It’s been well over a year since HBO’s gay themed drama Looking aired its final episode and while Looking’s second season was a much welcomed improvement on season one, we were never given a true and proper ending to Patrick (Jonathan Groff) and his drama seeking pals after the show was cancelled.
HBO listened to our cries and have delivered up a movie length goodbye to tie up the loose ends of Patrick and his love triangle involving Ritchie (Raul Castillo) and Kevin (Russell Tovey), Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez) and his new relationship with HIV positive Eddie (Daniel Franzese) and Dom (Murray Bartlett) and his fractured relationship with life-long friend Doris (Lauren Weedman) and his newly opened Portuguese chicken kitchen.
Check out the trailer below:
The plot sees Patrick return to San Francisco after living in Denver for almost a year to celebrate the upcoming wedding of some ‘close friends’ and ultimately finds himself face to face with unresolved issues surrounding his love life.
Looking: The Movie is scheduled to air July 23rd on HBO in America.
While I haven’t been the biggest champion of HBO’s gay drama Looking (see posts here and here) the season one finale seemed to up the ante and bring the drama that I and quite a few viewers were looking for. Now, HBO has released the full length trailer for the show’s second season, and by the looks of it, we could be in for more of what was given to us in that final episode of season one.
Jonathan Groff, Frankie J Alvarez and Murray Bartlett are all back along with Russell Tovey (Kevin), Raul Castillo (Richie) and Lauren Weedman (Doris) all bumped to series regulars for the second season.
“All of them have been in flux since the end of the last season, and they’ve all been doing their own thing a little bit,” explains executive producer Andrew Haigh to Entertainment Weekly. “This first episode is them being determined to spend more time together and go away to Russian River, which is, like, two hours outside San Francisco. It’s this really beautiful, tranquil place along the redwoods.” But there’s no guarantee of smooth sailing. According to Haigh, “they get outdoors. They go canoeing. Things happen.” We’re guessing they run into at least one or two bears.
Picking up shortly after where season one ended, Patrick (Groff) is dealing with his breakup with Richie (Castillo) and a secret romance with his attached boss Kevin, Dom (Bartlett) is having issues keeping work and romance seperate as he embarks on a relationship with his business partner Lynn (Scott Bakula) while Augustin, who pretty much suffered a personal and artistic meltdown might have found new purpose in the form of Eddie (Mean Girls’ Daniel Franzese)
Here’s hoping Looking has finally found it’s feet and continues on the more interesting path it reached by the end of season one.
Jonathan Groff, left, and Raul Castillo in the HBO’s series “Looking.” (John P. Johnson / HBO)
It may have taken 8 episodes and a lot of questions as to where we were being taken (and how long was it going to take), but finally, HBO’s Looking finally gave us a rather great episode – albeit, in the form of a season finale.
Between Patrick and Richie cooling things down and Frank throwing Agustine out of their shared apartment, I was actually excited to see what was going to happen next as the culmination of the past seven episodes events finally came together to create an episode with memorable and surprising moments – something that has been sorely missing in every other episode.
Work, love and sex all became intertwined as Patrick and Kevin (Russell Tovey) have sex and after what seems like a rather successful pop up restaurant event, Dom and Lynn (Scott Bakula) share a romantic kiss, but it was the final confrontation between Richie and Patrick that brought the episode together.
After telling Patrick that he’s basically in love with him, Richie decides it was best for him to walk away from Patrick with his dignity and heart still in one piece.
Speaking to the L.A Times, Raul Castillo says of that final scene between Richie and Patrick “Richie articulates his most vulnerable feelings in the season in that scene, I thought. And I just wanted to honor that, and what he was feeling. It was this great moment for this character to reveal something very truthful and, at the same time, something incredibly profound. I just wanted to treat that moment with care. And I also was proud of Richie for facing the reality of the situation and, as much as it hurt, stepping away. I was excited, in a weird way, to hear him assert himself. And, you know, he has asserted himself throughout the season, but I think there was something really kind of incredibly human about the feelings that he articulates in that moment.“
Thankfully, this won’t be the last we see of Richie. He’s been bumped up to a series regular for season two!
I’ve criticised Looking for being too boring and for trying too hard to not be too out there and similar to Queer as Folk, but, this final episode of season one proved that the people behind the scenes can bring us something exciting and dramatic without being too cliché or boring. I’m sad it took almost eight episodes to get me to this point, but, I’m excited for season two.
Speaking of which, what can we expect for Patrick, Dom and Agustine? Michael Lannan (Looking’s series creator) has been keeping tight lipped about what’s ahead but did say to EW.com that even though Scott Bakula has been attached to the new NCIS spin-off, he’ll still be making an appearance in Looking’s next season and that the likelihood is that season two will not pick up where season one left off, but no word on the time frame between the two seasons.
So, for those who watched…are you Team Kevin or Team Richie?
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