This TV series was on my “to watch” list for a very long time, and I finally managed to find some time to sit down in front of my computer, even though the catching up was relatively slow, due to the hard life of an Erasmus student, but I did it – and so here I am to talk to you about Transparent, a true masterpiece by Amazon Original.
This series of ten episodes, created by Jill Soloway, is for sure Amazon’s first major product, and it has helped him get onto the big league – even though it’s greatest success is being aired itself. Transparent highlights yet another time, with extreme delicacy, that gender is a social construct, and that sexuality is a spectrum of a thousand shades. All this with the grace of one of the caftans often worn by the protagonist, Maura.
The story is centred around her, Maura Pfefferman, who was assigned the male gender at birth and after a long life of hiding she is finally beginning her journey of transitioning to leave Mort Pfefferman behind – the problem is the coming out itself to her tree children, now adults, each of whom has its own problems and defects. Sarah, the eldest, married and with children, but who finds herself questioning everything, from her life to her sexuality, when she meets after many years her college girlfriend. Josh, the middle child, a music producer of some success, chronically unable to establish real relationships with people. And Ali, the youngest, who doesn’t seem to know were to go in life, and is a constant cause of concern for the family.
And despite Maura’s change which seems to be the most drastic, the most obvious, in some ways it’s also the easiest – she is sure of who she is and of who she wants to be, she’s sure of how she wants to live the rest of her life and she’s no longer willing to hide or take steps back. None of the three boys can say to be just as sure, none of them live truly transparent lives – they are hiding from others and from themselves. In the end the viewer asks himself or herself, “do they know themselves?” Finding the answer is not easy neither in the series nor in real life.
There you go, this is what I loved about Transparent. Just how close it easy to reality, and not the similarity that is artfully constructed, with dialogues that seem to say nothing but want to mean something deep and that no one would every really say. Transparent is a series that tells the story of real human being struggling with normal lives, without monsters or ghosts or political scandals – there are no real great plot points, the story just flows with some happy or dramatic moments in a story that continues. Of course, there are some big days, life the one where there is the coming out or when one decides to divorce, but they are told like any other, even the day when there is one failure after another. And Transparent tells us also of those days, the empty days when getting out of bed seems to be an impossible task. Without ever, every hiding – just like Maura.
It’s the story of a family who loses itself to then find itself again, and within the events of the Pfefferman there are an infinite amount of ideas that are never talked about enough on TV today – transsexual people, first of all, but also family relations between siblings, between parents and children. How we never truly know our parents, not even as adults; how the relationships between siblings shouldn’t be taken for granted just because of the shared DNA; stories that are timeless, because they can apply to anyone. At all ages and at all latitudes.
Transparent is this, in my opinion, and this is its strong point: just how true it all is, even though it’s a bit dreamy and a little fragile, covered by this magical air that simply makes it even more beautiful. Jeffrey Tambor, Maura, gives us a superb interpretation in each episode, but even the rest of the cast is exceptional – being an Amazon product, Transparent can afford to be a cable series (like Starz or HBO or Netflix), from the sex scenes to the dialogues that cover every possible topic. The ten episodes of the first season go by so quickly that you’ll be done before you even realise they are over.
Fortunately, the second season is about to begin. From the 5th December it will be available on Amazon Instant Video, so you’re still in time to catch up on the previous one. And when you’re done, maybe come back here to tell us what you think!
