Lord Alfred, Gay Erasure and Victoria Series 3 - spoilers live below you have been warned
Finally the hell that was series 3 is over & I can write my complete thoughts. I waited until the end to see if there was any redemption but no
At the end of last season I ranted extensively at the treatment of Lord Alfred & in particular the dismissal of his grief as a gay man “men like lord Alfred only lend their hearts” and the idea that wils was “far kinder than I deserve” as if being gay and in love was such a terrible sin, he should be grateful anyone was nice to him at all. The sub text was very much that he as a Gay Man should be grateful a Nice Straight Woman was deigning to be his friend and get over himself already. I mean what’s a 4 year relationship with a man at a time where gay men risked death eh? anyone would think he had a stupid contrived fight with his lover who then got shot before they could make up and he’d have to spend the rest of his life not knowing that actually Drummond had forgiven him. I mean honestly the self indulgence of some people eh? It’s not as if that would in anyway crush your soul is it. The ham fisted proposal literally 30 seconds after being given the locket with the urgh god I have to say it “different kinds of love” just capped off what was all round fuckery of the highest order. I said at the time Lord Alfred should be written out because he’d never get a decent storyline again and we’d probably forced to watch him go full het.
Well I was half right
We were spared Alfred going full het because he barely got any lines or screen time and certainly no storyline, and wils simply vanished. After breaking our hearts with the Christmas special, so little fucks did Daisy give she simply wrote Wils out. Oh yes in the podcast she was “yeah she’s in the country cos she’s had a baby” and apparently there was a single line in the script that got cut saying that but basically wils is gone literally never to be mentioned again.
and gaaaahhhhh the erasure of LGBT characters once they’ve done the Tragically Gay storyline has got to bloody stop!!!
Although I hated Alf & wils being made A Couple primarily cos of the way it was done i.e. by implying Alfred’s grief wasn’t all that & all he needed was the love a good woman to Erase That Gay, having made them A Couple a good storyline did exist. The exploration of a lavender marriage, with Wils coming to understand that “different kinds of love” meant Alfred loves her as a friend not romantically and that despite what her aunt said, it wasn’t enough for her because she does love Alfred romantically, while Alfred struggles to be the husband he knows she wants but can’t be because he can’t love her the way he did Drummond, would have been a good storyline & a far more original one than what’s gone on in series 3
Daisy however like most writers decided that Alfred has no purpose other than being Tragically Gay. If he isn’t Being Gay then he ceases to matter. In tv show after tv show, so many lgbt characters exist to do a Gay Storyline rather than being a character who happens to be gay but it’s actually just a part of who they are rather that their whole defining characteristic. How many straight characters entire storylines and characters are defined solely by the fact they’re straight?? They’re just not but Alfred having done his Gay Duty spends series 3 standing at the back looking pretty (of course he does that very well because seriously, show me a more beautiful man) but FFS!
It sucks doubly because Jordan came out as gay himself last month (yeah ok we all knew that but still) and knows all about the stereotypes and tropes better than anyone. I can’t imagine how much it must hurt as a gay actor to be forced to re enact all the tropes and then it be made clear that you’re pretty much superfluous to requirements now you’ve done the Gay Storyline. Complete and utter waste of his time which he very much knows from his comment in an interview about feeling very disempowered as an actor
I’m almost in awe at how badly daisy has fucked up series 3. I mean it takes a special talent to make it THAT bad