My thoughts about movies and TV shows I've been watching

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Friday, September 29, 2017

Why Season 4 of Transparent may be losing its mojo

The bar has been set pretty high, but I'm afraid that Season 4 of Jill Solloway's fine series, Transparent, is losing some of its mojo. The problem is that the essence of the show is Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) and the issues she faces in her transition of gender. The other characters, notably Maura's ex wife (Shelley/Judith Light) and 3 children, are useful counterweights, and it's important to see how this transition affects a wide range of family members and friends (and former friends), but I for one am much less interested in the pathways of their lives and their struggles with sexuality. Unfortunately, over the course of the first 4 episodes there's relatively little about Maura - w/ 2 exceptions: a terrific scene of her undergoing a TSA search at LAX (in episode 3) and the opening up of a new channel in her family history as she reconnects, in Israel, w/ her father (he would have to be in his 90s) long presumed dead. I hope the season continues on that theme and brings Maura back to the center. It's good to watch Shelley seeming to find herself through her association w/ an Improv theater group; less good to see the continued struggles w/ sexual identity of children Sarah and Josh. Ally is the mystery: she accompanies her "mapa" to Israel and spends a large part of episode 3 w/ a group of young, activist Palestinians - but so far she's just a listener and a sidekick. There's opportunity to move her more to the foreground. Will it happen?

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