Looking - Pilot

     
   I decided to watch "Looking" after I saw my Facebook feed divided between people that thought it was so boring and people that thought it was the best thing since bottled water. As I recently heard, the only sin that art doesn't stand is it being insignificant, and I knew even before watching it, that insignificance would not be a problem for "Looking".
           Indeed it is not. "Looking" is a show that stays in your head for a long time after the credits roll. I didn't see it as a "gay show", whatever the hell that means. I saw it as a show about people, and these people happen to be gay men living in San Francisco. I know this sounds extremely P.C., but trust me when I say this, I'm not a P.C. person at all. But what I mean is that the crisis these men are going through are universal crisis, portrayed very well on screen, and anyone, straight, gay, bi, trans, can relate to those crisis. The twenty-nine year old man seeking for love and happiness based on his pre-established conditions of what he thinks he needs in someone else, only to have a chance encounter on the bus shake those pre-established conditions to the core, The forty year old man that is stuck in his dead end job while his ex is making millions selling condos in L.A.,  the couple that's moving in because that seems to be the next logical step in their relationship even though it seems that neither of them really desire it. Is it a unrealistic portrait of gay men living in San Francisco? I don't know! And I don't care. What I do care about is that the characters felt real, and so did their pain, their wants and their needs. I have a feeling that because this show focuses on gay men instead of someone who most people would call "main stream", people's expectations change. It's supposed to be "more gritty", or "more sexy" or less this, more that. To those people, I answer the following: it's a TV show. It's art made to entertain. And, to me, it was successful both artistically and in its entertainment value.
            I loved quite a few aspects of this pilot. I thought it was wonderfully shot, I thought the acting was spot on, and I can't remember any portrayal of a "bad date" to be done as well as the one that happens in the pilot, with the awkward interview process followed by the even more awkward split of the bill. At the same time,  I can understand how some people found it boring. There are, in fact, no grand plot points, no epic story line going on. But that was ok to me, because of what I said earlier about good characters and relatable situations. I believe that emotion sustains arts way better than logic or realism do. If something is emotionally honest, I - and I know this is a personal reaction to stories - am ready to forgive certain logic flaws or weak story lines. And that emotional honesty was there for me. None of these characters have found what they're seeking yet, but, hey, they're still looking. And I'm ready to tune in next week to help them find it.