I like Looking. I would like to see it get another season. But I hope the writers didn't just put another nail in the coffin of this show by saying in a panel discussion that they want it to be slow, boring, and "truthful," and for the episodes to be like "like little half-hour indie movies." As the Hollywood Reporter tells us, creator Michael Lannan and staff writers JC Lee, John Hoffman, and Tanya Saracho all participated in a panel discussion in L.A. this week, moderated by the Writers' Guild's LGBT committee chair, and they talked about getting called "the B-word" a lot in reviews of the show.
From the decision to bring on writer-director Andrew Haigh of the quiet British drama Weekend, Lannan and his teamed acknowledged the style they wanted to create. "Not to be in defense of boring, but that is very intentional," Hoffman said. "I think that has become part of the show. [The episodes] do feel like little half-hour indie movies."
Saracho added that she'd "rather [people] hate it than call us boring," but the general sense is that they've been happy with the pace they've set.
As I mentioned in this week's recap of what was, probably, the series' most successful episode so far (though still quite slow-paced), the show can succeed on its own merits but still bears the burden of being scheduled right next to Girls, which accomplishes far more in its half hours and writer Lena Dunham waited until Season 2 before she hit the pause button and did an entire episode devoted to one lengthy date, the one where Hannah spends the weekend with Patrick Wilson in his brownstone. But Looking does have other burdens that Girls doesn't have, namely that it has to be true to a certain segment of the gay experience while also drawing in a non-gay audience unaccustomed to watching a show of all gay characters.
Star Jonathan Groff recently told Lannan that his brother and sister-and-law got especially into the show last week. "It was a big moment because he said he'd never had his straight brother and sister-in-law invest in gay characters this way," Lannan said. "There are moments like that, which are really exciting to hear about."
