SummaryIn Jill Soloway's dark comedy Maura (Jeffrey Tambor), who previously was known as Mort Pfefferman, announces his transition to his ex-wife Shelly (Judith Light), and his three kids--Ali (Gaby Hoffmann), Josh (Jay Duplass, and Sarah (Amy Landecker).
SummaryIn Jill Soloway's dark comedy Maura (Jeffrey Tambor), who previously was known as Mort Pfefferman, announces his transition to his ex-wife Shelly (Judith Light), and his three kids--Ali (Gaby Hoffmann), Josh (Jay Duplass, and Sarah (Amy Landecker).
The show creator Jill Soloway’s deeply empathetic filmmaking style and her writers’ penchant for fine, funny details give the series soul and prevent the characters from tipping over into full monstrousness. The performances are more precise than ever, naturalistically portraying people who are neither wholly good nor wholly bad. Most impressive is how Soloway’s team keeps finding fresh angles on the same characters navigating the same big existential questions.
Centered on a career-redefining performance by Jeffrey Tambor as a retired professor finally allowing himself to live his true life as a woman, the half-hour, 10-episode series is, quite simply, astonishing to watch.
Transparent is honestly the best television show I have ever seen. Jill Solloway has created pure magic with her brilliant screenplay and direction. The brilliant lead actor who plays Maura with such incredible nuance is worthy of every award that exists.
A heartwarming story focused on a troubled and ever evolving family living in L.A., Transparent is a story about transgenderism, opulence, ****, youth, confusion and all the turmoil encountered by those living on the forefront of modern civilization. It is truly an encapsulating journey of the central character Mort/Mora, marvelously portrayed by Jeffrey Tambor, and the Pfefferman family that consists of three children (adults in the show) and a mother. The show sheds light on a quite a few pressing issues of the day such as the need for transgender restrooms, addressing **** even in progressive cities, sexism, need for better interpersonal communication and lack of empathy in an increasingly evolving world. This Hulu dark comedy incorporates several layers of human emotion and deconstructs existential issues in a refreshing new light. Great acting and a well-written script.
What a lovely heart this show has, and what supple skills Transparent uses to explore the questions of identity and connection rolling around inside that wounded, hopeful heart. This is simply a great show.
Tambor's delicacy and sincerity as Maura are subtle and moving, though he never aims for sentimentality. The comedy and difficulty of what this all means for the Pfefferman family are beautifully balanced.
Tambor, a good actor, gets whipsawed by some of what he’s asked to do, and the show sometimes has the same feeling. It too often ends up finding neither the comedy nor the pathos in these tortured lives.
Season 1 started out strong, more than deserving of the praise and accolades it won. Characters followed a progressive and, more importantly, realistic development through the overall arch, with each characters reactions to the main pivot in the series being tasteful and well executed. Season 1 won praise for its originality, and its heavy-handed approach to dealing with "hot pocket" topics of the media elite. This was never a show made for "you or me", and more a show made for "them", a self-reflection on the difficulties and tribulations that a small and largely ignored sub-section of the upper echelons of American society. This however was not a problem; with strong writing, simple arch progression and a raft of likeable characters (that all left your routing for them, even when they came into conflict with one and other), Transparent seemed to hit the ground running and by the tenth episode of season 10 was definitely breaking a sweat as it sprinted across the finish line...
And then season 2 happened.
In one fell swoop, it seems, the writers - at the behest of the "ongoing series" desires of their Amazon paymasters - took every character almost 100 steps backwards. Forgotten was the initial excitement of discovering "transparency" in the show's chosen context. Gone were the likeable characters, their difficulties and trials that inspired empathy and understanding from the audience. In their place previously engaging and morish characters became mundane and boorish, as the show switched pivot from "modern masterpiece" to "modern drama guff". To offset this mundane practice in media creation comes a torrent of unrealistic settings, characters and story archs that simply lead the viewer on a journey from the potent exploration of the people and topics at the heart of the show to something more resembling a depressing light-scifi fantasy drama set in an alternate reality to the first season.
Coming in for particularly potent criticism is the character of Josh, who simply seems to meander from revelation to revelation with the ignorance of a boy. Just when you think the character cannot sink any further, cannot make a worse decision, or speak words so far removed from any of the lessons he had learned through season 1, he lets us all down bit by bit. And whilst I personally reserve particular scorn for this aborted child of a man, the rest of the cast hardly comes out smelling of roses. The ensemble works not to engage you in the family drama at the heart of the show but to almost entirely remove you from the family drama and vogue issues at the core of the series. This can be seen in the acting from the stars as well, with season 2 offering performances far and away from the award-winning outings in season 1.
Quite simply, Transparent was a superb single run outing... and it should have been left there. With the impetus to keep the story going, the show has lost much of what gave it merit, and as it has removed itself further from the strong themes at the heart of season 1 it has blindly meandered into the dull world of boring family drama, its only saving grace being a man in a dress.
The problem with this show is that its labeled as a comedy when its never really funny. It is a decent piece of dramatic story telling however. It follows three self centered siblings and there father who do very little growing during the course of the first season. The show doest really keep up the momentum of the first few episodes and begins to stretch its premise a little thin by the end of it. It is well filmed and the acting is great through out the season, even if the characters decisions feel forced at times for drama. If your a fan of Jill Soloway you will most likely enjoy this.
Yet another show with so much positive hype you feel almost guilty being negative about it. BUT, all the main characters are pretty much unlikable most of the time. I just don't care about any of them, Maybe if I was a upper middle class american with an interest in jewish culture and family values then... but no, that also describes Curb your enthusiasm, arrested development, and many other shows that are totally brilliant.
It's ultimately really trashy with every possible human deviation and sexual fetish imaginable thrown into the pot. But the characters are all just so selfish you don't really give a rats ass what happens to any of them after about episode 4.
I for one am always up for a good sex scene or two, but this show is bordering on the absurd. It should be called Transporno. If you like watching ugly people having sex with good looking people ALL the time (yeah, that's realistic)...then this is the show for you. The children are depicted as selfish and extremely unlikeable, which is clearly intentional. In the end you wind up cringing whenever a new character is introduced, because inevitably one of them wind up (as the butch so poignantly states) "fcking your brains out". Extremely tedious. However, all that being said, Jeffrey Tambor and Judith Light are terrific. It would have been a much better show if it just focused on them.