didn’t try to be all things to gay folks.
MarionPaige
why do people keep saying “there is so little gay programming”? I watched “Please Like Me”, Russell T. Davies’ “Cucumber” and a couple of his Banana shows. Took a peek at Davies’ Tofu and I repeatedly watch the UK Series Sirens. And, still there is a world more of gay content ondemand that I’ve yet to learn about.
I don’t buy into the argument that people should have gone easy on Looking because we’re not going to see another gay tv show for a while.
on the other hand, when you realize that total crapola like “The Imitation Game” is the highest grossing “gay” movie since 2010, maybe there is a lack of gay programming.
Cam
@Alan down in Florida: said… “To those of you Groff haters your hate is self-loathing. Jonathan is an extremely talented openly gay performer as well as a good human being.”
____________________-
Ok, once again, can the fans of celebrities really….seriously, get a life.
If somebody criticizes your idols acting, or something they said, you honestly just sound foolish trying to use it as an indictment against the entire community, or claiming that they are self hating. Here is a thought, use your brain and realize that somebody might not like the same actor or actress you like, and yet they can still be a real human being. How is that for a revolutionary thought.
And here is another for you. Groff played the Patrick character too young and was not an asset to the show. Patrick was 30 and Groff played him like he was 19.
But wait, I just criticized an actor you like so I guess that means I’m a self hating closet case. Oooops, guess I’ll have to tell all my friends and family I’ve been out to for years that I was just kidding. (Eye Roll).
Dawson
I tend to support as many gay shows that is possible but there are many shades of gay. One of the questions we are overlooking is was the show well written? Did it draw our interest? I watched this show but would we have watched this show more if all the leads were extremely well looking verses if it was written well?
I think the show lacked consistency but that didn’t stop me from watching the show. Was it as interesting as Shameless–Ian and Mickey story line?
What is very, very, very clear is our community can be extremely opinionated. If you don’t like the show don’t watch it. But rather we had many, many, many people write or talk negatively about the show.
This was a show about our community that had different shapes and colors. This was about the next generation. I am concerned that we have made major networks rethink our support for our own community. We can find away to be supportive and constructive without the vitriol so many find away of expressing themselves.
Xzamilio
@Charlie in Charge: HIMYM was a sitcom with a so narrow a premise, it was in the title of the show… not a good comparison. And furthermore, you’re not going to know if don’t like something unless you watch, and if you don’t like it, you have every right to say so. And in fact, a lot of people DIDN’T like it, and didn’t watch it, and that’s why it got canceled. Major networks aren’t rethinking a damn thing… they’d put gay porn on in primetime if the censors would let them get away with it and it got them top ratings. I’m sick of some of y’all thinking that we should just take what we can get and NOT be opinionated… fuck that shit.
The show sucked, as far as I’m concerned. I couldn’t personally relate to many shows I loved, but they didn’t suck, so I watched.
Xzamilio
@Charlie in Charge: Sorry, Charlie… everything from “And furthermore…” on was directed at @Dawson, and not you.
Charlie in Charge
@Xzamilio: I hear you but Looking’s premise was its title. They were looking, but weren’t sure what exactly they were looking for. Augustine is looking for a way to express himself as an artist but also looking for a reason to like himself, Patrick was looking for an overly idealized version of love (much like Ted in HIMYM) and realistically clueless about the way that looking for sex was getting in the way of looking for love. Dom was looking for a way to prove he hadn’t wasted his life.
Xzamilio
@Charlie in Charge: Sorry, but the title of the show was “Looking”, not “Looking, But Not Sure What Exactly They Were Looking For So Let’s Do Mundane Things In The Meantime”. And like I said, HIMYM was a sitcom… the structure was far more different and not even close to being a realistic look at life for anyone. The show was boring… that’s all I can say. The writing wasn’t bad, but way too slow paced for a show to survive in today’s age of instant gratification.
Chris
Every actor and artist has to develop a thick skin. Even a small following shows you’re having an impact, even if it is limited. And you don’t need to please even a large fraction of your audience to, in the immortal words of Liberace, cry all the way to the bank.
odawg
I almost spit out my drink when I read, “We’ve reached a point now where the gay community is so broad, in its ages, its feelings and its stories.” Is he really so clueless that he didn’t realize this until the backlash against his terrible show?
Bauhaus
“Looking” was a terrible show, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t thoroughly enjoy the sex scenes.
KiDAciDic
@Xzamilio: A-FUCKING-MEN!!!
The show was simply TOO understated and hesitant not only with its characters but its direction, scripting and plotting. I think the only times I felt any real emotional pull from the show was when Patrick got drunk and let all the bs out and his argument in the very last episode. Thats a lot of episodes to go feeling nothing from a show. I got more out “The Slap” than I did from Looking, and they even exploited the suicidal, cyberbullied gay teen card. At least there was some drama to it though. The creators of Looking were just so thrilled to be portraying “NORMAL” gays it felt like they had no idea wtf to do with them. Understand what makes your tone, plot or script unique and fascinating, then add characters who happen to be gay, I shouldnt feel obligated to watch entertainment (note the word entertain) because my communities media representation rides on it.
Kenover
It has nothing to do with how well or poorly Looking represented the gay. community. It was just a lousy show — poorly written, badly cast, and incredibly boring.
passingthru
The show was great, very relatable and with depth – if you get it. It was a rare event. I’m glad that it happened.
jorgecruz
I hate to burst Jonathan Groff’s bubble, but his comments only reflect the criticism from the first few weeks of the show. if he really looks at what people were saying after the first few episodes, they weren’t complaining about a lack of diversity in the characters. They were complaining about a lack of good writing and a lack of screen time for the better actors on the show.
Southstguy
@MarionPaige: Please Like Me is so much better than Looking.
Joey Boyd
I just finished watching season one and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Will watch all of season two tonight. Oh the joys of the new HBO Now.
1EqualityUSA
“The Imitation Game” was engrossing. The actors, including the younger version of Alan Turing, Alex Lawther, were high caliber performances. MarionPaige can’t get anything right.
I never saw “Looking” as we don’t watch much TV and don’t own cable, but anytime gay characters are played, without being suicidal or homicidal nut cases, it’s a good thing. We grew up watching dismal flicks such as, “The Bell Jar” or “The Boys in the Band” or “Fortune and Mens Eye’s” or “Dressed to Kill” trying to glean from these tragedies anything to which we could relate. I’m appreciative when gay characters are not rife with psychological burdens nor violent tendencies that end up dying horrible deaths by the flick’s end.
Dev.C
Jonathan is right about the show filling a void for gay representation but more so for us Americans. The people who complain about PLM or Cucumber being better, those are from the U.K. which has no problem with producing gay related shows. It’s been proven again and again in the states that gay focused shows especially in primetime don’t do very well.
Queer As Folk probably lasted as long as it did here because it appealed to all the superficial themes of gay club community, drugs, sex and drama. I only think people watched it to see the semi hot sex scenes, when I was teenager, I know that’s why I watched.
Looking can’t be blamed for not being diverse enough because when we had racially diverse shows like Noah’s Arc we let it fall by the waist side to because not enough people could relate to that either.
It just seems that gay content is very hard to sell even to the gay community,people in general seem more comfortable watching straight focused content with gays sprinkled on top.
Enron
Looking saved a 55 year old mans life? Ok, I regret this show being cancelled, but Jonathan, that’s just desperate!
martinbakman
@Lycan la Fontaine: @Alan down in Florida: I do to Lycan. I’ll miss it, especially Richie.
So true Alan. Groff is awesome.
martinbakman
@Enron: Not really. I’d never think of Groff as desperate.
This is the kind of story these performers that play gay characters on TV hear from fans, going all the way back to Ellen on ABC. It’s not just Groff.
For me his character was very human and played so well. I expect there is a rewarding feeling to know he did a job that had that kind of personal impact on a viewer, and for him to give credit to the show that way is of course the noble thing to do.
Cee
The show sucked imo. I watched the first season, but didn’t finish the 2nd.
I watched an interview with Jonathan Groff and I liked him a lot, but I didn’t like him on Looking. I thought his character and his acting were pitiful.
man5996853
@Dev.C: I think that QaF lasted as long as it did because there weren’t any legit alternatives. It was a ground-breaking show in some ways and basically the first of its kind in the states. Viewers stuck around longer than they should’ve because there was nowhere else to go. Such isn’t the case now. If QaF had premiered last year, it probably would not have made it out of its first season either.
sportyguy1983
“Looking” simply sucked and was not entertaining at all.
seaguy
You can’t please everyone all the time, but sadly the haters have so much free time that they can be very loud and drown out any real worthwhile discussion. Looking was a good show, if you didn’t like it, well consider this it is better than nothing. White is what we are left with now. Satisfied?