Gender on the agenda
Comedy-drama Transparent returns to Stan with another season filled with love, laughter and confusion,
Life is really complicated sometimes, and it certainly continues to be so for the Pfefferman family in season three of Transparent.
This Golden Globe-winning comedy-drama, which this month also won two Emmys, stars Jeffrey Tambor ( Arrested Development) as Mort, a retired college professor who confesses to his family that he identifies as a woman, and begins the transition to Maura.
“My whole life,” Maura says, “I’ve been dressing up like a man.”
Navigating sensitive issues with warmth and humour, seasons one and two saw the Pfeffermans slowly come to terms with the patriarch of this Jewish family dressing and living as a woman, demonstrating that when one person in the family transitions, the whole family does, too.
It has been an unexpected journey of self-discovery for Maura’s grown-up children Sarah (Amy Landecker), Ali (Gaby Hoffmann) and Josh (Jay Duplass), who all responded to the life-changing news in their own way – from calm acceptance to absolute incredulity.
The confusing struggle continued as they tried to piece together and rebuild their close-knit family, tackling a range of challenges, from worrying about how Mort’s transition to Maura would affect their lives, to simply working out how to refer to the person they knew as their father (they conjured up the name “Mappa”, a hybrid of “mamma” and “pappa”).
However, season three brings many changes, including Maura’s insistence that the name “Mappa” goes and that the kids call her Mamma instead, which doesn’t go down well with her ex-wife, the children’s mum Shelly (Judith Light).
Maura gets an unexpected reality check when she begins volunteering at an LGBTQ suicide hotline. She is forced to confront her privileges as an upper-class white trans woman, and it triggers her to start contemplating gender confirmation surgery.
The children also have plenty of their own dramas to deal with – Josh is failing to cope with his messy break-up from Rabbi Raquel (Kathryn Hahn), Sarah is looking for spiritual guidance after her divorce from Len (Rob Huebel) and her cancelled wedding with Tammy (Melora Hardin), and Ali is questioning her career path and relationship with professor Leslie (Cherry Jones).
Meanwhile, Shelly is revelling in her newfound love with Buzzy (Richard Masur).
Not surprisingly, this beautifully made, poignant tale has been win- ning awards since it started in 2014. Most recently, Tambor won his second award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy at this year’s Emmys and the show also took home Outstanding Direction for a Comedy Series for an episode directed by its creator Jill Soloway.
Fascinatingly, Transparent was inspired by the real-life story of Soloway’s father, who came out as transgender when he was 75.
If you enjoy shows that are challenging, emotional, sharp and humorous, then get involved – this is one of the best around.