Transparent

Let me say at the outset that there have been a lot of disappointed reviewers, and most of them just don't get it - the comedy and the drama come from a series of contrasts.

The rest of the cast are so delightfully screwed up that it helps us to be sympathetic to Jeffrey Tambor's character. This isn't a one-trick pony, as the continuing adventures of the entire cast sets up some beautiful compare and contrast moments.

Not that this is for everybody. If your are looking for high discourse, the don't choose a comedy, and don't try to map an excellent slow comedy into a disappointing drama. It is simply a well-written light comedy about society and the opening up of transgender issues within that context.

Jill Soloway is the writer of the show. All this, is her idea, i mean, she has created such a fresh and original comedy drama, but her mindset and political awareness ruin many moments. I understand the show is a celebration of love, pain, sexual diversity, but we can clearly see the stamp of the writer's ideology all around the show: she tells us what's right, what's wrong, what is good, what's not, what should be liked and what should we not like.

The core concept of the series is basically based on her father's story, he came out of the closet a few years ago at a certain old age, but she places these other characters and focuses on them too much that we lose the actual protagonist and she does that because she wants people to feel rappresented and change the mind of those who do not accept the LGBT community, but no, everyone has the same mindset in the show: liberal, modern and open-minded, which are all good elements, but the other side is missing.

Jill is not a transgender, her father is and we watch the show through her eyes while we should be watching through his. I'm not saying he should've wrote the story, what i'm saying is, although she got into his trousers, that was not enough, because she focused on too many other characters, like the children, we can easily assume they're based on herself, and the show keeps going on with their side, but what's even more wrong is the fact their side is extremely politically manoeuvred, gender identity is brought in, dramatized family troubles, culture and religion.

Jill didn't bring just a story, she brought her life in and with that her views on the world. Don't get me wrong it's a good thing, but not everyone can actually releate to it, since the show in not unbiased on these themes, but has a very strong agenda.

What started out as a unique idea and was well written and acted has quickly gone the way of most TV and lost it's way. This last season is simply an annoying repetition of the various characters dysfunctional relationships and in ability to cope. In many ways a lot like my own family which drives me totally nuts. It did better when it was examining the issues and angst of becoming a trans late in life but now has decided to abandon that theme and go on to frustrating portraits of Jewish angst. We cannot follow this show any longer and have abandoned it for more intelligent viewing. This is now nothing more than a copy of all of Woody Allen's earlier movie themes.

I've gotta say, it's usually that shows gain steam as they go on. With this, it was the opposite. I thought it started off truly fantastic, but somewhere after the first few episodes it lost me a bit. I'm totally up for unlikable protagonists, but Ihave to find them interesting. Two of the three siblings here were not only at times completely insufferable and got more unlikable as the season went on, but their story lines were only mildly interesting at times, and the other times not at all. The one sibling that I did like and found interesting despite also being pretty unlikable was Amy Landecker's character, and I think in her case it really only was because I'm a fan of her as an actress in general. The season should've really concentrated more on Tambor. As it is, it's a pretty good first season despite me liking it less and less as it went on, even if totally unoriginal.

In what could have been an insight into the different lives of a culture we rarely get to contemplate we instead get to focus on a collection of ugly characters believably reflecting the current state of the self centered American psyche. The dialog is witty, the acting is convincing, and the action is believable for the country it comes from, and it's a thoroughly engrossingly unpleasant experience that eventually has you wondering "why am I watching these horrible people?". It's like a lot of American TV of recent years, deriving entertainment from pain & ugliness, and feeding back into the normalisation of that thinking. I got tricked into watching this by the interesting premise and revolted by the self centered side characters to the point of having to abandon the exercise. I don't want these people in my life.