LOOKING — Page 17

I only got around to watching the last episode tonight and one of the things that hasn't sat well with me was the condescending way the elder queens in the scene with Scott Bakula and Dom were treated by the script. They happened to be talking about Jose Sarria who was a really important figure in gay history and who died last Summer. It was handled like it was just some trivial thing and it actually wasn't. I don't know why the scriptwriters treated that story that way when you consider how embarrassed they should be of the stuff they foreground.

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Oops, didn't mean to steer the thread back to pedantry just as it had gotten back on-topic.

I am enjoying the series so far, but have no strong reactions one way or the other.

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I think "embarrassed of" is common poor grammar now, the same way so many people say (and this is one of my pet peeves) "should of" instead of should've/should have.

Namo said: "I only got around to watching the last episode tonight and one of the things that hasn't sat well with me was the condescending way the elder queens in the scene with Scott Bakula and Dom were treated by the script. They happened to be talking about Jose Sarria who was a really important figure in gay history and who died last Summer. It was handled like it was just some trivial thing and it actually wasn't. I don't know why the scriptwriters treated that story that way when you consider how embarrassed they should be of the stuff they foreground."

This was the one bit that did bug me. It seemed too obvious -- they were like the caricatured old wealthy gays in Tales of the City who Mouse has dinner with, but at least they fit the tone of that--they seemed to come out of nowhere in terms of this show.

Loved this ep. I thought they rather seemlessly reintegrated the ensemble--what better place to do that than Dolores Park? For a supposedly "boring" show, they sure do cover a lot of interesting dynamics in under 30 mins--from age/generational divides to socio-economic clashes. It's the latter that I think is the most interesting thus far. After last week's dream-like lost weekend, I am really pulling for Patrick and Ritchie. Sure, they have very different backgrounds and lifestyles, but I think they could both be positive influences in each others lives. Ritchie's directness and earnestness could help Patrick relax and be truly comfortable in his skin. While Ritchie is certainly the more self-aware of the two, I think that Patrick could help challenge Ritchie's expectations for the future and even help him confront some of the family issues that have been hinted at in prior eps. Will be very interesting to see if/when Patrick meets Ritichie's social circle.

Lots of interesting stuff going on in this ep--mainly about the characters having to confront whether what they now have is really what they were looking for all along.

Two side notes:
1 - Although Augustin's threesome with Frank and an escort he's secretly paying to spend time with felt all kinds of icky, I think it would very interesting if this show would eventually explore a healthy open/"monogamish" relationship. Not everything has to be heteronormative to be healthy and satisfying.

2- Dorris remains a delight. I think "You are so gay fired" was my favorite line.

While perhaps not a shocking insight, I liked this paragraph from avclub's review--I liked the episode more than them (they gave it a B, one of the lower ratings if not the lowest) but I agree some of the few issues I do have are symptomatic of having to do all this in just 8 episodes (as Horse, you pointed out, a lot actually does happen in each episode.)

"The problem with having eight episodes to tell this much story is that one week Patrick and Richie are showing every other romantic hero on television how it’s done and the next Patrick’s falling in their footsteps. After the disastrous picnic, Patrick tries to prove to Richie that he isn’t embarrassed of him. So this is what he says: “What are you doing two weeks from now?” He’s trying to invite Richie to his sister’s wedding, but Richie understandably isn’t having it. So he keeps kissing him. Notice the pattern yet? “Looking In The Mirror” is about people using sex to solve non-sexual problems. But they aren’t solving them. They’re distracting from them. When Dom kisses Lynn, it’s because that’s the kind of relationship he’s used to. Frank just wants to make Agustín feel better, but Agustín needs a different kind of support. Now Patrick is so desperate to keep Richie that he makes a big leap without considering if that’s what he wants, if that’s fair to Richie, and if that really addresses the issue at hand."

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/looking-looking-in-the-mirror-201399

and then you have Ritchie uttering the ignorant line: "boyfriend... and a WASP too.... score!" as if dating someone outside his race (read: white) makes him better.

You're not the first person to react negatively to that moment, but I'm a bit puzzled by such a strong reaction. Surely it's pretty apparent that in this playful moment, Richie's lengua was placed firmly in his cheek. (Is that offensive?) While Patrick certainly has some major questions about race (and I think, more tellingly, socio-economic differences) to work through, in the previous 5 episodes, I never got the impression that Richie was the least bit ashamed of his own background or culture or that he viewed WASP culture as truly superior to his own. In a way, I thought this comment was a friendly and pretty gentle bit of ribbing against a newly crowned boyfriend who, only a couple of episodes back, was clumsily honest about the novelty of dating of a Latino man for him.

Updated On: 2/25/14 at 08:05 AM

Yes, the line was said glibly, but I don't think it was as carelessly placed as you're suggesting. I think you could argue that Richie is gently mocking the idea that a WASPy high tech well educated boyfriend is an upgrade for a Latino hairdresser. And even while he's saying that--if that is what he's doing--he could also be unconsciously echoing what so many of us get indoctrinated with. Richie appears to be proud of his background and racial identity, but he also lives in a world in which gay men, from a young age, are flooded with imagery--from mainstream media, gay media and even pornography (which, I think plays a bigger role in shaping young men's sexual identity than we sometimes give it credit)--which still largely perpetuates the myth that the ideal form of male beauty and desirability is intrinsically tied to whiteness, heteronormativity and the highly visible accumulation of wealth.

I doubt Patrick is self-aware enough to fully realize this. I think Richie is, but that doesn't mean he isn's susceptible to those pressures. These are characters are real men, not perfect specimens of politically correct, social progressiveness. I'm kind of grateful that the writers trust us to be sophisticated enough to realize this on our own, rather than them getting all After School Special on us and explicitly lecturing us on the amount of progress our community still needs to make. Acknowledging these issues and having characters articulate--even slyly, cryptically or inartfully--that we are programmed to think one thing is "the norm" and that everything else exists outside of it, is not the same thing as approving that message. In fact, I'd argue that it's the opposite. It's a very subtle way to say, "hey, there's more than one path to love/happiness/fulfillment."

BTW, I'm not trying to argue you or anyone else into liking this show. We all have different sensibilities and connect with different things and there's far too much good tv out there to try to force something that isn't working for you. It's just a shame that, due to the lack of quality gay-themed scripted television and film, this one show has to be the stand-in for all of our expectations and hopes, when what it really wants to do is simply tell us a pretty quiet, subtle story about the intersecting lives of three or four friends in the Bay Area.

Updated On: 2/25/14 at 09:24 AM

I cannot, CANNOT bear another minute of Richie. He has taken the concept of mumblecore (already a thing that drives me up a stick sideways) to knew and terrifying levels. I can't understand what he's saying. Throughout the entire episode, I kept thinking of that Star Wars parody, Hardware Wars, where the Princess Leia character kept saying to the Chewbacca character, 'What are you saying? I don't understand what you're saying.'

The handling of the 'old queens' was the serious misstep. In a show that feels populated by very real people, the Statler and Waldorf of The Castro were jarring.

The 'WASP' line didn't bother me. I thought it was more a gentle dig at Patrick than any revealing bit of self-hatred on his part. But who can say? Maybe I heard it wrong because I CANNOT UNDERSTAND A WORD HE'S SAYING.

Sure. pick on the Latino and make fun of his speech pattern! You white queens are cruel and vicious.

I don't think the speech pattern goes with the character he is supposed to be playing.

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I mean...I understand what he's saying...but it's a style of acting that makes me want to pull out my own teeth. I've worked with people like that, and they make me nuts.

I don't know what you guys are carrying on about. He sounds fine to me.