Love, Melancholy, And The Golden Girls: Looking’s Season Finale Hit Close To Home

If you were on social media at midday on Monday, you would have been flooded with opinions about the season finale of HBO’s True Detective. While I can’t speak to the quality of that show’s season wrap-up — I intend on binge-watching it eventually now that all of its labyrinthine plotting is all out there — I can’t imagine a show about cops, murderers, and potential misogyny to produce quite the same emotional impact as another show’s season finale on HBO that very same night, Looking.

For the past eight weeks, this treasure’s been tucked away late at night after True Detective and Girls. After the first episode, you could be forgiven for thinking the show was little more than a rather innocuous look at the lives of three gay men in San Francisco as they navigate life in the time of open relationships and Grindr. By last Sunday’s season finale, however, the show had grown into one of the most affectionate, poignant, and honest series on television. While most people on Twitter were gasping breathlessly about True Detective’s revelations, a small group were clutching our breaking hearts and even shedding a tear or two at a season’s conclusion that hit all too close to home.

It’s for reasons like this that I’m eternally grateful that Looking exists. Apart from giving the likes of writer/director Andrew Haigh (the man behind equally swoon-worthy gay romance feature, Weekend), Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson) and Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies) the chance to work new territories and be seen by larger audiences than their indies generally allow, it’s also refreshing to see such universal themes explored by gay characters. I know many gay men have objected to the series — a look at the comment section of gay news and culture website Towleroad is tough, you guys — but I saw a lot of myself and my experiences in the way Patrick (Frozen’s own Kristoff, Jonathan Groff) navigated this modern landscape. I don’t like to admit that since Patrick’s a bit of a fuck-up in that regard, but the sooner we all admit our own faults the easier it becomes to accept them. Right?

Unhappily ever after

By the series end, the two romantic interests that have occupied Patrick’s life for the eight episodes came to a head. I swooned as Kevin (Russell Tovey) confessed to Patrick, “Do you know how much effort it takes to be around you every day? It takes all of my willpower not to lunge and kiss the fucking shit out of you, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about you, and it’s becoming a real fucking problem.” Despite the real-world sexual harassment implications and general skeeviness of a boss inviting his employee out after hours to confess his love, it was a moment of rawness that gay men are rarely allowed to express so openly on TV (and that’s leaving out the anal sex scene that followed it!).

But just when the show had its audience reaching for a cold compress, the rug was pulled out from under us with the appearance of Ritchie (Raul Castillo). The Latino hairdresser, who Patrick’s friend Augustin (Frankie J. Alvarez) had suggested was his attempt at “slumming”, reeled off a heartbreaking monologue that I wish I had the real-world eloquence to have said to an ex-boyfriend or two. “I am this close to falling in love with you, but I am not gonna do that to myself if you’re not ready. And I don’t think you’re ready.” It cut like a thousand swords. That I ended up having a dream that very night about the boyfriend I should I have said that to says quite a lot.

These are all things that aren’t exclusive to gay men, but there really is something wonderful about watching it play out that way. Furthermore, the casting proved to be spot on. That Groff had such palpable tension with (the openly gay) Tovey and (the straight) Castillo is a testament to the way the makers of Looking were playing the long game. What was on initial inspection a series with frustrating tics or unnecessary diversions eventually developed these supposed weaknesses into strengths.

‘Looking For The Future’

While I fell for the series almost instantaneously — that first date with the man who makes fun of Patrick’s job and cuts the date off short before asking to split the bill was an actual life moment of my own, not to mention “Instagram filters have ruined everything, and I can’t tell if this guy is hot or not” — the turning point for many was Episode Five (‘Looking For The Future’). Taking inspiration from another HBO series, the dearly departed Enlightened, the Looking crew ditched all the frou frou and focused exclusively on Patrick and Ritchie’s burgeoning relationship. It provided rare insight into characters that the 25-minute runtime normally didn’t allow, when also having to mix in the stories of wannabe Peri Peri restaurateur Dom (the sexy and mustachioed Murray Bartlett), potential sugar daddy Lynn (Scott Bakula), and the selfish Agustin and his too-nice boyfriend, Frank (O.T. Fagbenie).

As well as being deceptively well-written and gloriously performed, the episode likely served as a disturbing warning sign for people in fresh relationships (that just two episodes later their love affair appeared doomed saw to that). What Looking got so right is the way that two people can be so natural together and yet still not make it work. That is modern love, gay or straight, and it’s something that this new brand of television has excelled at showing, however depressing that reality may be.

The future of Patrick and his friends looks unclear. Each viewer will have their own desired outcomes, but after Sunday’s finale I found myself feeling melancholy and blue. As I lay in bed, a million thoughts running through my mind, I did the only logical thing: I watched The Golden Girls. Like Patrick in the episode’s closing moments, I decided to leave behind whatever problems I had and indulge in an episode (or five) of everyone’s favourite sassy 50-somethings. As Louis Peitzman at Buzzfeed noted, “I had not seen a clearer snapshot of myself in the series until that final scene.”

Thank you for being a friend, Looking. Your heart is true. You’re a pal and a confidant. The show has been renewed for a second season and creator and co-writer Michael Lannan has given minor hints as to where it will go, as has Groff. First seasons can often be tricky when your characters are figuring out their place in the world, just as much as the writers. They can come off as aloof or vacant, when really they’re just as unsure of themselves as we are. I had the feels over Looking’s finale: as sad as it made me, I’m sad I’ll have to wait so long to get it back.

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Glenn Dunks is a freelance writer and film critic from Melbourne, and currently based in New York City. His work has been seen online (Onya Magazine, Quickflix), in print (The Big Issue, Metro Magazine, Intellect Books Ltd’s World Film Locations: Melbourne), as well as heard on Joy 94.9.