I’ve long been advocating for more character-based shows like this, series that embrace the world as it is instead of seeking refuge in the way it was or never will be. But with competition for eyeballs at an all-time high, it’s increasingly difficult to sell a network, even one as historically artist-friendly as HBO, on something that lacks an appreciable hook. I suppose that Looking’s hook is its gay characters and the occasionally explicit sex that entails. But there’s a difference between a hook and a cudgel. Behind the jokes about assless chaps, Looking is a proudly, almost sweetly romantic show that dares to suggest that only the tools for connection have changed, not our desire to connect in the first place.
via HBO’s New ‘Looking’ Sneaks Up on You in the Best Possible Way «.
Giancarlo Angulo's Blog