●●●●○

Whilst the second season of HBO’s slow-burning dramedy Looking continues in the same vein as it left off, the show subtly and incrementally adds finesse to its portrait of the professional and personal lives of three gay friends living in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Picking up very shortly after season one, we see Agustín on a downward spiral of alcohol and drug binges as well as random and meaningless hookups following his breakup with Frank and his decision to renounce all his artistic endeavours. Patrick himself isn’t faring much better; racked with guilt of his illicit affair with his boss Kevin (Russell Tovey) who subconsciously provides the validation that Patrick has desperately been seeking. As the season opens, Dom (Murray Bartlett) appears the most content of the three with his open relationship with Lynn, a self-professed pillar of San Francisco’s gay community, however it isn’t long before cracks begin to show in a relationship that skirts around the issue of true intimacy.

Despite the criticism leveled against the show’s quasi-mumblecore approach and its lack of narrative arc, the show highlights the constant struggle between progression and regression within one’s personal life, particularly their romantic entanglements. Indeed, whilst the title of the show is taken from the word used on apps to suggest that someone is currently willing to engage in a casual sexual encounter, the show carefully strikes a balance between the sexual liberty of its protagonists and the underlying need for a personal connection in a world that is always in pursuit of something new, fresh or different in their lives. For Patrick, Richie looms large as a spectre of a failed relationship that had serious potential, and his eventual re-emergence in Patrick’s life forces him to re-evaluate his sense of self in relation to the socioeconomic and racial prejudices instilled within him during his WASPish childhood. The most interesting character development this season, however, is that of Agustín, whose wayward nature posits him in the path of Eddie (Mean Girls’ Daniel Franeze), a HIV-positive LGBT activist who works with transgender homeless teenagers, whose acerbic wit greatly adds humour to the show’s proceedings. The tenderness between the two is touching, and the symmetry of their cynicism poignantly underscores the hurt and trepidation each brings when affronted with the reality of their situations.

Being the only show on American mainstream television focusing primarily on the gay community, Looking has been an issue of contention for some critics who argue against its less than all-encompassing depiction of the vibrancy and sexual diversity of San Franciscan life. The show, however,  provides a nuanced and authentic representation of a fragment of gay life and is unabashed in its ambitious endeavours to represent and transgress notions of trans-generational, interracial and socio-economically imbalanced relationships and to engage in debate and explorations of issues of race, class and age within the modern era.

Looking can be seen on Thursdays at 10:30 pm on Sky Atlantic