WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED SEASON 1 ONE OF TRANSPARENT YET.
I’m just going to unleash my indignation right upfront: how can someone possibly classify this as a comedy? Apparently, I’m the only one who didn’t find Transparent funny, since it has been nominated for 7 Emmy Awards this year, all of them in the Comedy category! I’ve read people speculating that it’s because each episode is 30-minute long, so it’s “automatically” classified as comedy, whereas dramas tend to be 1-hour long.
Clarifying why I didn’t find it funny: set in Los Angeles, Transparent tells the story of a very dysfunctional family. The father, played beautifully by Jeffrey Tambor, announces to his 3 children that he is transgender and will dress as a woman and would like to be called “Maura”. She is the only character I actually rooted for in the show.
The three children are simply awful, in my opinion. Sarah (Amy Landecker) is married and has children, but after seeing Tammy (Melora Hardin) again, with whom she had an affair in college, she decides to leave her husband to have a relationship with her. And it happens so fast that it’s a little hard to believe. Josh (Jay Duplass) is addicted to sex (and love) and has affairs with a lot of women, always thinking that she can be the love of his life. Ali (Gaby Hoffmann) is the most complicated (and annoying) of them: she’s spoiled (always getting money from her father and doesn’t work), self-centered and completely lost about what she wants.
So the entire family has a lot of problems and none of them are likable: they cheat, manipulate, and are incredibly selfish. As I mentioned, the only one who’s worth something is Maura. Her children are so eccentric that none of them really cared that much about their father’s secret. Of course there was some reaction, but they cared more about themselves than about their father. The best scene, for me, was when Maura finally has an argument with Ali, telling her that she’s everything I’ve just described.
I was disappointed with the show because I had a lot of expectations and, after watching (and loving) Grace and Frankie, with a similar premise, I thought this show would be more interesting. To be honest, what I did find interesting was the fact that they actually used real transgender to play the parts on the show.
The show will probably win a few Emmy Awards and the second season will probably be more popular. Let’s just hope it’s actually funny, with better characters.
