Transparent: Why Do We Cover the Mirrors?

January 5, 2015 8:57 PM - Season 1, Episode 10

A funeral brings all the Pfeffermans together and reunites them with their past - Shelley and Maura with old friends, Sarah with her ex, and Josh with his teenage babysitter - who brings a 17-year-old boy. Just when they thought there were no more secrets, the family busts out a few more.
posted by Jacqueline (13 comments total)

Kinda a bummer of a finale. I hope there will be more seasons.
posted by Jacqueline at 1:16 AM on January 6, 2015

I can't think of another show that's as fully formed as this one: the casting, the acting, the writing, the music, the settings-- everything is so completely of a whole, nothing extra, nothing wasted.

I don't know what it's nominated for but it should sweep everything. Tambor continues to be relevant and a revelation, he's astounding in his ability to always be there in everything great that happens to be on, but everyone fits so well you can't really pull it apart for good bits.

I don't know if I'm suppose to portion out comments to episodes.
posted by provoliminal at 6:16 PM on January 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

I ended up watching all the episodes in about three days, so I really couldn't portion them out. It's all a blur!

I'm really excited to see another season, whenever it comes around. I hopped on this when I realized it was created by one of Six Feet Under's main writers, as that's always been a favorite show of mine, and Transparent seems in much the same vein. It's a bit more focused on eros than thanatos. Other than that, though.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 1:31 PM on January 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Did anyone else think this was almost too grim or real? I was a little stunned by the fact that Josh had a kid from his relationship with the babysitter and the exchange between Maura and Alli that ended with Alli throwing the money at her.
posted by kat518 at 11:16 AM on January 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I just finished watched episode 10, less than 24 hours after I first watched episode 1. Not only had I never heard of the show, but had never taken advantage of the free Amazon Prime programming until I saw Jeffrey Tambor's speech during the Golden Globes. Awesome writing, acting, story-line - I really just love this show. It's authentic, edgy (with the transgender story line being the least of it), and resonated on so many levels. Anyone have any thoughts on the relevance of the opening sequence/credits? I'm so happy to see a discussion page here because it begs to be discussed. And now I'm off to read everyone's thoughts.
posted by ms_rasclark at 3:24 PM on January 13, 2015

SO

ALLI'S TRANS

RIGHT

OR

NOT

OR JUST QUEER?

I CAN'T DECIDE

i would never speculate like this about a real person - and i know lots of genderqueer and gender noncomforming folks who take a long time to come out as binary trans but eventually do so i could but i NEVER WOULD because eww and gross and disrespectful - but one of the pleasures of obsessing over fictional characters is being able to pick them apart, right?
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:42 PM on January 14, 2015

Alli didn't strike me as trans, she just doesn't seem to like dressing "like a girl." I think her dad's revelation has inspired her to be more free in experimenting with her gender presentation despite her gender identity and sexual orientation being cis/het.
posted by Jacqueline at 3:19 PM on January 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

One of the points they've made about Alli's character is that she's always trying on new professions, hobbies, academic majors, and I think her new look at the end of the season is just yet another attempt to reinvent herself.
posted by Jacqueline at 3:21 PM on January 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

I really liked this, and yeah, it reminded me of Six Feet Under, too. The fights were uncomfortably real, and I love how fast everything got so messy.

I'm curious about how the trans community feels about this program. It seems to be handling Maura and the peripheral trans characters well, but I imagine it's disappointing that the major role went to a cishet dude, even if Jeffrey Tambor is doing a pretty great job. The "transparent" tag on Tumblr is mostly Pokemon and anime gifs with transparent backgrounds, so it's hard to find commentary on the show.
posted by almostmanda at 6:54 AM on January 16, 2015

Maybe read the comments on the Autostraddle recaps? While Autostraddle /= the trans community, there's a lot of queer transwomen who participate in the site and the comments tend to be a little more educated/thoughtful about this sort of stuff* as well as pretty quick to jump into "critique" mode.

*not saying no one ever says anything dumb or awful, it's the internet after all, i have not read these particular threads
posted by Juliet Banana at 8:46 AM on January 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

*trans women

sorry totally just a typo but a really unfortunate crummy one! my sincere apologies
posted by Juliet Banana at 11:12 AM on January 16, 2015

SPEAKING OF THE AUTOSTRADDLE RECAPS they mention that the writers have hinted that there's a genderqueer character and how they think it may be alli?
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:25 PM on January 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

We finished this show over the weekend and agreed that it was so, so good.
posted by aabbbiee at 12:16 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]