Let's see:
The National Anthem features pretty neutral male and female characters for the most part. Sexuality doesn't enter the equation, but obviously the Prime Minister isn't gay because he would be the first openly gay Prime Minister if he were and it would be strange if the show didn't address that given that it's meant to be set in contemporary times and it'd be a distraction of the actual story. None of the characters are overtly gay but none of the characters, bar the PM and his wife, are overtly straight either.
Fifteen Million Merits features a rare example of a sympathetic character. Yes, he's a straight male. The female love interest is also pretty sympathetic for the record. Other than the lead (and possibly his laddish friend - I can't remember too well), none of the characters are particularly sexualised. They could all be straight or gay.
Now, the main character could have been gay without changing the story in this case. Statistics vary between about 1 and 10% of the population of the UK being gay, depending on which study you look at. Let's be generous and go with 10%, which means that we need to see 10 overtly straight characters (where they could easily have been gay) with no gay characters before there's a problem. We're currently at 1 out of 10.
The Entire History of You features an utterly loathsome male lead and a pretty awful male supporting role. None of the other characters are particularly bad people including several women. This is a case where the character could easily have been gay so we're now at 2 out of 10 (the side-character doesn't count because he had to be a romantic rival to the protagonist of the story).
Be Right Back features a completely sympathetic female protagonist. And she sort of had to be straight so that she could conceive a child (it's a fairly important part of the story).
White Bear features a female protagonist who's in a moral grey area. She's definitely presented as sympathetic despite having done some horrible things. There are some utterly horrible male characters in this episode, though. She appears to be a straight character (though she could easily be bisexual for all we know), which I imagine is because if she was gay, it might be wrongly perceived as some sort of comment about lesbian relationships. Regardless, I'll include it, bringing us up to 3 out of 10.
The Waldo Moment features a male protagonist. He's fairly sympathetic, though he certainly wanders into some morally grey areas. I seem to remember some stuff suggesting he's straight so that brings us up to 4 out of 10.
White Christmas features a seemingly straight (though he could have been bi) male protagonist in John Hamm. He needs to be straight because he's a "pick-up artist" and that's something fairly unique to straight men. He's in the morally grey category.
Part 1 follows a straight, male character who, once again, sort of needs to be a straight, male to be part of the pick-up culture. He operates in the same grey area. You're definitely not meant to be on his side, but his fate is more than he deserves. He encounters a woman who is fairly messed up, but she needed to be a woman in order to be compatible with him and she needed to be messed up in order to give him an ironic end.
Part 2 follows a completely sympathetic female protagonist in the form of the cookie. Her sexuality isn't touched upon.
Part 3 follows a fairly sympathetic, though somewhat in the moral grey, male protagonist who deals with a horribly unsympathetic female supporting character (and her similarly unsympathetic male father). The sexuality of the protagonist and the woman needs to be straight as they need to have a child together (or at least think that they have) for the story to work.
Now, if you ask me, that's a very, very even spread. Many characters in this show are utterly loathesome individuals and that goes for both men and women. A handful are sympathetic beings and, once again, they're both men and women.
As for gay characters not being present, many characters could be gay for all we know. There haven't been any gay characters whose sexuality is obvious or part of the story, but then, the most generous statistics peg gay people as 10% of the population and I only counted up to 4, before, meaning that they could have more than twice as many straight characters without a gay character before it becomes an issue of representation. It's also worth noting that this show is only 7 episodes into its run which is absolutely nothing. Season 3 is going to consist of 12 episodes, if I recall correctly, and I'd be quite surprised if you don't see at least one gay character in the mix after that.
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Better_Call_Saul
8 years ago
To be fair 'The Entire History of You' has a fairly unlikeable female lead character who is a compulsive liar and cheater.
It actually shares a similar thing with 'White Christmas'. Girlfriend cheater who has someone else's baby (although this is only implied in 'The Entire History of You') and who treats boyfriend like crap and he ends up losing the plot.
A total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through
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