I have yet to come across any moving picture media that contains both a good plot and good sex, and intertwines and paces then properly.
For books there are for example the seraph series by Sarah Hawke. Well, she focusses a little too much on facials, but otherwise the sex scenes are fun to read, and paced well with the rest of the story.
I would like to read and watch more content where the characters also have a sex life. After all, they are human, and “realistic” sex is a pleasurable thing that should be nice to watch.
I would prefer none
Overall, if it doesn’t contribute something useful to the plot or character development, it’s an excuse to check messages.
Don’t get me wrong, I like seeing naked people. I even like seeing naked people do sex acts.
But 99/100, sex scenes are boring as hell in regular shows and movies. They don’t do anything except serve as an opportunity to see an actor’s body naked. Which is nice! But it so rarely does anything else that it breaks immersion, and that’s just not a net positive for me.
Take a movie like eyes wide shut. It’s essentially a sex based movie, so the sex scenes matter, they serve the plot nd character arcs. Still a mediocre movie, but it did the sex scenes in a useful way.
Then you get to something like Antichrist (Lars von Trier) and the only point to it being there is to have it there at all. It doesn’t serve the movie as a whole. Great movie, shitty sex scene (okay, a mediocre sex scene, but with a shitty reasoning).
Now, you also run into stuff like shortbus vs something like Caligula. Both movies use unsimulated sex throughout. But they did it for different reasons, and with equal success towards those goals. Shortbus uses the sex as a backdrop for and exploitation of the human condition and character drives. Most of the sex is kinda meh, but it’s riveting because it matters. You couldn’t do that story without some sex on screen.
Caligula is/was porn trying to be mainstream. To a degree it worked. Depending on which edit you watch, the decree of success can vary. But! Most of the sex might as well be individual scenes of gonzo porn on pornhub or wherever. It almost never actually serves the plot or characters beyond being a lazy way to say Rome was licentious. It worked in that it succeeded at being porn with a plot, mainly because it had some great actors doing the actual acting parts. But you can cut all the sex scenes (and there’s edits of that out there) and end up with a better movie. Can’t call it great, but it’s watchable over time without being a total waste of time.
So, it means that I really enjoy good sex scenes that serve a purpose, and will sometimes choose a movie to watch because of that. But it’s hard to tell going in if a given newmovie is going to get it right or not
I’m not against seeing sex in films or programmes at all. I’m no prude or religious fanatic.
However, when there’s a film or whatever that has no sex scenes as filler then I kinda prefer it
There are indeed times when I don’t mind sex in a story, especially when I expect it and it’s why I’m watching or reading it.
However most of the time I prefer the sex to only be implied. Kissing, touching, clothes begin to peel off - fade to black, cut to the next day.
Can’t recall the name, but there is or was an independent studio which tried to have both erotic scenes and relevant plot. They had a “Pride and Prejudice” era type of short series in the works, but I don’t know if they’re gone or still going.
Still, it’s been a year or more since I read about them and it doesn’t seem they’ve reached sustainable fame since.
