HBO’s Lookg: the men on TV who jt 'happen to be gay'

Contents:

• ALL THE OPENLY GAY MALE CELEBS WHO ARE OUT, PROUD & SMOK’ HOT
• LOOKG: 5 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT JONATHAN GROFF'S NEW HBO SERI (HT: IT'S NOT THE GAY GIRLS)
• GAY HOLLYWOOD: 45 OUT AND PROUD LGBT STARS (PHOTOS)

ALL THE OPENLY GAY MALE CELEBS WHO ARE OUT, PROUD & SMOK’ HOT

Created by Michael Lannan, Lookg only ran for two seasons and a movie, but left an lible mark on the TV seri followed the liv of a group of gay men San Fransis -- Patrick Murray (Jonathan Groff), Dom (Murray Bartlett), and Agt (Frankie J. He also was one of the stars of Rsell T Davi' drama seri Years and Years, where he played gay hog officer Daniel Lyons and was nomated for the Cric's Choice Award for Bt Supportg Actor a Movie/Miseri.

Show a gay man on TV, and you immediately open yourself up to a gree of scty that other artists ually have the privilege of avoidg. When I watched the first season of Lookg 2014, HBO’s origal seri about a group of young gay men ntemporary San Francis (season two is currently airg Atralia), I was keenly aware of the burn that such expectatns mt have posed for the show’s creators.

I uld already tect a distct self-nscns about how to approach the “gay issue” when I listened to the st terviewed on CNN last year, where they each went at lengths to strs the universaly of the them that the seri addrs. The actors assured potential viewers that the pot of the show was not to enpsulate gay life per se, but rather, to explore the liv of characters who “happen to be gay”. Later, Patrick claims he is terted an OkCupid profile bee clus a Frank O’Hara quotatn, but then nfs that he actually had to google the famo gay poet.

LOOKG: 5 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT JONATHAN GROFF'S NEW HBO SERI (HT: IT'S NOT THE GAY GIRLS)

The scen play out a strange equivotn; there is regnn of a gay cultural legacy, but s ins are handled half-heartedly, as though they were ironic props. The show seems to be announcg that is alg wh a new generatn of gay men, who require a new mo of reprentatn that is distct om the tablished cultural narrativ. Such rtraed and sober realism is not trailblazg and of self, but is te that we haven’t seen an enormo share of gay reprentatns on TV.

Halper and Atralian thor Christos Tslkas, who have exprsed their disenchantment wh a perceived wang of radil thought gay culture, which creasgly steers towards assiatn and obeisance to the larger stctur unrpng wtern culture – nsumer palism, marriage, nservative genr norms. Benrson’s crique ns the risk of dulgg nostalgia, and there is a danger glorifyg past versns of gay culture whout acknowledgg their flaws and exclns. Nohels, he strik a chord: there is somethg d and unrwhelmg about an approach to gay reprentatn that clar s “revolutnary” stat through s pictn of characters who are themselv the oppose of revolutnary, and an athetic that traffics well-trodn trop of naturalism.

GAY HOLLYWOOD: 45 OUT AND PROUD LGBT STARS (PHOTOS)

To be sure, many viewers – gay or otherwise – will probably relate to Patrick, and characters such as his are as servg of reprentatn as any other.

But the polics of Lookg are worth qutng, particularly light of the show’s tenncy to distance self om gay history and to dimish the notn of cultural difference.

Then aga, if there were more diversy on screen, I doubt that a show like Lookg would ever have to sell self wh prs ems explag how approach s “gayns”.