Transparent

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.

I had lots of friends keep letting me know they had watched Transparent and thought I should watch it. I had been holding off though as my Dad came out as transgender about 2.5 years ago and was worried how I would react to it.

Overall I really enjoyed the series but there were conversations that were almost word for word the same as one's I had when I first found out about my Dad and I did end up in tears at points remembering how hard it all seemed at the time.

I think the series perfectly shows how you start questioning your life when you discover something major about your parents that you never could have guessed but may have felt things weren't quite as they seemed. I know I definitely felt my Dad had been hiding something for years before I found out but never suspected it was wanting to be a woman.

The acting is fantastic in this series and the story is definitely an aspect of life that most people haven't had much contact with or know much about but does seem to be something more people are willing to share and make people more aware of.

I kept watching and watching, hoping that as I got to know them I would begin to care about this extraordinarily shallow, spoiled and obnoxious bunch of people - or even to laugh at them for being so relentlessly revolting - but the opposite happened. By the middle of Episode 7 I loathed every one of them so deeply that I just wished The Big One would finally come along, pull the chain, and flush the entire state of California to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where it belongs. Then it occurred to me that I didn't HAVE to watch this crap, so I stopped.

I love the idea behind this series, and it might have been really good if only there were at least one character I could stand to watch, or laugh at, or maybe even like. There isn't.

Tambor and Hoffman are excellent in roles that fit their talents so perfectly that it's hard now to imagine either of them ever playing any other characters. I do care about those two actors - especially, now, for the first time, Hoffman. I just don't care at all about either character. I wish I wished Maura well, but I just don't. I can't. She's too dishonest and shallow and selfish.

The other actors - with one notable exception - are all right but don't bring any personal depth to their tiresome, narcissistic characters, as Tambor and Hoffman do. The exception is Judith Light, whose restrained and sensitive performance in Save Me was a revelation. Here she shows no subtlety or intelligence at all, playing a Southern California Jewish matron so shrill and strident that the human being is completely lost in the stereotype.

Most of the writing is clever, the production is excellent, and the series might have been a real treat if I could only have cared about even ONE of the profoundly revolting characters.

I began watching this series by accident one night. I am not someone aware of the issues that face trans-gender people but do know a couple of people that have recently began the transition and i thought this series may help the masses to be more accepting of difference. However unfortunately all i have found in both the first and second series are a group of self obsessed selfish individuals and i couldn't dislike the characters more if i tried, there lives are so bizarre, twisted and meaningless and all the seem to do is hurt everyone around them, not one of the characters actually seems to care about any of the others. I am not a prude but I think it is over sexed and untrue to life. Its not funny, its not enlightening, its not even interesting. What it is, is mundane, at times offensive on a number of levels and unbelievable, i do not feel it offers a true insight into any families life but just serves to try and shock, which it also does not achieve.

I will watch to the end of series 2 in the hope that something good will come from this complete waste of my time.

I could blurb on about how poignant this programme is.

I could parp on about how fabulous Jeffrey Tambor is.

I could ramble on about how enlightening it is or I could just say that I loved it, a lot.

Tis true, I really truly loved it. I did a spot of that binge watching thing, made my partner watch it and watched it again with her. I do not think that it is being hyped up due to the subject matter, it is simply a bleeding good programme. The humour doesn't come from a man in a dress, it comes from the keen observations in the writing and the great acting (maybe not from Judith Light's portrayal of an elderly Jewish woman, which I thought was a tad over the top on occasion, not so much in the flash backs though, which were quite lovely). It made me laugh, smile, cry, feel a lot of different emotions through each episode.

After watching it twice, I then went onto to reading about it and found a whole new appreciation for what it is and what Jill Soloway has done here, even though I thought it was fab before, I love it all the more knowing the background to the writing and making of it.

Looking forward to season two, I hope a TV channel picks it up, I'm not a huge fan of this video streaming thing and would prefer to see on a big screen.