"We need more gay sex scenes in this season"
Okay let me give my two cents on this.
First of all, there weren't that many sex scenes in IWTV to begin with, especially not explicit ones. The only two "graphic" sex scenes we had in this show prior to s3 were:
Loustat hooking up for the first time in s1e1
Loustat hooking up while Louis has a telepathic conversation with Claudia in s1e6
Other than that? It's mostly just implied:
Lestat taking off his pants and saying "you can be on top" to Louis in s1e2
Lestat sneaking into Louis' coffin when they think Claudia is asleep in s1e4
Loumand lying in bed in s2e4
Loumand hooking up in s2e6 (not "implied" perse but we cut away before they take any of their clothes off)
And none of scenes are just here for the heck of it. They add to the characters and story:
The s1e1 and s1e2 scenes are meant to show Louis' growing acceptance of his sexuality.
The s1e4 scene is meant to show Claudia being introduced to sex and queerness.
The s1e6 scene is meant to highlight the emotional incestual undertones and lack of boundaries that Louis and Claudia seem to have due to their abusive circumstances.
The s2e4 scene is meant to show the status of the Loumand relationship at this point (which is that Louis only sees their relationship as casual sex while Armand sees it as something more intimate and romantic).
The s2e6 scene is meant to fully showcase Loumand's BDSM dynamic.
And the sex scenes in s3 serve a purpose as well.
Lestat's threesome with Dee and Baby Jenks (combined with his narration) is meant to highlight Lestat's obsession with sex, which looking back is clearly a trauma response of his.
I don't really qualify Lestat's scenes with Gabriella as "sex scenes" since he is literally being groomed/abused (for comparison, I imagine we all agree that calling the Lestat/Magnus scene a "sex scene" is wrong). However, I see people who say that s3 doesn't have "enough" gay sex, use Gabriella and Lestat's scenes as evidence of season prioritizing straight sex. And... Guys the show has made it clear from the jump that they're not portraying the incest as a "sexy taboo kink". This is not about getting straight audiences off. Each scene is meant to paint a picture of how fucked up this relationship truly is. Gabistat kissing at the end of ep 1? It's meant to establish their relationship. Gabriella only comes to Lestat when he is in pain and her form of "comfort" is sex. Her groping him in ep 2? It's meant to show when their relationship (supposedly) started. It's meant to show why their relationship is this way (the fantasy that Gabriella tells Lestat implies that she does this as a way to reclaim power she doesn't have as a woman stuck in an abusive family in the 1700s. Basically, she copes with being an abusive victim [specifically of men] by becoming an abuser [of a man]). The Jarda scene? While I agree that it went on maybe a tad too long, it does serve a purpose. It's meant to show how controlling Gabriella is, loudly having sex with Lestat's body double as a way to "punish" him for refusing her advances. Gabistat having sex in ep 4? It's meant to show that despite Lestat being at least somewhat aware that Gabriella is abusing him, he will relent to what she wants because at his core he is a child desperate for his mother's love. (Sidenote: This was honestly more uncomfortable to me than the ep 2 groping. With the way that Lestat's demeanor and facial expressions are, he's almost like a confused child. Like it looks like Gabriella has to guide him through on how to have sex with her). Each scene gives us new information about their relationship.
I won't deny that AMC is homophobic and is likely reluctant to have gay sex on screen. However, I don't think this is some huge loss for the show or something we're desperately missing from this season.
Honestly, I don't think people are actually upset that there isn't enough gay sex in this season. I think what they're actually pissed about is that there aren't any presently ongoing queer relationships.
Season 2 didn't have shit for sex scenes but I haven't seen anyone complaining about that. Which imo is because even though we didn't see Louis and Armand having sex, we still saw them being intimate. We see them acting couple-y onscreen the whole season, we still have current onscreen queerness.
But this is not the case for season 3 (at least so far). The characters are all pretty separated from each other which makes sense since this is a consequence of the fallout at the end of s2. Loumand broke up after the trial reveal. Loustat are strained because of the book. Armand and Daniel haven't seen each other since Daniel's turning because Armand is off doing who knows what. Daniel and Lestat fucking hate each other and the same can be said for Lestat and Armand.
This season is about everybody having beef with each other and having their own more individual journeys as opposed to the first two season which were about the characters unpacking their complicated romantic relationships with each other.
