The Bear, and what it has taught us about sex scenes for the sake of sex scenes in TV.

Critics have hailed The Bear as the sexiest TV show with no sex scenes. 

In the first season, this sentiment was true. The series explored the complexities of running a failing restaurant, shown through the eyes of a hot, damaged chef in mourning over the death of his older brother. 

As he worked to rebuild the only inheritance left to him, The Bear made one thing clear: absolutely nobody has time for sex. 

Watch the trailer for The Bear. Post continues after video. 

In an age where watching sex — or rather, porn — is available at the tap of a finger, it almost feels like a daring choice to exclude intimacy scenes from The Bear. 

Of course, it doesn't mean the show isn't sexy. It's incredibly hard-wired; the intensity is in the characters' passion for the job. The absence of hard-core intimacy makes it sexier because every second leaves us on the edge of our seats.

The Bear's main character is Carmy (Shameless actor Jeremy Allen White) — a distinctly brooding, sexy chef. Except, he's not really what we'd expect from a bachelor in a hit TV show. He's emotionally scarred, he's never had a girlfriend, and he's not at all dealing with the reality of his brother's passing. 

We don't get a sex scene until much later in season two. And it still is not what we'd expect. 

Viewers at home don't see penetration. There are no hard nipples brazenly on display. No plastic d**ks, hardcore positions, or fake groaning.

It's subtle, filmed between sheets. We see their eyes, and their mouths and we know what is happening. The Bear doesn't need to tell us explicitly.

The show continues to do what it has done for the last 17 episodes. They keep the tension electric in almost every scene, and the chemistry is palpable. 

The absence of porn is ingenious. 

I'm no prude, but I still covered my eyes while watching the sex scenes in HBO's latest passion project The Idol. 

Starring The Weeknd, Lily-Rose Depp and directed by Sam Levinson, The Idol was intent on telling us something through lewd and violent intimacy. Unlike The Bear, it uses raunchy, debaucherous sex instead of a good plot to tell the story.

Lily-Rose Depp in The Idol. Image: HBO.

But in a world where sex is so visible and easy to access, why do we have to keep enduring simulated intercourse between actors? Why is the inclusion of sex beginning to feel like a drawback when choosing or watching a show?

Perhaps Netflix's You star Penn Badgley thinks it is starting to feel like that too. Earlier this year in March, he admitted to requesting fewer sex scenes in the most recent season. 

"My fidelity in my relationship is important to me and actually, it was one of the reasons I initially wanted to turn the role down," he said on his podcast, Podcrushed.

"That aspect of Hollywood has always been very disturbing to me — and that aspect of the job has always been something that I actually don’t want to play with at all."

Listen to The Spill, Mamamia's entertainment podcast. Post continues after audio. 

In shows like The Bear, sex is absent on purpose, presumably not because White has asked for it to be removed. 

The writers understand it is no longer subversive to include a raunchy sex scene. It is gratuitous watching characters go at it because there's so much more fulfilment to be had in a good script with some bloody good actors. 

That's not to say intimacy is absent, either. It's still there, in full force. 

Except in this show, the characters still have their clothes on. 

But I reckon in a porn-obsessed digital age, that's a pretty damn great thing.

Feature Image: FX/Mamamia.