You should only be reading this review if you have already watched Seasons 1 and 2 of Transparent. If you don’t enjoy the show, don’t bother reading this review of Season 3 of Transparent because I don’t plan on summarizing what the show is about, who the characters are and any other introductory niceties that I did in the first two reviews.
Season 3 of Transparent provides more outside perspective into the Pfefferman family. Even though they may be the most liberal family in a TV series, they fail miserably at intersectionality, i.e. issues of race, and are oblivious to others’ hot button issues in their self-absorbed quest for happiness by engaging in inadvertent appropriation and prejudice. Maura has an awakening about her journey to becoming fully herself while neglecting practical daily life and sabotaging her relationships for nothing. The first episode featuring Maura at the mall is emblematic of her entire season.
Out of all the characters, Sarah may have had the most successful storyline in her awkward, but earnest efforts to embrace Judaism. Sarah is still in limbo with respect to her sexual and relationship desires, but Sarah has to be a hot mess or she would not be Sarah. Her kids will be in Transparent: The Next Generation.
Josh is looking for anything to anchor his life to and shows some spectacularly awful behavior in an area that he should be better equipped to deal with, which only shows how out of touch he is with his fundamental relationships even though they superficially seem fine. He seems willfully clueless and is probably in the most danger of oblivion.
Ali has matured by keeping Josh tethered to reality and focusing on her career, but she is predictably still an awful person to have a relationship with even in a business context with her dentist. She gets what she wants then she does not want it, which makes sense given certain differences in politics, manner and age, but is still magnificently insensitive. I do think that Cherry Jones’ character does a superb job of calling Ali on her crap.
As always, the flashback episodes are my favorite, and I think that Shelly’s childhood story was well done, and Transparent needs more of that. Shelly’s story arc, though played beautifully by Judith Light, did nothing for me in the last episode. I think that I was supposed to find it triumphant, but it felt like, “That’s it.” What happens after that moment can only be disappointing. Gaby Hoffman depicted her strongest performance this season as both Ali and her grandmother when Maura was a child.
The most relatable person is not a Pfefferman, but a rabbi. Raquel enters interesting crossroads with each character as their faith leader while being a fully complex person who is more than her profession and demands to be recognized as such.
Please Transparent, no more literal animal metaphors. I think that everyone was guilty of, i.e. someone could yell at each character, or each character could scream at someone, “I’m not your fucking adventure. I’m a person.” Transparent does a great job of showing nuance-the journey to becoming a whole person and healing is not always a positive one for those around you.