HBO’s “Looking” debuted nearly fifteen years after the American version of “Queer as Folk.” Despite its following the “groundbreaking” and “coming out” phases of gay TV representation, which were considered to be marked by the successive appearances of the shows “Will and Grace” and the American version of “Queer as Folk,” not to mention “The L Word,” “Looking” has prompted a curiously familiar critical reception. This is interesting as the post-QAF diffusion of the gay themed character across television programming was thought to have initiated a third phase for gay representation on television. This mainstreaming was to signal the end of the separatist approach in favor of something more progressively assimilated, yet a familiar critical reception remains for the specifically gay themed show. The reception of “Looking” has been split between hailing the show for avoiding stereotypes while it has panned the show for perpetuating them. It has additionally celebrated the show for its realism while criticizing it for its realistic lack. Moreover, it has been split between characterizing the show’s sexual representations as being pragmatic, as well as, prurient. This double bind within the critical reception feels familiar for it very much mirrors the reception received by other specifically gay themed TV, most equivalently “Queer as Folk.” This raises an interesting question of where we are now with gay representation on TV and whether its critical reception is keeping pace with the well-documented gains in civil liberties across the nation. Interestingly, this year Showtime marked the month of gay pride by rerunning “Queer as Folk” in marathon form and by initiating a regularly scheduled showing that will run throughout the fall. This rebroadcasting offers an opportunity to explore the continuities and discontinuities within the critical reception to engage with the aforementioned considerations and to question the gains/losses within the viability of the specifically gay themed TV show today. This paper will parse the critical reception of “Looking” to compare/contrast it with the historic and contemporary responses to “Queer as Folk”—with an eye toward the contemporary popular reception to both shows—to ask if gay themed TV is still coming out?
About the presenterMark John Isola
Dr. Mark John Isola, who earned his PhD in literature from Tufts University, is an English professor at Wentworth in Boston. Mark John is the GLBTQ Studies Area Chair and served as MAPACA’s Vice-President of Awards for several years. MJ’s areas of interest include creative writing, American literature, gay studies, critical theory, and cultural studies. He is currently working to publish his debut collection of short stories and maintains an author’s notebook at www.markjohnisola.com.