I thought the show, creatively, was really doing something that I hadn’t seen on any other show, particularly dealing with gay lives. As a gay man, in particular, I was very proud that there was a show that felt like it was dealing very honestly and openly with gay men and their lives, without putting them into a comedic mode.”
— HBO prez Michael Lombardo who addressed the cancelation of the polarizing HBO dramedy at the TCA press tour on Thursday where he also confirmed that production on a movie will begin this fall for a 2016 air date
Bob Ashworth
It just wasn’t a very good show. Played into every bad stereotype gay men are believed to have.
F. Jay Ver
I think in an effort for realism the characters became a little bit unlikable. TV is a distraction and as much as I appreciate that they tried a novel artistic interpretation of gay archetypes it needed to be tempered with some formulaic plot devices just to move the story along. It is a time of hope for gays not cynicism toward the scene and maybe they could have reflected that in the story arc.
Dwight Hart
They didn’t give the show a chance. I enjoyed the show and I am gay I am not going to sit here and um not a good show or whatever. It was a superb show. Different stroke for Different folk
Nathaniel McManus
The show wasn’t going anywhere.
Richard Holaday
Even with a gay president, HBO doesn’t understand the LGBT community … catch up to #Showtime already ð???
stanhope
The idea of having a gay themed show only makes good business sense. That said, just any gay show isn’t sufficient to guarantee success. It is not the old days where we will support anything thrown to us and be grateful. The show was poorly done. It got to the point where I just couldn’t watch the Patrick character he was so distasteful. They finally got the Dom character to evolve into something that might go somewhere. Overall, it was cliche and portrayed the worst of the people. Next time do something of better quality. Netflix proved it could be done with Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen and Lily Tomlin. They got renewed.
martinbakman
@Dwight Hart: I agree, it was a good show . Times change though. I remember the attention QAF received. No one complained about stereotypes. We all gathered and watched it.
Atomicrob
I thought the show was pretty bad . . . immature, gay stereotypes of promiscuous confused gay boys loose in the big city of San Francisco. Come on.
Cam
How long will this show be off the air before Queerty stops writing about it?
Kangol
@martinbakman: Maybe viewers didn’t want to see a paler version of QAF, but rather a show that reflected the much more diverse LGBTQ social spaces of San Francisco and the Bay Area? Just a thought.
Lombardo evidently cannot see beyond his own narrow, privileged gay perspective. Maybe if the show had shown a richer cross-section of LGBTQ San Francisco, with better writing, it might still be on TV.
Kathukid
It was a horrible, boring show with some very unlikable characters.
Mark Wesley Pritchard
Just say president. Why the labels?
lauraspencer
I watch TV to escape. LOOKING was as messy, dark and annoying as real gay life. If I wanted more of that I would get off my couch and go hang out in the bars and clubs.
I’ll take watching the same episode of SEX & THE CITY for the 20th time over a new episode of LOOKING.
lauraspencer
@Mark Wesley Pritchard:
Acknowledging that Lombardo is gay is important to the story. We now know that all gay men don’t have good taste. Lombardo made a mistake greenlighting LOOKING.
McShane
@lauraspencer:
“I’ll take watching the same episode of SEX & THE CITY for the 20th time over a new episode of LOOKING.”
Oooof, if it’s the “Ring a Din Ding” episode, you’re much braver than I am. Blech! Can you imagine BEING Carrie?
Masc Pride
It was just too boring. None of the characters were likable. The plots were bland. There was just no reason to follow it or to even keep watching a single episode. It also seemed like they were trying too hard to make a gay “Sex in the City” or a gay “Girls”. Just make a gay show that isn’t based on some other show about four women.
Avery Alvarez
Of course it’s sad to see a gay show taken off the air.
I think eventually we’ll get the next great gay story we’ve been waiting for.
But it will be when gay writers move out of using such and obvious and overused tropes and templates for their characters and settings.
Not that tropes and stereotypes can’t be really useful in telling a story. Just mix it with some new ideas.
I agree with him about not putting gay men in comedic roles.
Please no more clown gays being a joke for a straight audience to laugh at.
lykeitiz
Stop trying to make “Looking” happen. “Looking” isn’t going to happen.
Cam
@lykeitiz: That’s so Fetch!
Andrew Nestler
Watching the show was very painful for me.
darian
Not this shit again.
Patrick Schrodt
Glad it’s off the air. Where were the people of color?
Blackceo
Not half as painful as it was to watch, Michael.
Cam
@Patrick Schrodt:
One of the only characters I liked was AugustInes first boyfriend, he seemed to be one of the only well rounded characters.
So of course they basically never showed him.
tham
A show about 4 gays living in San Fransico called Looking…why don’t HBO follow that up with a show about 4 lesbian PE teachers called No Balls Allowed.
nature boy
I am very sad this show was cancelled … I came to love it with season 1 episode 5 “Looking for the Future” where Patrick and Richie wake up in bed, fuck, and spend the day getting to know each other…. it was one of the best episodes of TV I’ve ever seen and just refreshingly unapologetically gay. After that episide I was hooked. Some of the storylines were annoying and not my story but I was still bonding with the characters and was looking forward to binge-watching seasons 3, 4 and 5. Bring back Looking !
EvonCook
I remember well the huge controversy that “Queer as Folk” generated and all the horrendous complaints about it being too explicit or too stereotypical, especially by the uptight crowd and those not wanting anything shown that might not be PC to the straight world. I simply think it was the best, most realistic and honest portrayal of gay life (and GLBT life) that I have ever seen on the little screen. “Looking,” in contrast, seemed an endless expose of titillation and tease and rudderless youthful confusion.. And for those who prefer “Sex in the City” or “Girls,” well, I just feel sorry for them, as it is one thing and perhaps a necessary one to relate to the usual hetero dynamics, it is quite another and sadder one to actually identify with them! Then there is the concept that any and all and the-more-the-better gay characters and gay themes that are on TV the better (perhaps, as long as it is not “Cruising” or the stomach turning “Will and Grace.”)
Rick Holtz
Boring. Unbelievable characters with vapid personalities in unreal situations.
Constantino Constantinou
Jonathan is a disgrace
David Rudd
It was a bit warm and fuzzy for my liking and didn’t really go anywhere. I preferred Cucumber/Banana.
sportyguy1983
AN extremely boring show (with unlike able characters) that never should have gotten a second season
notevenwrong
Nobody wants to watch boring monogamous PC married guys, so I think the basic idea behind the show was good and there were some highlights I liked (the Radical Faerie party, the older guy from the Star Trek reboot whose name eludes me at this moment, etc.). However, the main characters were just the kind of extremely repressed and unrelatable WASPs everybody loves to hate, there really was no dramatic tension, and there was absolutely no sense of humor. I got the imporession that the show was created and directed by the same kind of limited and humorless people it portrays.
Hannah Greene
Alton Ray
itsmyhusbandandme
Russell Tovey’s ears were always worth tuning in for.
Jean-Paul
itsmyhusbandandme.wordpress.com
James Messineo
Dwight,I agree with you 100 percent! I was enjoyed great wonderful gay show and I love it!! I still want keep show continues and please give HBO series chance back show again soon! ð???ð??? I am deaf gay and open mind too.
James Messineo
Mark, I don’t think that very label of character. My viewpoints is variety of different culture of gay characters. They are comfortable who are themselves as leather,bears,muscle,etc….so they have common sense of freedom and feeling of sexually comfortable that important of all of world! I hope you understand that .
jason smeds
Looking tended to stereotype “the gays”. As such, it wasn’t worth watching.
nature boy
Jason, how many episodes did you watch ?
Daggerman
..well I don’t know the real reason for this show ending?? But it seems a shame that any educational stuff gets very soon quashed!!
Kangol
@Patrick Schrodt: There were several people of color on the show, but nothing like the reality of San Francisco or most urban gay spaces outside parts of the upper midwest.
Frankie, played by Agustín Lanuez, was a (white) latino character. Richie, played by the gorgeous Raúl Donado, presented as a latino character. Frank, played by cutie O. T. Fagbenle, presented as a black character, but as is typical, was written off the show. Bashir Salahuddin played the incredibly sexy Malik for six episodes, but was a straight character. And Andrew Law played Owen, an Asian American character, but he was on and off the show.
In a city that has a huge Asian American and Latino population (SF), and in an area with a diverse population (Oakland and Richmond have large black population, etc.), you nevertheless had the usual Hollywood approach to American reality. Erase or fade the non-white characters and hope everyone will watch. Out of all these characters of color, only the annoying Frankie appeared the entire show. This is so typical. The concept is DOA in 2015. Maybe one day they’ll get a clue.
Mercurical Memo
This was one of the most painfully boring shows I have ever watched. All the characters were annoying. The preppy little whinny white kid, the obnoxious latin slut and the mustached daddy. All of them obnoxious. Nothing ever happened to these people aside from their personal angst. I think I watched three or four episodes and I just couldn’t push myself to watch this tripe. It felt as boring as reading an Ayn Rand book. You know how her characters are so one-dimensional and cut out of a cheap character board? That. That was ‘Looking’ and just as unnecessarily long as an Ayn Rand book. Like, an Ayn Rand novel, this show was beating your to death with its hard attempt at convincing you that “Oh ma gawd, being gay is, like, so, over! but we’re still gay nonetheless, and we’re gonna like, uhm, fuck? and uhm, I guess we’re gonna do drugs! And oh ma gawd, pornstars and hookers will want to have threesome with us, and uhm, oh ma gawd, we’re so edgy cuz we’re in open relationships, and like, uhm, the pornostar thinks I’m so sexy, and like, uhm, oh ma gawd, pass the ecstacy! Yay! Being gay is awesome! If it wasn’t for all drama around being gay. Oh ma gawd!”
dre23222
It was a good show to me. I loved it. I was so mad it got canceled. I want it back on.
jorgecruz
You made a show that revolved around a character that made bad choice after bad choice and wanted us to sympathize with him. Then he treated the people that cared the most about him like shit. Yeah, hard to understand why most people didn’t like it.