Joining the chorus in praise of Transparent (and a note on Justified)

I'll join the chorus in praise of the Amazon series Transparent (watching Season 1, through first 5 episodes), a series that I would have thought to be sensational and exploitative and not especially appealing but it's none of the above. Summary can't really do it justice because if I tell you this is a series about an LA family in which the father - a divorced, retired college professor - is gradually coming out to his 3 adult kids as trans and that each of kids has significant sexual-relational problems of his/her own - it sounds like a melodrama or old-fashioned soap opera doped out with contemporary sexual terminology. It's much more than that and much simpler. Each of the characters is completely recognizable and believable - as types, and as individuals. Our sympathy for them varies - and fact probably varies among viewers - but our interest in them never wanes. The director Jill Soloway conveys an incredible range of mood and emotion in each 30-minute episode - humor, sexuality, anger, sorrow. She handles some really serious and complex issues w/out a moment of condescension or exploitation and with a great deal of sensitivity toward the central character, Maura, as she navigates her new world. Some of the extraordinary short scenes include the moment when older daughter Sarah first sees her father in a dress and wig; flashback scenes when we see a younger Maura leading a secret life as a cross-dresser; Maura's first visit to a shopping mall; and the moment in a restaurant when an old-time family friend tries to flirt with a young girl (also a trans), recognizes Maura, and is humiliated and ashamed while she keeps her cool and her dignity - painfully so, however.

A note on another very popular series that we abandoned after 2+ episodes: There's nothing really wrong with Justified, plenty of action and reasonably good entertainment with appealing and attractive lead characters, but maybe that's part of the problem: This series never seemed to me an authentic depiction of life and crime in Appalachia nor of the life and work of a federal marshal. The characters are cast right out of the Hollywood glamour mold and just don't ring true. Essentially, based on the first 3 episodes, each is a pretty good hour-long crime story, but the series lacks the crucial element that makes a series work: an on-going plot line that develops, evolves, and keeps us engaged over multiple episodes.