{"id":107568,"date":"2016-09-22T13:25:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T21:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=107568"},"modified":"2023-08-31T04:21:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T12:21:28","slug":"better-than-ever-transparent-transitions-into-a-study-of-american-jewish-ness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=107568","title":{"rendered":"WP: ‘Better-than-ever \u2018Transparent\u2019 transitions into a study of American Jewish-ness’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington Post<\/a>: In ways that are both blunt and subtle, attentive viewers of the show now understand \u201cTransparent\u201d as a broader, epic story about the American Jewish experience \u2014 particularly as it is lived by a family with an on-again, off-again dependence on faith. Thanks to Ali\u2019s barely formed thesis proposal, \u201cTransparent\u201d has provided profound but easily connected dots along the notion of Jewish escape, flashing back to scenes of the previous generation\u2019s tumultuous yet fortuitous flight from Berlin in the 1930s and the capture of Maura\u2019s uncle, Tante Gittel (born Gershon), a young trans woman.<\/p>\n

These scenes were not presented in the name of narrative tidiness or obligations to Holocaust references; they all but announced that \u201cTransparent\u201d is now working less like a dramedy (that word becomes increasingly useless here) and more like an 800-page novel about something bigger than all of us. Season 3 continues to reveal key moments from the past, particularly from Maura\u2019s childhood, but also that of Maura\u2019s ex-wife, Shelly (Judith Light)…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that a lot of these premium-cable and streaming shows are in some way about characters who are Jewish, or at least Jewish-ish, often because these shows are produced and written by people who are simply following the best advice, producing and writing what they know. To have watched some the best half-hour shows of the past 15 or 20 years \u2014 anything since \u201cSeinfeld\u201d \u2014 is to have become at least conversant in Jewish upbringing, culture and kvetching. We don\u2019t discuss it much in TV criticism, mainly because it sends the worst of our anonymous commenters into the rush-hour lane of anti-Semitism, where the only off-ramp is marked \u201cHollywood \u2014 Controlled by Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

First of all, so what if it is? And secondly, from this goyish, Catholic-schooled viewer\u2019s estimation, \u201cTransparent\u201d is well on its way to becoming a definitive and classic work on the subject of Jewishness as \u201cotherness.\u201d When Maura, from memory, offers the kaddish for a recently departed character, \u201cTransparent\u201d once more reaches a state of sublimity, a feat it somehow accomplishes in just about every episode. There\u2019s more to talk about here than the mystery of gender and relationships. \u201cTransparent\u201d is the best show we have right now about personal identity \u2014 of any and all human kinds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington Post: In ways that are both blunt and subtle, attentive viewers of the show now understand \u201cTransparent\u201d as a broader, epic story about the American Jewish experience \u2014 particularly as it is lived by a family with an on-again, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t