After a slow-burn first season, the San Francisco-set HBO comedy-drama has become an even richer look at gay life. BuzzFeed News talked to the show’s actors and executive producer about the diversity issue, unlikable characters, and what to expect this year. Minor spoilers ahead.
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Agustín (Frankie J. Álvarez), Patrick (Jonathan Groff), and Dom (Murray Bartlett) in the Season 2 premiere of Looking.
Richard Foreman / HBO
On a show called Looking, it's bound to take a while before the characters find what they're searching for.
Season 1 of HBO's half-hour comedy-drama, which follows the lives of three gay friends — naïve Patrick (Jonathan Groff), aimless Agustín (Frankie J. Álvarez), and stunted Dom (Murray Bartlett) — as they navigate life in San Francisco, ended with the characters at a bit of a low point. But that was by design, according to executive producer Andrew Haigh, planned from the beginning by Haigh and Looking creator Michael Lannan to place each of the characters in flux at the end of the season: Patrick ended the season dumped by Richie (Raúl Castillo) just as he decided he was ready for a relationship.
"Patrick has no fucking clue what he's doing, I don't think," Haigh told BuzzFeed News in an interview at his office in Looking's post-production space, a converted house in Hollywood. "Agustín, obviously, rock bottom at the end of last season, fucked his life up basically by ruining his relationship. I think this season is him trying to sort his life out, make it better, make better decisions. And Dom is on the same path as he was last time, still trying to make his dreams come true, and work out that relationship with Lynn [Scott Bakula] and how that works and what that's gonna be."
Season 2 of Looking, which launches on HBO on Jan. 11, picks up shortly after Season 1 has ended. And while the friends are working to climb out of the holes they've found themselves in, in some ways they have dug themselves in deeper. Patrick in particular finds himself in a tough spot: Now removed from his almost-stable relationship with Richie, he's dealing with the aftermath of sleeping with his already coupled boss Kevin (Russell Tovey) in the Season 1 finale.
At the start of Season 2, Patrick still hasn't told his friends about his inappropriate hook-up. "[The writers] didn't build to something in the first season and then hit the reset button. We pick up all the characters where they left off, in the thick of their drama," Groff told BuzzFeed News earlier this week. "They don't waste any time with this season. They really just jump right in."
That increased pace reflects a newfound confidence Looking has in its storytelling. It's also a testament to the work the series did in its first season to establish the characters and build their world, allowing Season 2 to dive in without much exposition.
Haigh knows that "slow burn" storytelling doesn't work for everyone, especially viewers accustomed to more plot-driven shows, particularly half-hour series, but he's confident that the writers taking their time with the first season was the right approach for introducing audiences to Looking, and he's excited about the opportunity to build on it. "Now the characters are set up, so it means we can set them loose a little bit," he said, "which does enable us to move slightly quicker through stories and through plot and through characterization, and that helps us."
Season 2 is also broadening its scope: In addition to the three central friends, Looking has bumped up Castillo, Tovey, and Lauren Weedman — who plays Dom's roommate Doris — to series regulars. In the first two episodes of the new season, viewers also meet Eddie (Daniel Franzese) and Malik (Bashir Salahuddin), potential new love interests for Agustín and Doris, respectively.
Then there's the increased episode count, going from eight last season to ten this year, which Haigh said allows the writers to tell increasingly complex stories. For the most part, Looking is the same show it was last season, still interested in telling grounded, character-driven stories. But it's also become undeniably expansive: a deeper, more intricate look at the lives of these men, and the people around them.
"I think it probably does feel a little bit bigger. I think our episodes feel bigger than they did last year," Haigh said. "In terms of production this year, every single episode felt bigger than any of the episodes that we shot last year, in terms of locations and actors and all of those things. I think we've certainly upped the ante a little bit."
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Patrick and Richie (Raúl Castillo).
John P. Johnson / HBO
Some of the changes were less perceptible to the actors than others. Castillo told BuzzFeed News that being promoted from a recurring character to a series regular between seasons felt like more of a contractual decision than a reflection on his role in the show.
"Richie was so part of the first season," he said. "The first season was the initiation of this relationship. I think the second season is really an exploration of where they are moving forward."
The tenuous relationship between Richie and Patrick remains one of the focal points of Looking. And Patrick is working hard to reconcile his feelings for Kevin, which he now knows are reciprocated. Both potential love interests bring out different sides of Patrick, who struggles to assert himself and shake off his Season 1 indecisiveness.
"Patrick has great potential, and I think Richie is an example of that in a way," Castillo continued. "Richie is an example of the great love that Patrick can find, and kind of his most ideal self."
While it's far too soon to know which man Patrick will end up with — or if he'll break free from both — Haigh admitted that he has an endgame in mind for Groff's character. At the same time, he's not eager to get there: The series is about the seemingly impossible challenges of finding exactly what you're looking for. And once you get there, of course, there's no telling you'll be satisfied.
Groff himself chooses to focus on the varying relationship dynamics and less on where his character might end up.
"Patrick finds himself really opening up to Richie, and he's really attracted to Richie. They have sort of an initial undeniable spark," he said, reflecting on what led his character to the love triangle Patrick has found himself in. "He's able to be himself with Kevin because it's not an option for it to be romantic. So there's a connection there because of the sort of situation that they're both in. Patrick isn't as self-conscious and weird because he feels like nothing really romantic can happen, which allows both of those relationships, the one with Richie and Patrick and the one with Kevin and Patrick, to develop in different ways, because the rules are different."
And because Looking remains tightly focused on these characters' inner lives, these ever-shifting dynamics keep the show complex without sacrificing its narrative restraint.
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