Watch the Entire Pilot of ‘Looking’ Now, For Free

It may not be the most groundbreaking thing to make it on to HBO, and may very well end up disappointing us all with its vanilla-ish look at thirtysomething gay life in San Francisco, but Looking is still bound to come up in conversation amongst your friends a lot in the next couple months.

That is especially true if you’re from San Francisco or ever lived there. And I’ll say that, being in San Francisco now, the first episode does a passable if kind of boring job of painting a picture of an average 25-to-40-year-old’s experience here, being happily or unhappily single, or getting into a relationship and figuring out if you want to have threeways. It’s likely going to be a more intimate, quiet, and potentially less provocative show than Girls, to which it’s being widely compared. But for straight people who haven’t experienced the phenomenon of joint gay bachelor parties, or being judged for cruising for sex by someone you’re on a date with, maybe it will be more interesting.

And I’m giving it a chance since it was created by Michael Lannan, one of the people behind I Want Your Love — the indie/beardy film produced last year by NakedSword that featured some explicit, and pretty damn realistic gay sex among San Francisco guys of this same demographic. Looking is sure to make S.F. look just as pretty and alluring to young gay men, even though I’m fully expecting that nothing exciting will happen in the Folsom Street Fair episode. Maybe, just maybe, Jonathan Groff’s character will get oral gonorrhea in the back of Powerhouse and then go crying home to call his mom. If only.

One day after its premiere, HBO put the entire first episode of Looking on YouTube. They’re not letting us embed it, so watch it at that link. And we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the premiere of I Want Your Love, and you should probably watch that too, for reference.

Below, the lengthier version of the Looking Season One trailer, featuring Scott Bakula as a potential love interest for Dom (Murray Bartlett), and the hot Brit (Russell Tovey) who looks to be Groff’s ultimate love interest, and boss.

[YouTube: Looking Season 1, Episode 1 Full Episode]

Previously: JONATHAN GROFF WILL BE WEARING LEATHER IN HBO’S ‘LOOKING’
‘I WANT YOUR LOVE’ TOPS LIST OF MOST REALISTIC GAY SEX SCENES

8 thoughts on “Watch the Entire Pilot of ‘Looking’ Now, For Free”

  1. I didn’t care for the first episode. Poor picky yuppie white guy can’t find another white guy like him so he decides to slum it with the overly flirtatious Latino guy. Yawn. Awww, poor older hottie with a ridiculous mustache is realizing he’s getting old and has done nothing with his life. Yawn. Then you have the couple whose story has been told lots of times. 1 guy wants the traditional monogamous relationship while the other guy wants an open relationship. It’s… ok.

  2. My life is surrounded by vanilla gays. Why am I paying extra for HBO to watch more of the same? At first I was surprised this was only half an hour but if every episode is going to be this boring I won’t mind it being so short.

  3. Get off your high horse. The show is very sophisticated and doesn’t have to be outrageous like Queer as Folk. I enjoyed it immensely and can’t wait for more. I think what everyone is missing is the fact that it’s not trying to represent the gay community or all gays—it’s a character piece. It’s telling the story of these gay men. That’s it.

    1. “I think what everyone is missing is the fact that it’s not trying to represent the gay community or all gays—it’s a character piece”

      I think what people dislike about that – as I personally do – is all the characters are very similar, there isn’t much diversity in their personalities (at least so far). It’s only the first episode obviously so it could get much better once things get going, and I hope it does get better, but I was just bored. I’m all for a character-piece, but the writing lacked a little bit of a spark for me.. But I agree, this isn’t about outrageous sex and clubbing, and it doesn’t have to be – it’s about time we get some intelligent gay programming (I’m looking at you Dante’s Cove and The Lair) but intelligent doesn’t need to be as bland as I found it. But it can only go up in my opinion

  4. “Vanilla-ish”….jesus christ…not everyone’s life is a fucking porno movie. I respect that they playing up the non-seedy side of our lifestyle.

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