It’s the best show you’re not watching. It’s “Girls,” but for boys. Imagine Lena Dunham’s Hannah Horvath is now Patrick, played by former Broadway and Frozen star Jonathan Groff. He’s more likable than Hannah, but only a little.

HBO’s “Looking” is on its second season, and for people late to the beautiful game, it’s about a group of three gay men in their thirties in San Francisco. Like its female counterparts in “Girls” or even “Sex and the City,” the boys have very active love and sex lives, and they even have one token straight-girl friend. 

What’s great about “Looking” is that it’s different. It’s slow in the way it moves––there are long breakfasts where nothing happens, small moments walking down the street that don’t advance the plot: it’s watched like a multi-part artsy movie. From episode to episode, not much happens; maybe one or two important conversations, definitely a handful of awkward ones, a drug scene, and at least one surprising sex scene. 

The show approaches sex, particularly gay sex, from what seems like an honest and forthcoming angle. Though probably more idealized than say, sex on season one of “Girls,” these are people who are definitely having their fair share of uncomfortable encounters as hot ones. 

Characters on “Looking” engage in frank discussions of STIs, and particularly HIV and AIDS.  This makes this show different: it involves the mix of fearful and logical reactions you would expect from a show in 2015. In the current season, season two, Daniel Franzese (Damien from “Mean Girls”), was added as a love interest of one of the three main characters. His character is one television hasn’t seen before, a young man who openly is HIV positive, and he works at a shelter for homeless transgender youth.

But even as I write all this glowing stuff about a show that I do really enjoy watching, I wonder if there’s too much stereotyping and idealizing gay men. Their jobs include working at a shelter for transgender youth, video game designer, and aspiring restaurateur. Does it seem a little too good to be true? I can’t help but to again relate it to HBO’s “Girls,” where the characters are comparatively despicable and also have cool jobs: writer, singer, student, the girl who doesn’t quite have a job, but she’s doing alright. 

For its flaws, “Looking” is a show for people who like (or even love) men, San Francisco, and artsy-fartsy films. It’s a bearable, sexy contrast to “Girls” uncomfortable, awkward aesthetic HBO gets so much press for.