Over the holiday break in December, my mom and I watched all of the Amazon Prime series "Transparent" in two days. Every time I go home to visit my parents, my mom and I usually spent 60-90 minutes arguing over what to watch. By the time we agree, we're too tired to stay awake. So when we discovered that we both had read about and were interested in seeing "Transparent," it felt like a Hanukkah miracle.
We were hooked after the very first episode and binged all ten. We rejoiced when the show took home Golden Globe awards for "Best Comedy" and "Best Actor in a Comedy" earlier this month.
"Transparent" stars Jeffrey Tambor (best known for his role on "Arrested Development") as Mort Pfefferman, a man who has been privately crossing dressing and finally decides to fully transition and live his life as a woman. He adopts the name Maura and after attending a transgender support group, decides to share the news with his three adult children.
Jeffrey Tambor plays this role with such vulnerability. You sincerely root for him (and Maura). Your heart will break during one particular scene, where Maura tries to use the ladies room at a shopping mall and is accosted by a woman who feels its inappropriate for her to be in there.
You learn about Mort's desire to live as a woman through a series of flashbacks. Throughout his marriage (to Shelly, played by "Who's the Boss?" mama bear Judith Light) he was sneaking off to release his cross dressing fantasies. There's one episode where at a getaway weekend for men who cross dress, you learn the nuances within that community between cross dressers, people who live their lives as the other gender and people who have reassignment surgery. In that moment, I realized that whatever I thought I knew or understood, was just the tip of the iceberg.
Mort's closest friend in the transgender community is played by Bradley Whitford. I actually recognized his voice first (thanks to all those months of binging "The West Wing"), before recognizing his face or stature. It was incredible to see him play someone so wildly different from Josh Lyman.
The most fascinating dynamics in the show come from Mort's relationships with his three children: Sarah, Josh and Ali. His oldest daughter, Sarah, is played by Amy Landecker, who I noticed immediately from her role as Dr. Michelle Banks on "Revenge." In this series, Sarah is married with two children and experiences an unlikely reconnection with her girlfriend from college, Tammy. When Mort shares his news with Sarah, she applauds him for living his life as his true self (or herself, as the case may be).
Mort's middle child, Josh, can't seem to grow up. He produces music for drugged out teenagers and sleeps with a parade of women. The role of Josh is brought to life by Jay Duplass, an actor I didn't really know before watching this show. In a recent feature I read in Entertainment Weekly, I learned that he and his brother Mark (Dr. Deslaurier on "The Mindy Project") are the producers of HBO's newest series, "Togetherness."
The youngest of the Pfefferman siblings is Ali, who is inhabited by actress Gaby Hoffman. Prior to her appearance in season three of "Girls," I can't remember seeing her doing anything else since her career making role in "Now and Then" in 1995. Ali is as lost as lost can be. She's unemployed, a recreational drug user and takes her father's news as an invitation to jump down the rabbit hole with the transgender community, asking invasive questions.
The reason the show is so captivating, is because you can relate to all three of Mort's children as they try to process and adapt to their new reality in which their father is living life as a woman. Situations arise that you would never think of, until you are sitting there watching them unfold.
The supporting cast is also supremely talented - Judith Light, Bradley Whitford, Melora Hardin as Sarah's college girlfriend, Kathryn Hahn as Josh's love interest and Alexandra Billings as Maura's transgender touchstone.
Each episode is only 30 minutes and there are just ten episodes in season one. With two Golden Globe wins, there is surely going to be a season two.
Tell me, have you watched "Transparent"? What did you think?
