Excruciating Awkwardness Made Exquisite

Transparent (2014)

Excruciating Awkwardness Made Exquisite

by ODIDVA Odidi Mfenyana as seen www.IDMB.com

Transparent, a television series produced by Amazon.com, transforms how one views television by putting on TV, what most middle class people see as life turning moments into a fascinating study of a man and his family as he transitions into a woman in his twilight years.

To say the script and the acting are exceptional is to restrain hyperbole. To say the direction and production value is above any revival, takes away from the simplicity, the superb care taken by the producers to let the characters immerse one in this extraordinary tale. I have never been so freaked out by the awkwardness of scenes in a drama to the point, I am behaving like I am watching a horror film, and turning the volume off.

The subject matter in the series goes beyond just Trangender and will touch every cerebral adult whose ever struggled with a turning point: a life changing process.

Never have I seen such careful restraint, boldness or originality in American cinema or television since HBO's Looking. Both set in California and washed with its brilliant white light and breathtaking landscape echoing Cape Town and the Western Cape.

I would hate for this trailblazing gem to be diluted of its pungent divinity. Its supernatural how Transparent draws out from one all of life's emotions, from the depths of sorrow then ticking every box; ascending to euphoric happiness. The Amazon debut series does this with uncanny perfect timing and scintillating skillful finesse. The actors all have a deft touch of elevating their gifted script to believable reality. A masterclass in art imitating life.

Its only cinematic contemporaries are Cape Town boy-wonder Oliver Hermanus's Skoonheid (2011), the award-winning Neil Jordan's The Crying Game(1992) and TransAmerica (2005) that gave Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman a justified Oscar nomination. Transparent is a greedy feast an emotional smorgasbord of a television series. This is a collectors item for connoisseur's of American independent film and European Art-house Cinema.

Amazon.com must be applauded for its courageous and ingenious foray into film and television production. I can only wait with an anticipation and baited breathe for what Amazon Studios has next for the world. Transparent is as intense as 2016.