Review: Looking, Season 2, Episode 9

Looking for Sanctuary


Ah, the jet-set life of a gay video game developer: shopping for a gorgeous San Francisco house in the morning — extra points for discussing getting fucked against double-paned glass — then introducing your gorgeous, English boyfriend to your silver-haired, snarky mother.

“So that is a leather daddy,” she quips, testing out Patrick and Kevin’s mobile game, a game about duelling gays, that suffered a disastrous showing at an LGBT gaming convention.

Just the usual small talk at dinner.

This week’s episode veers toward the dramatic. Patrick introducing his mother to Kevin goes well. Patrick’s mother makes it clear they’ll be going on a zoo trip to try and make up with his sister Megan, who sees him as a home wrecker. I guess the reason she really cares is because Kevin’s ex is her husband’s best friend from college.

Meanwhile, my favourites, Doris and Dom, are having it out. Money changes everything, as the saying goes, and when Doris’s inheritance is thrown into question (asshole uncle, inheritance issues . . . you can see where the melodrama is starting to creep in) she’s unable to provide investment money for Dom’s restaurant. Dom and Doris are my favourite relationship in the series — mostly because Lauren Weedman is the best, but also because the pair has such excellent chemistry together. In what is probably one of the realest lines in the series, Doris proclaims:

“We’re both damaged. We don’t know how to be adults.”

Ouch.

Agustin, meanwhile, is conscripted by his not-boyfriend Eddie to paint a mural. They have a run-in with Agustin’s ex, and after a terse conversation, end up in a relationship. It’s nice to see Agustin actually having real human characteristics and feelings. He’s likeable, which is a big shift from almost every other episode.

And because it wouldn’t be Looking if it didn’t involve Patrick, we later discover his mother is going through a divorce to pursue happiness in another relationship. So to recap: we have house hunting around gorgeous properties, an angry sister, a broken up Doris/Dom duo and a new Agustin and Eddie relationship. Dramatic? Sure. Could I stomach it? Yes, absolutely.

Michael Lyons is a special guest reviewer of Looking this week.
Matt Thomas returns next week.

Michael Lyons is a queer-identified, chaotic neutral writer, activist, misanthrope, sapiosexual, and feline enthusiast. He is a columnist, blogger and regular contributor with Xtra and has contributed to Plenitude Magazine, KAPSULA Magazine, Crew Magazine, Memory Insufficient e-zine, The Ryersonian, Buddies Theatre blog, Toronto Is Awesome blog and Fab Magazine and more.

Keep Reading

Google marching in the Toronto Pride parade in 2024. A crowd holds rainbow umbrellas and fans, a Google banner and a placard with a Google logo

Trump’s attack on DEI isn’t Pride Toronto’s only major problem

ANALYSIS: One of Canada’s largest Prides has scrambled to cover sponsor losses, and some wonder if that was inevitable
Black & white photos of JoJo Siwa and Fletcher on a two-toned pink background

Where did Fletcher and JoJo Siwa go wrong?

The Sapphic stars “came out” as dating men—and rebranded accordingly
Shea Coulee

Shea Couleé’s superhero moment

Since winning “Drag Race,” Chicago’s brightest export has been on an historic run. With her starring role on Marvel’s  “Ironheart,” she’s going home—and bringing the world with her

Is Labubu a gay icon?

The Pop Mart blind box doll fits into a long history of the gay obsession