When Amazon’s Transparent scooped up a couple Golden Globes last winter, I wasn’t intrigued. The notion of streaming shows from the e-commerce giant hadn’t yet penetrated my radar. I didn’t even have a Prime account.
Well that all changed last week.
With the kids both off on a sleepover, and DH still in recovery mode, we settled into a serious binge-watching session of the family drama. Oh, and it’s worth noting — this show is completely binge-friendly. Each episode is a mere 30 minutes with the new episode beginning exactly where the last one left off. It’s like how the daytime soaps do it.
The story revolves around the coming out of transgender father to his 3 adult children. And while the show’s title is Transparent…there are a lot of dark secrets going on making it a super juicy indulgence.
Some of the story lines are extreme (even major cringe-worthy!), but it all still feels real. In fact, it’s incredibly real. This is the kind of stuff that could (and probably did) happen to anyone.
The acting solidifies the show’s authenticity — Jeffrey Tambor as Mort / Maura is phenenomenal. And Judith Light! She does high strung, neurotic Jewish mother like none other. There’s also the well casted music business brother, Jay Duplass – who just may be the most Effed up of the bunch. And then there’s the LA backdrop which gives a beautiful facade for all the complicated characters reeling around inside.
The scene that stuck out to me most was when the rabbi explained the jewish tradition of covering up mirrors after a death.
“It’s about being free from vanity. It’s about being free from that extra layer of being seen, and just letting us be.”
When I came to write this post, my eye caught on the Martha Graham quote sitting above my computer:
The life of expression is the tuning fork by which we find our way to what matters
This is the essence of Transparent.
Then throw a whole lot of sex and drama into the mix.
Watch the pilot here:
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OkaY, I’ll admit it – I have never heard of Transparent and had no idea that Amazon was making and streaming TV shows, so wow, I’m really out of the loop aren’t I? I’ll check it out.
How timely a post …. I just binged on Transparent this past week when I was vegging one night. I watched all the episodes in one sitting and wanted more but found out they are still filming season 2. Such acting! It’s going to be a cult-classic. Love the name too …. Trans – Parent. Very clever. Such Drama!
Ha! Trans-Parent — I didn’t see that…so clever! I read that they already signed on for season 3 so we’ve got lots of good stuff to look forward to. Thank You!
It took me a while to get to it as well, but I highly recommend…definitely one of the better shows out there right now.