Since "Looking" was announced it has been referred to by both the community and early critics as the "gay version" of "Girls" and "Sex and the City". After watching the pilot, Emily VanDerWerff of "The A.V. Club" said that "differences between the two series go beyond the surface" and one of the show's lead actors, Jonathan Groff, went on to say that "to be in the same breath as those shows is exciting [...] but the tone and writing and the style of the show is very different. And people will notice that when they see it."