पारदर्शी

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 repeat. Authentic.

There are only a few really good shows on television, and this is one of those few. It is not filmed with the bright lights of a movie set. There are shadows and misplaced items just like in any real home or office. The clothing looks worn, the actors bodies are imperfect.

It's perfect.

All the actors are first rate. The dialog fits in their mouths and comes easily from the gut.

Most important, this is not a one-note song. It is a symphony of harmony and, more often, dissonance. There are so many stories within this one story.

Best of all, I like being surprised. As in real life, you can not predict the characters behavior just on your own past experience. You are the unseen observer to a very real family.

I... Just... Love... This... show!

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.

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.