Transparent - Jill Solloway television series on Amazon

God Josh is the worst.

yeah that's why he made the comment, I just mean there were some cultural nuances to why it was funny

i just figured that the stress of the Colton thing and generally being around Josh and his family contributed to the miscarriage (and her decision to leave).

hmmm, according to the guardian recap of ep 6:

Back at home, Josh notices a rash on Raquel’s back. The pair are worried it could be measles – potentially devastating in pregnancy – and see a doctor, who tells them it isn’t, but that Raquel has miscarried.

so i dunno. it's an interesting idea though!

Pastor and Missus Gump rob Josh of both of his children with one blow... the Christian hug that's just a cover for destruction... makes u think, etc

Off Topic, but You Can Count On Me is on TV right now, and I forgot that Gabby Hoffman played Ruffalo's girlfriend in it.

Gabby Hoffman's hair in this is like a whole character by itself. A deeply annoying character.

Josh in episode 6 going to that industry douchefest and getting drunk after what had happened that day. smh. I hate you Josh!

and yeah, i would also certainly welcome a non-cis perspective narrative series made for television; maybe the success of transparent will lead that direction in the next few years

― the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Sunday, February 1, 2015 3:45 PM

This thread seems as good place as any to mention the new web series Her Story. It isn't perfect (some of the dialogue can be too on-the-nose, and some of the character arcs are too compressed due to time and resource constraints), but it's promising in terms of representation insofar as it's written and directed by trans women, and generally avoids pandering or condescension:

http://herstoryshow.com

I will check it out, thanks!

Okay, I just powered through this and it was worth watching!

The good: storylines I've not seen anywhere before (a kept trans woman in an abusive relationship, a woman's justifiable trepidation on self-outing to a possible boyfriend who is too perfect), your note about lack of "pandering or condescension" is generally accurate as it pertains to the creators' belief that the audience is willingness to engage without prejudice, both of the lead trans actors (Jen Richards, Angelica Ross) are very good and watching them work certainly supports the argument that a trans woman playing a trans woman is going to bring a different level of gravitas and believability to the role than a cis man in drag would

The bad: yes the necessary compression of the spec storyline is partially to blame but the biggest issues are occasionally bad acting... Laura Zak, the woman playing Allie in particular, though she's apparently also the co-writer? I'd be curious to see who was responsible for what, as it also suffers from inconsistent script-writing and occasionally surprisingly clumsy direction. The characters are all spectacularly unrealistically gorgeous (there's some of the same DNA as s1 of 'Looking' at play here) which is soap opera gloss I don't need or want. The B-stories feel barely sketched out (Bad Penny in particular is a bad misstep). Eve Ensler is a producer, which makes me nervous.

The ugly: flawed or not (and warts and all it's certainly no worse than a dozen recent television pilots I've seen), given the current political and television climate, this should be getting more mainstream attention! i am a massive media nerd living in a major city, i should have already heard about this!

oh and just to clarify a point in terms of representation: of the three women responsible for writing and direction, only one of the writers appears to be trans if i'm reading the support materials correctly, yes?

Sorry, forks/ulysses, I should have specified more exactly: the series was co-written by Jen Richards and Laura Zak (who is cis), and I'd like to know more about the division of writing labor myself. I agree with most of yr reservations (especially about the unnecessary gloss, though my biggest issue was that the abuse storyline resolved itself too quickly to be fully convincing), but I do really hope Richards and her collaborators find a way to keep developing the series. I think that a lot of the most innovative and nuanced trans art these days takes place in writing (especially fiction and poetry on small presses like Topside and Biyuti, but also on blogs, in zines, in the performance art of people like Juliana Huxtable, and in the recent flowering of Twine games) because it requires less extensive access to capital than is the case with television or film (though obviously class inequalities still massively affect literary production and reception). Still, I do find this series (and Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel's Happy Birthday, Marsha!, once it's through with post-production) to at least be encouraging.

(I also found Red Durkin's comments on the series and the danger of "the after-school effect" here to be useful.)

thanks for that durkin link; I don't know her but that covered most of my caveats both spoken and unspoken, but better.

Issues of capital and potential audience backlash do seem to be at the direction of new trans art; I would add theater to that list but then I have the benefit of living in a major city where i can (and will!) see three trans-focused pieces of theater over three months: Taylor Mac's excellent 'HIR', the brilliant Erin Markey's 'Ride on the Irish Cream' (tomorrow, yay) and 'Southern Comfort' at The Public.

This is very much NOT my community though I have friends and am smitten by people enmeshed in that world and find the development of trans-rights/issues/arts to be one of the more interesting culture and legal shifts of my lifetime... I don't necessarily wanna be the one to do it, but maybe we can/should start a "Rolling Trans Art" thread as that would be a more appropriate place for that discussion than here?

I'd be interested in starting a trans arts thread - maybe later this week, after the 2015 albums countdown ends?

please!

I've set it up here: Rolling trans art thread

thanks!

Watched the season finale. Damn, it hit me hard -- this show is really good.

season 2 did nothing to change my mind that it is primarily a show about Jews, rather than gender identity. really, really liked it.

― expertly crafted referential display name (Jordan), Wednesday, December 30, 2015 11:55 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ive watched up thru the yom kippur ep (which was great) & the least compelling character in the show is tambors imo

I can't help but also feel like the show is more about narcissism than about gender identity, and that in the case of the Tambor character, her struggle with gender identity and transition is as much a vehicle for her character's narcissism as anything else. I don't mean that narcissism causes her gender issue, I just mean in terms of the character's role in the show, the narcissism is kind of more important for the character than the gender transition.

This is part of what I find frustrating about the series (beyond the casting); it's not that I need the characters to be sympathetic, but I just don't find the Pfeffernans interesting as characters. I realize that this is a series made for a cis audience, and that it's not likely to go much deeper on the relationships between its trans characters, but even beyond that, its focus just seems extremely socially narrow in a way the writers can't manage to make compelling: how many more dramas about the family lives of wealthy narcissists do we really need?

^^^ This is a personal reaction, not necessarily a fair one, to be clear, but I do think Alexandra Billings and Hari Nef were underused, and that the series is generally more interesting the more it focuses on its minor characters.

xp its more a comedy than drama imo but thats a valid pt (your last one)

how many more dramas about the family lives of wealthy narcissists do we really need?

I get this, but how many more dramas do we really need about zombies, british aristocrats, cops, presidents, people who live in haunted houses, Colombian drug lords, single twenty-somethings, etc. There probably are topics that we do need more dramas about, most notably poor and working class people. But TV is vast and I can't fault a show solely for its subject matter, and anyway I started to find the characters more sympathetic during the second half of S2. If anything, I think that tapping into the sadness underneath narcissism is not something a lot of shows manage.

I get this, but how many more dramas do we really need about zombies, british aristocrats, cops, presidents, people who live in haunted houses, Colombian drug lords, single twenty-somethings, etc.

I'd be fine with at least a few years' moratorium on these, tbqh

I guess I do leave myself open to that reproach, but I think it's the execution more than the choice of subject matter that I find disappointing. Of course, the series's treatment of class is probably more frustrating insofar as it has so little to do with the conditions under which most trans people live. While the series gestures toward acknowledging that now and then (mostly through Billings's character), it hasn't gone very far in doing so.

Anyway, I don't expect political liberation from a tv show, I just don't find it that compelling.

I started to find the characters more sympathetic during the second half of S2. If anything, I think that tapping into the sadness underneath narcissism is not something a lot of shows manage.

This. It is so good at being so sad.

While the series gestures toward acknowledging that now and then (mostly through Billings's character), it hasn't gone very far in doing so.

― one way street, Thursday, May 19, 2016 11:49 AM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I assume one moment your referencing here is davina's “I’m a 53-year-old ex-prostitute HIV positive woman with a dick. I know what I want, and I know what I need,” to Maura

idk I thought that was p powerful & beyond just a gesture

I guess I'm thinking of that as a gesture insofar as Davina mostly stays a foil to Maura and her family, which seems symptomatic of the narrative choices Soloway and her writers tend to make. I don't think it's necessarily worth continuing to explain why I found the series underwhelming, though, however frustrated I get with the way it gets dubiously framed as progressive.

I think its politics are worth taking to task. As with Girls, it's superficially progressive on "social issues" and a bit willfully blind to class issues.

Yeah, the comparison to Girls is otm.

Could also probably just say "Liberal Television in 2016" for that matter. It seems very representative of the politics of the class of people who write and produce television.

I'd agree, and I think media criticism that stays on the level of critiquing representations (rather than also talking about conditions of production and circulation) is going to end up at an impasse. I probably find Transparent more frustrating than other, similar series in part because it feels like a missed opportunity so far, and in part because more challenging contemporary trans art tends to attract less attention, but I don't want to keep repeating myself.

well like stevie says you gotta distinguish being "in it" from "of it" and that's gonna require social change which is generally manufactured through art so baby steps all round. but i can't fault you for not appreciating the peanut gallery yelling "GO SLOW"

incidentally, Kiki and Herb did an amazing rendition of Mississippi Goddam in their new show that repurposes it as a trans anthem and fuck it works well

incidentally, Kiki and Herb did an amazing rendition of Mississippi Goddam in their new show that repurposes it as a trans anthem and fuck it works well

I'd really like to hear their new work, although without knowing more about Kiki/Bond's performance, I have to say that (to speak as a white girl) I'm extremely wary of white queer people reappropriating the art and slogans of the civil rights movement. I'm curious how v handles it, though.

bombastically. taylor also agonizes at length when he does nina but the alt/nu/art cabaret scene is based on appropriation and remix so i'm inclined to give it a pass if it feels honest.

prob gonna need a thread for i love dick

soloway/hahn 2016

season 3 of this was very enjoyable, although i still think it could be called "JEWS"

the middle of this season gets fucking brutal

Just hit the middle of the season, with Josh on his road trip, and... what a fucking dick. I mean, everyone in that family is terrible in their own way, but he's the worst.

Loving the show btw.

i think i need to be done, these people are toxic. show starts to make me in a bad mood irl.

Is there a thread for "I Love Dick" yet? It's very much something. Feel like I gotta finish before I can talk about it.

yea I watched 4 o 5 eps, p good, Kathryn Hahn is the best

Kevin Bacon is pretty great in this too. So is Griffin Dunne. So is the whole cast!

...is anyone watching the new season? i've heard negative things (by which i mean i read a facebook post by someone citing the fact that THEY had heard negative things...FUCK THIS WORLD BTW), but i've really enjoyed the first couple episodes, at least.

haha yea have enjoyed the first few eps also