“I miss my queer show”: the issue with AMC’s The Vampire Lestat
I think one thing that some people are (probably purposely) missing about the “our queer show” complaints about IWTV vs TVL is that it’s not so much about the lack of explicit gay content (there wasn’t much of it in the previous seasons either, kisses, yes, but sex was mostly hinted at), it’s about queerness being a theme. It’s about how you show gayness or gender identity in a way that feels queer and that queer audiences can appreciate, resonate with and feel seen by
Hearing Lestat tenderly tell Louis “Be all the beautiful things you are, and be them without apology” after Louis broke down to a priest saying “I laid down with the devil, and he has roots in me” brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it, hearing Lestat say “Me too, sometimes” in response to a homophobic comment made by hallucination-Paul about how he wished Lestat was a woman didn’t do that
In s1-2, Louis’ growing acceptance of his homosexuality both in the past timeline and between the past and present timelines is always sort of there in the background. In New Orleans he’s ashamed, scared of kissing Lestat even in private during their night with Miss Lily. In Paris, he kisses Armand out in public. In San Francisco he’s at a gay bar. In Dubai, he speaks about his homosexuality freely with Daniel and welcomes him in the home he shares with his companion
In addition to that, Madeleine and Claudia develop a relationship in season 2, they never kiss or anything on screen but it still contributes to the show feeling queer because it shows queer love simply being
It would have been super interesting to have gender identity as well as gayness as a theme in TVL but that’s not what they do, they only briefly hint at Lestat’s possible gender queerness but it feels like more of an afterthought than a theme because they haven’t gotten deep into exploring that before
And that’s how everything queer felt like in this season — an afterthought. Something thrown in there but not developed. Three of the main characters are/have been (unsure what the status of Loumuel is) in gay relationships by the end of the season (Louis and Lemuel, Armand and Daniel) but we hardly see those characters interacting together as lovers. Lemuel seems to only be there as a way to make Lestat jealous when he shows tenderness to Louis, and Armand and Daniel’s whole relationship is a shocking case of telling and not showing
MEANWHILE, kisses between women are portrayed, but always with a man somehow involved, which is a lazy, exploitative trope and makes the show feel hostile to its queer audience rather than like queer representation. As a lesbian I felt grossed out by those scenes, I didn’t feel the warm kind of kinship I experienced watching Madeleine and Claudia’s love
With all of that said, it is however also a problem that the show felt so comfortable showing multiple graphic incest rape scenes but no physical intimacy between two men or two women, especially when it has so many queer characters and relationships. There was an episode where Lestat revisited his love with Nicolas, clearly an important relationship and person in his life, and we saw all but a hint of physical intimacy between them. Doesn’t it feel gross that Lestat can be shown being abused by his mother but not loved by his partner?
And we can’t forget that the show introduced a non-binary character just so they could be the butt of jokes about their identity and pronouns. In the current political context
To conclude, this isn’t my queer show anymore. And not because they didn’t show me gay sex
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