‘Carnival Row’: Actually, Those Bonkers Faerie Sex Scenes Are Important and Romantic

Amazon’s Carnival Row is, as the kids say, a LOT. It’s a lavish fantasy spectacle that tries to be a murder mystery, political thriller, and sprawling epic all at the same time. Not all of it works. (Its plotting and pacing both leave a lot to be desired, in my opinion.) However, there’s one place where Carnival Row consistently succeeds and that’s with romance. The love stories threaded throughout the series are unabashedly passionate, star-crossed affairs complete with over-the-top sex scenes. Which means those wild human/fae sex scenes might be the best part of Carnival Row. 

Carnival Row is an original fantasy story set in a world where mythological creatures aren’t just real, but they are refugees on the run. When their homelands are conquered by a brutal force, faeries, fauns, and their ilk must rush to countries run by humans for safety — most specifically, The Burgue. Once fae lived in harmony with humans in The Burgue, but now, they are deemed second-class citizens. It is in this world where we meet a detective named Rycroft “Philo” Philostrate (Orlando Bloom) and Vignette Stonemoss (Cara Delevingne) the faerie rebel he fell in love with during a time of war. Newly arrived in The Burgue, Vignette is appalled to learn that Philo is alive and well as for years, she has been grieving his loss. In the present, their love story is one of fractious passion. They clearly still love each other but can’t express it. In Episode 3, “Kingdoms of the Moon,” we see how Philo and Vignette fell in love in the first place.

The story is your typical continental fairy tale, where a boy from a visiting army — or is it invading? — falls in love with the mysteriously beautiful local lady. Carnival Row is aware of this convention, and even pokes fun at it by letting Philo show off his romanticism by being a fanboy for a “scientific romance” about an inventor who travels to the moon and falls in love with a lunar princess. Vignette makes fun of his colonialist fantasy story until she reads it herself and is hooked on its implications. Philo and Vignette’s courtship is all angst and long stares and stolen conversations up in the clouds — until they finally consummate it. It is an over-the-top romantic love scene complete with glowing wings and non-stop euphoric moans.

Philo and Vignette’s love scenes are neither lurid, nor restrained. They are melodramatic fantasies of what unbridled passion feels like. Other sex scenes in the show make sure to highlight the class divide or the numbing quality of sex. Think the early scenes in the Carnival Row faerie brothel or Philo’s own hookups with his landlady. But Philo and Vignette’s sex scenes are always telling us something about what they feel about each other, from their ecstatic first time to her reluctant glances when she’s worried he’ll abandon her.

Philo and Vignette aren’t the only lovers in Carnival Row. Over the course of the first season, we follow the strange friendship of haughty noblewoman Imogen Spurnrose (Tamzin Merchant) and Mr. Agreus (David Gyasi), a wealthy faun who is flaunting his money around The Burgue. Imogen is horrified to have a “puck” as a neighbor until she learns that her brother has squandered the family fortune. Imogen hatches a plan to help facilitate Agreus’s entry into society in return for an investment in the family shipping business. At first, the two loathe each other, but Carnival Row lets their romance simmer slowly until they, too, have hot, passionate, cross-species sex in Episode 7.

Carnival Row saves its most over-the-top sex scenes for these cross-species lovers. It’s as if to say love is about falling for the different. Passion makes us silly, crazy, and even rabid with lust. Nevertheless, romance is about more than just physical attraction. It’s about the connection between two souls. A good, romantic sex scene should visually illustrate the innate irony of it all. Only a sloppy, ardent, unbridled physical romp can articulate how emotionally in sync two disparate souls can be.

Carnival Row enjoys its over-the-top sex scenes because Carnival Row appreciates romance. For all its adult trappings, this is a show that is almost adolescent in its passion. There’s an innocence to how Carnival Row sees romance as an all-powerful force, that not the laws of nature or man can stop. Carnival Row‘s sex scenes are the most buzz-worthy part of the show, and they are also the most important part of the show as well.

Where to stream Carnival Row