"Transparent" Serves Up Comedy & Controversy

[Carolyn Marie]

http://mic.com/articles/96272/this-fall-all-eyes-will-be-on-amazon-s-new-transgender-character

Carolyn Marie

[Guest sydney]

I've seen the pilot (available on Amazon Prime) and it does look promising. It's been approved for a complete season so it will be interesting to see how it comes out.

[Guest ashleynikole]

... interesting to see how it comes out.

Aaahhhhh....I see what you did there.

[Carolyn Marie]

I'm not one of those who say that only a transperson can play the role of a transperson. It is a creative decision, as well as a financial and marketing decision, that is best left in the hands of studio people. No one should be pigeonholed. What would the Community say if a transgender actor was only given those roles to play, and not non-trans roles, because they couldn't possibly understand what its like to not be trans? There would be an uproar, right? But you can't have it both ways.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Kenna Dixon]

I saw the pilot last night.

Jeffrey Tambor's performance as the transgender dad impressed me. He may be doing Emmy-quality work here.

But the character being fully "out" in an otherwise non-transgender support group somehow didn't ring true.

[VickySGV]

A point made by my ex-wife who was qualified as an English Literature teacher about comedy and tragedy was. "A tragedy ends up in the graveyard, a comedy ends up in the bedroom!!" She was willing to give me the point, that some comedies ended up in the bedroom because they put me to sleep, but the point was that comedy in the classic sense does not mean a line of Ha Ha Ha at every step of the way. They do not even fully require that there be a rousing sex session, just a happy comfortable rest. I will accept the classic definition above for this comedy, which I confess I have only seen the trailer for, but which I intend to see after my travel season is off the books.

As far as Tambor goes, who can tell if this may not open up a side for him that he has been less than honest about before. I know many ex-cis who have shown up at support group meetings. Also, I was first fully out to a non transgender support group, albeit not en-femme clothing wise, before I ever attended a TG support group, in my case it began with addiction recovery. ??? I can believe the improbable before breakfast, the impossible will come a bit later.

[Ravin]

I saw the pilot last night.

Jeffrey Tambor's performance as the transgender dad impressed me. He may be doing Emmy-quality work here.

But the character being fully "out" in an otherwise non-transgender support group somehow didn't ring true.

I got the impression the support group WAS a trans support group. I also got the impression that the character was F/T except with the kids around at that point...the kids being the last holdout of her life where she was still functioning in male mode.