'Transparent' Season 3 Review

Image from Amazon

By Darian Scalamoni

            I have to give massive amounts to credit to streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu as they are pumping out fantastic programming. I was able to binge watch season 3 of Transparent within a two-day period but I finally had some time to write a review.

            For those who don’t know the premise of the show, Maura Pfefferman (played wonderfully by Jeffrey Tambor) is a transgender woman who begins her process at the later stages of life. This comes to a big shock to her three children Ali (Gaby Hoffmann), Sarah (Amy Landecker) and Josh (Jay Duplass) as they never had a clue. With many of their own problems and craziness in their respective lives, Maura’s transition from Morty to the latter is just another new thing that the family needs to unravel along with their own secrets. Oh yeah, and their mother, Shelly (Judith Light) joins in on the craziness as well. This obviously leads to incredible hilarity but also some real intense dramatic moments. If you haven’t watched the first two seasons though, PLEASE go back and do so. In the half-hour comedy format and binging ability, they’re very easy and enjoyable to get through.

            The Pfefferman family is absolutely insane as we’ve seen in seasons past but this new season is Jill Soloway’s most innovate to date, by far. Within this season we see many things that are completely new but one thing I appreciate is we see different stages in Maura’s life fleshed out throughout. One of the later episodes in the season titled “If I Were a Bell” showcases 12-year-old Maura as her femininity starts to begin to shine through and causes a clash between her mother Rose and her grandparents, Haim and Yetta. There are also flashes of how the romance between Maura and Shelly started which is interesting to say the least, but then again everything within the confines of the show is crazy.

            This season is filled with a lot of downfalls for our lead characters, with the exception of Shelly who has a true reawakening in the season finale which includes her very own one-woman show where she performs her own rendition of Alanis Morissette’s “Hand in My Pocket”. Maura is pursuing the gender re-assignment surgery she’s wanted for a while but is told by her surgeon that her heart is not strong enough to withstand the surgery. Along with her breakup with girlfriend Vicki (played by Anjelica Huston), it seems that there is more negativity within this season for Maura led by her own thinking and handling of her life and situations.

Josh is no longer interested in his job at the record label and then is shocked when his former lover/babysitter Rita commits suicide. He then tries to do the right thing by heading to Kansas and trying to dedicate his time to their biological son, Colton before being pushed away in his second unsuccessful stint in trying to be a real father to his son. This ultimately leads him to go into a massive depression with no one to really lean on.

Sarah’s subplot has been fairly straightforward with not as much substance as past seasons. She is dealing with issues in her love life, deciding whether or not her ex-husband, Len, really is the one for her (again). In addition to that, she’s trying to find herself within her religion at her temple but it seems like she’s very much half-assing it just to get along the day by day with something to do. It seemed more like a plea for self-help than anything else, to be honest. With no current partner, her character is constantly in a state of boredom it seems like so she tries to form a real bond with Raquel which backfires completely. It seems though that Sarah does everything this season to overcompensates for the rejection she feels she’s had since childhood.

Ali is the only main character with a relationship at season’s end but it seems to be on the fritz. Ali starts dating fellow professor, Leslie during the season but it’s when she truly sees how radical her views are and how she is no longer attracted to Leslie the way she was last season. She also deals with this whole idea of how intersectionality is just how different forms of oppression do and don’t intersect which seems to be a whole concept that plays out in all of the characters’ daily lives.

All in all, this season is truly great, further proving why this show is one of the best shows currently on TV. The performances are fantastic all across the board and the writing is as creative as it’s ever been. If you haven’t watched this show, you must start. I recommend to anyone and everyone.

9.2/10