Unlike Girls and Togetherness, Looking has yet to be renewed for the next season. It's a shame if it doesn't, because there is a lot of good in it, particularly the way it shows gay men qua gay men without being "message-y." Looking excels at those smaller moments -- Ritchie's mouthing, "you okay" to Patrick, Patrick wiping away tears as he walks home alone -- things that could have easily read as treacly. The show gotten a lot of criticism for being boring or lacking a kind of sexual energy, and Patrick is a pretty unsympathetic character. I find the latter more disappointing, although understandable as the average tv audience has trouble accepting characters who are neither villain or hero, or like a Dexter or Walter White, an obvious anti-hero. People are uncomfortable with fallible humans.
I've only seen two episodes of Togetherness, a show I had really high expectations for (and I'm a sucker for aging gen-ers because I am one), but I can't get into it. The characters are well-writtin, but it still plays into the trope that past a certain age, single people are irreparably damaged, especially single women over forty. This is where Looking has the edge. Maybe it's because queer people are "allowed" to develop horizontally instead of only vertically, or maybe I just don't like shows with only straight couples, but I can't get into it. I'm hoping this show hits its stride mid-season the way Looking did where everything just kind of clicked into place.