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    TV Review: “Transparent” Waxes Existential in Season 3

    “When one person in a family transitions, everyone transitions.”

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    Shelly (Judith Light) said it best during her well-received temple talk. The past seasons have found the Pfefferman family members in a holding pattern, stuck in their own transitions, waiting to “come out”.

    While Season 2 focused on epigenetics and how the Pfefferman family in 1930s Berlin may reflect the family today, Season 3 ties the family’s struggles to Passover—or liberation. But that’s the crux of the matter for them: What enslaves them? What is their PROBLEM?

    Amazon’s Transparent does a great job of refraining from exalting its main characters. They are all highly flawed, selfish people. The first episode of this season focuses on Maura (Jeffrey Tambor). She confesses that she has a loving girlfriend and family, and a fulfilling job…so why is she so unhappy? And this season, we watch the characters continue to chase happiness, but the real problem is that they don’t even know how to make themselves happy.

    The episode continues with Maura tracking down one of her anonymous callers at the call line. It allows us to see what healthcare is really like for poor LGBT youth. It’s a wake up call for Maura—not all transgendered people look like Caitlyn Jenner.

    At Maura’s 70th birthday party, the whole gang gathers at the family home. Maura announces that she is going to pursue plastic surgery to continue her transition. The family is immediately supportive, but Vicki (Anjelica Huston) is upset it was never mentioned before. She readily accepts Maura as is. Vicki is the most self-assured character on the show, and calls Maura out for always needing an audience.

    Maura also decides she wants to move away from “Moppa” to being called “Mom” and “Grandma”, effectively edging Shelly further out of the family dynamic.

    Maura spends a lot of time and energy pursuing her plastic surgery. She flaunts her before and after pictures, and even sets up a meal train for herself. Ironically, her heart isn’t strong enough, so she is denied surgery and even told to get off her hormones.

    Meanwhile, Ali (Gaby Hoffman) has really pulled herself together since the first season—graduate school seems to agree with her. And her nitrice trips at the dentist sure are fun. She’s also hooking up with her mentor, Leslie (Cherry Jones). Ali struggles with Leslie’s view of their relationship as a temporary, casual thing. But when Leslie proclaims her love, Ali immediately backs off.

    Eldest daughter Sarah (Amy Landecker) flounders around a lot this season, and she tries to find purpose through her involvement in the temple. She moves back in with Len (Rob Huebel) and the kids, although they’re sleeping with other people. She runs for the temple board, but her complicated home life and “dark energy” prevent her from getting a single vote.

    Josh (Jay Duplass) seems to be suffering the most this season. When he struggles with the death of someone close to him, he retreats into himself. He finds a brief moment of comfort with Raquel (Kathryn Hahn), but ultimately drops her for the bright and shiny Shea (Trace Lysette). However, that connection is also fleeting when Josh continues his destructive pattern of treating women poorly. What a jerk.

    Josh then throws himself into his relationship with his estranged son, Colton (Alex MacNicoll). He attends one of Colton’s sermons, and not wanting to disappoint his son further, Josh ends up joining the Christian faith. But Colton stands up for himself, and asks Josh to leave. He knows Josh’s commitment to him and Christianity are fleeting.

    Raquel is thankfully still highlighted in the show, even though she’s not a family member. After her miscarriage and her break up with Josh, she seems to be struggling with depression and her own beliefs. Raquel provides a poignant moment when working on her sermon for Passover. She asks, “What if you have to be your own Messiah?” All of the Pfeffermans should consider this, but it’s Shelly who really takes it to heart.

    The nuclear family comes together again on a cruise at the end of the season. Shelly has previously been overlooked by her family (and by the audience, frankly), but she discovers what seems to elude her other family members: a sense of self. She sheds her loser boyfriend (Richard Masur), tells her family what she needs to be happy, and then bravely performs her one-woman show in front of the cruise guests. The camera zooms in on Shelly during her epically emotional, transforming performance. I dare you not to cry.

    Shelly’s performance is also a great example of the use of music on the show. The song choices are a subtle but effective way to round out the story line (For example, check out “1936” by PHOX).

    A show like Transparent could only be written by someone with an intimate knowledge of this life, someone in the middle of the discussion. Jill Soloway (the show is loosely based on her life) cleverly handles the relatively new, very tricky topic of transgender so well. Transparent asks the important questions and breaches the uncomfortable topics to help get the conversation started. Like, what does it mean to be transgender? Why does a person need a note from a psychologist to have plastic surgery? The best part is, no one claims to have the answers.

    Another aspect I like about this show is that no one is immune to double standards and misogyny: Leslie, a liberal feminist, has a well-known reputation for sleeping with her younger students. Maura is called out for blocking women from the board she ran in Berkeley. And the whole family’s elitism comes out when Maura is admitted to LA County hospital instead of Cedars Sinai.

    Aside from Shelly’s performance, there are no real resolutions at the end of this season. Although it’s hard to watch these characters continue to make bad choices, it’s the honestly with which they show the struggle that keep us coming back for more.

    Grade: A

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    Martha Trydahl
    Martha Trydahlhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Martha is a freelance TV critic for Columbus Underground. You can find her on her couch, preferably drinking wine, watching TV with her husband and two children.
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