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Oct. 19th, 2014 02:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariSo, what did you think of Transparent, Jenn? The Long Version.
In short: This is good. This is VERY good. While a lot of focus has been made on Jeffery Tambor's transgender Maura/Mort character, there's a lot more here. A whole lot more.
The Good: Where do I even begin. If we stick to the trans stuff, somebody seriously SERIOUSLY did their homework. There are scenes in here that made me flashback to the beginnings of my transition with Boulton and Park (the "camp" scenes, especially), and one specifically that nearly made me walk out of the room for hitting not just close to home, but dangerously close to home (the "bathroom" scene). Jeffery Tambor is great as Maura, and in flashbacks as Mort, hitting scenes with just as much worry, fear, fretting, and eventual strength we all go through in our transitions. This show hit many many MANY points in my transition. I saw many of my friends reactions to coming out in this show, many of my family's reactions, many good pieces of advice, many bad pieces of advice. The folks I watched with were cheering on her victories, as much as we were yelling at her not to make the same inevitable mistakes we did during our (and our spouses) transitions.
And then there's something that really works for me: She's not the center of attention of the series.
If anything, she's a catalyst. Mort's revelation as Maura isn't the entire show. She's the catalyst of some pretty impressive storyarcs from all the characters. From Maura's three adult-children, her ex-wife and exe's new husband (my favorite character, who never even gets a line), they all have massively swinging character arcs over the ten episodes. Some leave them in better positions, some leave them in worse. But all feel natural and organic, versus just swinging the meter from one extreme to the other. The folks I watched with were cheering on their victories, as much as we were yelling at her not to make the mistakes they did. The one arc that surprised me most was having one of the edgier not-apparently-caring characters being the one that actually cared the most. The show is really an ensemble show that Maura is a part of, versus being a Maura show with a supporting cast.
I love to riff movies and shows. And it takes a really good show to make me not riff something. This is good. This is VERY good.
The Bad: The series does seem to suffer from what I call "Missing Data Syndrome." While I'm okay with dropping events and scenes and allowing the viewers to decide what happened, this happened often enough that we would stop mid episode and go "What happened with X character? Did they end up leaving? What happened there?." We lost a character thread here and there that seemed to be important to the plot. While it didn't detract from the show, it did pop us out of it occasionally.
I fully admit, I'm a bit of a (um, well, probably really very much a) prude for a transwoman. Heidi is probably the most risque character I've written, but we wont see much of her risque side as Carrie is also, like me, a bit of a prude. That said, there's a lot of nudity and sex in the show. Many times it's actually integral to the plot, but a bit much for me.
The Bad: A surprise twist at the end of the series had us all shaking our heads and going "Oi, gevalt." You'll get it when you see it.
I had a lot of faith in this show. I championed it when it came under fire. I told people to do what I was going to do: Give it a chance. The show affirmed my faith in it, and that we can have good trans characters and stories told. Bring on Season 2.
In short: This is good. This is VERY good. While a lot of focus has been made on Jeffery Tambor's transgender Maura/Mort character, there's a lot more here. A whole lot more.
The Good: Where do I even begin. If we stick to the trans stuff, somebody seriously SERIOUSLY did their homework. There are scenes in here that made me flashback to the beginnings of my transition with Boulton and Park (the "camp" scenes, especially), and one specifically that nearly made me walk out of the room for hitting not just close to home, but dangerously close to home (the "bathroom" scene). Jeffery Tambor is great as Maura, and in flashbacks as Mort, hitting scenes with just as much worry, fear, fretting, and eventual strength we all go through in our transitions. This show hit many many MANY points in my transition. I saw many of my friends reactions to coming out in this show, many of my family's reactions, many good pieces of advice, many bad pieces of advice. The folks I watched with were cheering on her victories, as much as we were yelling at her not to make the same inevitable mistakes we did during our (and our spouses) transitions.
And then there's something that really works for me: She's not the center of attention of the series.
If anything, she's a catalyst. Mort's revelation as Maura isn't the entire show. She's the catalyst of some pretty impressive storyarcs from all the characters. From Maura's three adult-children, her ex-wife and exe's new husband (my favorite character, who never even gets a line), they all have massively swinging character arcs over the ten episodes. Some leave them in better positions, some leave them in worse. But all feel natural and organic, versus just swinging the meter from one extreme to the other. The folks I watched with were cheering on their victories, as much as we were yelling at her not to make the mistakes they did. The one arc that surprised me most was having one of the edgier not-apparently-caring characters being the one that actually cared the most. The show is really an ensemble show that Maura is a part of, versus being a Maura show with a supporting cast.
I love to riff movies and shows. And it takes a really good show to make me not riff something. This is good. This is VERY good.
The Bad: The series does seem to suffer from what I call "Missing Data Syndrome." While I'm okay with dropping events and scenes and allowing the viewers to decide what happened, this happened often enough that we would stop mid episode and go "What happened with X character? Did they end up leaving? What happened there?." We lost a character thread here and there that seemed to be important to the plot. While it didn't detract from the show, it did pop us out of it occasionally.
I fully admit, I'm a bit of a (um, well, probably really very much a) prude for a transwoman. Heidi is probably the most risque character I've written, but we wont see much of her risque side as Carrie is also, like me, a bit of a prude. That said, there's a lot of nudity and sex in the show. Many times it's actually integral to the plot, but a bit much for me.
The Bad: A surprise twist at the end of the series had us all shaking our heads and going "Oi, gevalt." You'll get it when you see it.
I had a lot of faith in this show. I championed it when it came under fire. I told people to do what I was going to do: Give it a chance. The show affirmed my faith in it, and that we can have good trans characters and stories told. Bring on Season 2.
