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Salt and Pfefferman

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Transparent makes for transfixing television

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Transparent is back on our screens. And the Pfeffermans navigate their way through more minefields of frustration and comic anarchy. Oh, the drama… Debashine Thangevelo reports

TRANSPARENT 2 registered on the radar of TV critics for several reasons. One of which is Jeffrey Tambor’s powerful performance as a transgender character – in his 70s, nogal. The other reason being Caitlyn Jenner’s popularisation of the issue – not that it has been as terrible a struggle for her as it is for normal people undergoing the same personal predicament. Let’s be honest, when money is no problem, it isn’t much of a struggle. Especially when the world idolises you.

What I really love about Transparent 2 is creator Jill Soloway’s finesse in anchoring the storyline with a regular dysfunctional family. In ensuring her characters are fallible, their issues also become identifiable. Whatever course of action they choose, their reasoning, in a way, redeems them.

Also, while she tells the story of how one man’s decision to embrace the woman within has an emotional domino effect on his entire family, she doesn’t allow it to overshadow all the other stories. Instead, she ensures there’s a sort of harmony in how the narrative unfolds.

Whereas season one was all about Maura (born Morton), a retired college professor, coming out to his family, it also emphasised the fractured personal relationships with his kids and his extraordinary bond with his ex-wife.

The follow-on from that is Sarah, Maura’s eldest daughter who came out as a lesbian, getting remarried in a picturesque all-white wedding.

Of course, weddings are traditionally a breeding ground for chaos, tension and drama. And this ceremony has plenty of it.

Maura’s homophobic sister is invited and it leads to an awkward encounter.

In a chat with her ex, Maura says: “Is a lizard cordial (in reference to her sister)? She’s a filing cabinet with nice hair.”

Meanwhile, Sarah gets cold feet, having just exchanged her “I do’s”.

She rants: “The relationship was a moment. This is forever. I hate Tammy and her stupid family… those Wasps.”

And so Rabbi Raquel Fein, who is pregnant with Josh’s kid, tries to calm her down, saying: “It’s just a ritual… like a very expensive play.”

On maintaining a sort of equilibrium between the drama and comedy, Soloway says: “It’s a comedy, but it’s sad and funny at the same time. I don’t think comedy has to be broad with a million jokes a minute. I don’t think I could ever imagine that the culture would shift this much so quickly. I couldn’t have imagined in a million years, if someone had said to me: ‘Caitlyn Jenner is going to come out and the whole world conversation about what it means to be trans is going to shift’. I never would have believed it.”

The dialogue not only has a natural ease about it, it is also quite sharp.

And the direction is rather clever. Especially at the end of the first episode, where there is a poetic glimpse of how all their lives run parallel to each other.

This season, viewers will witness the reactions and consequences to decisions being made. What does remain powerful is the family bond and closeness.

Transparent 2, February 26 , M-Net Edge (DStv channel 102) at 9.30pm.


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