Looking For Home: I am a simple man

Manuel here, back from a week away to chat up last night’s season’s (series?) finale. Thank you Nathaniel for filling in, though I’m sorry you had the unlucky job of recapping my least favorite episode so far! We’re clearly of one mind of the way the show hit a low-point mostly by telegraphing rather than embodying its own story beats. Thankfully, the season finale worked wonderfully as an introspective examination of the fraught ride to successful gay intimacy.

By the second episode of what turned out to be a self-assured and all-out fantastic second season, when the illicit domesticity of Kevin and Patrick took center stage, I noted that the HBO show was great at asking the following question:

“What does intimacy look like within a community that is still encumbered by secrets and closets, even as it prides itself on openness and honesty?”

That question could just as easily work as preface for this episode...

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Looking for Sanctuary

Hi Kids, it's your host Nathaniel. I'm subbing for much hipper gay Manuel who has been doing a great job recapping "Looking" this season all while preparing to defend his thesis -- Overachiever! Meanwhile I've watched from the sidelines desperately worried about this shows possible cancellation. Whereas I had a pure simple crush on the show in Season 1, now in Season 2 I'm basically admitting full thorny adult love. Which worries me. Happy endings aren't really this show's strong suit. And I don't mean that euphemistically... unless you count that time that it got in Augustin's eye. OUCH!

"Looking for Sanctuary" after the jump...

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Looking for Glory: “You’re not what’s wrong in the gay community”

Manuel here wishing I could borrow Kevin’s puppy sweater to discuss this week’s Looking episode. “Looking for Glory” begins just as “Looking for Returns” did, with the blissful domesticity of Kevin and Patrick, though the latter’s breakfast in bed disaster lets us know this won’t be a smooth return to normal after the events of the last two episodes. 

Thus, in an attempt to begin telling people that they’re now “a thing,” we get to witness the awkwardness that follows during a work meeting when they finally spill the beans. “I just hope it won’t affect our company culture of fairness and that heterosexuals won’t be discriminated against” says Meredith who later went to chat with HR; might this be a sign of more drama for Kevtrick? (Pattin? There really is no good couple portmanteau for them, is there?)

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Double the Looking: Looking for Gordon Freeman & Looking for a Plot

Hello everyone, Manuel here to recap Looking's newest episodes. We took a little break last weekend since it was the Holy Night of Awards (may this be your daily reminder that Julianne Moore has an Oscar!) and so we’re back this week with two brand new episodes. And boy were they good! I’m actually happy I can talk about these two episodes in tandem. One a comedic showcase the other a dramatic detour, one a sprawling ensemble set-piece, the other an almost bottle-episode character-driven piece, they exemplify the strong work Haigh & co. have been doing this season. 

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Looking For Truth: Out of the City

Manuel here to offer this week's Looking recap filtered through a decidedly ranty diatribe on LGBT representation.

I was looking for glimpses of the city that had formed me. I didn’t hold out hope that a Hollywood product would show me anything I recognized beyond a consumer gay culture satisfied with glossy representations as a sign of progress. - Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

I couldn't let this week's recap go by without addressing that New Inquiry piece published last week about Looking which opens with a Rent anecdote and that quote above.

Sycamore's framing tells us everything about what I've elsewhere called "the burden of representation"; notice that every sentence starts with an authoritative "I" that is supposed to function as both a composite of those "I"s that Looking and the homonormative gay industrial complex displaces but which nevertheless points us to an individuality that would (and does) refuse an acknowledgement from such a representational vantage point. There is no hope that mainstream representations would present anything Sycamore would recognize; this is both the foundational claim and foregone conclusion of the piece. [More...]

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