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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2b409211127f8d843d76be00ff79afaf.jpg]]
2
3->''"My whole life I have been dressing up as a man. ''This'' is me."''
4-->--'''Maura Pfefferman'''
5
6''Transparent'' is a 2014 Creator/PrimeVideo {{dramedy}} series created by Joey Soloway.
7
8Creator/JeffreyTambor stars as Maura, the matriarch of The Pfeffermans, a Jewish family based in Los Angeles who all have their own individual issues with identity. Maura is struggling with finally coming out as a transgender woman in her 60s, her ex-wife Shelley (Creator/JudithLight) is attempting to keep her second husband alive, her eldest daughter Sarah (Creator/AmyLandecker) is a married mother of two cheating on her husband with her former lesbian partner from college, her son Josh (Creator/JayDuplass) is a successful music producer with a very chaotic romantic life, and her younger daughter Alexandra (Creator/GabyHoffmann) is a constantly unemployed slacker trying to find a purpose in life between drugs and mooching off others.
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10The show was extremely well received, earning itself and Tambor awards at the 72nd Golden Globes. Tambor would go on to win an Emmy for his performance. It is seen by many as Amazon Studios' first hit original show, in the same way that ''Series/{{House of Cards|US}}'' was for Creator/{{Netflix}}.
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12The show's second season was released on December 11th, 2015. For the second season, Soloway hired a transgender woman, pianist and singer [[http://www.ourladyj.com/Our_Lady_J/entry.html Our Lady J]], onto the show's writing staff, and the show has a policy of preferring transgender actors for transgender roles when possible; The transgender-friendly policy also extends behind the set, where restrooms and prep areas are gender-neutral.
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14Amazon [[http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/transparent-season-3-amazon-1201528051/ renewed]] the series for a third season, which released in 2016, and a fourth for 2017. On November 2017, it was announced that Tambor had exited the series after multiple sexual harassment allegations.
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16In 2019, following Tambor's departure, the series wrapped up with a single feature-length musical episode titled ''Transparent: Musicale Finale'' instead of a final season.
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18----
19!!''Transparent'' in general provides examples of the following tropes:
20
21* AmicableExes:
22** Maura and Shelly remain on good terms in spite of no longer being married.
23** [[spoiler: Sarah eventually mends fences with her ex-husband Len, over the course of the series]].
24* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
25** Maura to Ally during the first season finale
26--> '''Maura''': I have a question, now that you're not on the payroll anymore. Do you like me? If I didn't give you any money, would you even talk to me?
27* BabiesEverAfter: In ''Musicale Finale'', Josh's son Colton introduces his father to his infant son Bradley.
28* BrilliantButLazy: Alexandra, who is very intelligent and astute but also a total washout who isn't employed and drifting through life living off her father-turned-mother's money. Although, [[spoiler: in the second season, she gets better, and finally finishes grad school and is contemplating becoming her professor's TA.]]
29* ButchLesbian:
30** Tammy, but she has a non-ButchLesbian profession of interior decorator.
31** Ali & Maura meet many at [[spoiler: Idlewild, a festival that unbeknownst to Ali does not allow transgender women.]]
32** Sarah meets Pony at [[spoiler: Idlewild, who introduces her to BDSM and who Sarah eventually begins to pay to be her dominatrix]].
33* CastFullOfGay: Even ignoring the transgender main character and the community in relation to this storyline, there are still a lot of various queer characters: Sarah, [[spoiler:Ali]], Tammy, Quinn, Barb, [[spoiler:Shelley]], and Syd. This basically comprises the entire main cast except for the people in Josh's stories. Josh notes that despite the rest of his birth family being women, they all like women.
34* ComingOutStory:
35** The first season centers on Maura coming out to her kids as a trans woman.
36** A large part of the second season centers on Ali embracing [[spoiler: polyamory]] and her relationships with [[spoiler: Syd and her professor]].
37** Also in the second season, Maura is conflicted [[spoiler: on if she should come out to her mother, Rose, who lives away from Maura's side of the family, in near-isolation in convalescence care.]]
38*** In flashbacks, we see [[spoiler: events in Rose's life leading up to Maura's birth, which tell a story (that if Maura knew the details of) that would likely make her realize that Rose would be sympathetic to her transition.]]
39* CommitmentIssues: All three of the Pfefferman siblings show ambivalence about locking themselves into anything:
40** Josh seems to love the idea of being committed to someone more than the reality;
41** Sarah goes from feeling stuck with Len to [[spoiler: leaving Tammy on their wedding night]];
42** Ali gets nervous about committing to [[spoiler: Syd]] shortly after they've gotten together, as she also has feelings for [[spoiler: her professor, Leslie]].
43* DysfunctionalFamily: The Pfeffermans have a lot of conflict between one another.
44* FinaleMovie: The series concludes with a musical film titled ''Transparent: Musicale Finale'', where Maura was killed off and the plot focused on the rest of the family dealing with her death.
45* FlashbackEcho: The second series injects multiple flashbacks to the [[spoiler: 1930's, telling the story of Maura's mother and grandmother immigrating from Berlin to America]].
46** Through those flashbacks we learn [[spoiler: Maura's mother Rose had a trans sister named Gittel. ]]
47** When Ali visits her grandmother Rose, Ali's appearance reminds [[spoiler: Rose of Gittel]].
48** Ali herself seems to have visions of [[spoiler: Gittel]] at Sarah & Tammy wedding, and when swimming.
49* HereditaryHomosexuality: At one point Josh notes that everyone in his family is attracted to girls, but he's the only guy.
50* InspirationalMartyr: In flashback, we see that [[spoiler: Gittel refuses to leave Berlin, as her travel visa is misgendered]], which infuriates her mother Yetta; Her sister Rose, however, stands by her decision.
51* ItsAllAboutMe: All three of the Pfefferman children are pretty self-centered, to the point where it interferes with all their personal relationships:
52** Alexandra isn't as ''bad'', but Sarah and Josh are to the point where Alexandra was the only person very worried when Ed wanders off and Sarah and Josh treat it as a joke.
53** It's later implied they more or less learned it from Maura as it's revealed [[spoiler: she may have encouraged Alexandra to cancel her Bat Mitzvah just so she can go to that crossdressing camp]].
54** Sarah [[spoiler: cheats on her husband with Tammy]], divorces him, then [[spoiler: bails on marrying Tammy when she realizes she can't stand her]].
55** Sarah's next [[spoiler: two relationships, with her pot dealer and a dominatrix]], have no ties whatsoever.
56** Josh is so desperate to start a family, he's devastated when [[spoiler: Kaya has an abortion]].
57** Josh then proceeds to literally [[spoiler: put Coulton [[Main/PutOnABus on a bus]] with his foster parents.]]
58** His reaction to [[spoiler: Raquel proposing]] and his subsequent attitude pushes her away, too.
59** Maura practically invites herself to [[spoiler: Idlewild with Ali and Sarah.]]. This has repercussions for Maura later on.
60* LateComingOut: The show is about a transgender woman named Maura coming out in her 60s. The story revolves around how this affects her and her family.
61* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Maura and Shelly knew all along about [[spoiler: Josh having a son]] but kept it from him. He is not pleased when he learns the truth.
62* MeaningfulName:
63** Gittel is Yiddish for ''good''.
64** Yetta is a short-form of Henrietta, which is German for ''home leader''. We later find [[spoiler: Yetta's husband emigrated to America first, but then chose to start a new family instead of coming back for Gittel, Yetta and Rose]].
65* MrsRobinson: Rita, Josh's babysitter (!) who becomes his girlfriend when he becomes a teenager, who at the beginning of the series, [[spoiler: we find he still having an affair with, even while he is dating another woman]].
66** In flashbacks, we see that [[spoiler: despite his parents' disdain, the relationship appears to have been consensual]].
67** During [[spoiler: Ed's funeral]] in the first season finale, Rita shows up with a much younger man [[spoiler: who we learn is Colton, a son she had with Josh]]. In the second season, we find [[spoiler: Josh's parents knew about Colton, and had paid off his adoptive parents to keep him away from Josh.]]
68** Rita is invited to dinner with [[spoiler: Colton, Raquel and Josh]], where she brings up her relationship with Josh at the table, and also makes [[spoiler: a not-so-subtle attempt to get Josh to 'visit' her again]].
69* NatureTinkling: "Pinkwashing Machine" has a scene where Ali pees on the ground.
70* NaziGold: Subverted in flashback when we see [[spoiler: Yetta hiding her family's valuables in clay stones in preparation to immigrating to America]].
71* NoAntagonist: There's no villainous character in the show at all, it's mainly all the characters wrestling with themselves.
72* OpenMindedParent:
73** Inverted with Sarah being very open-minded about Maura being transgender.
74** Played straight with Maura in turn accepting Sarah's [[spoiler: leaving Len for Tammy]].
75** Also played straight with Maura's father Moshe Pfefferman, who doesn't turn her away after being informed that she is trans.
76* OutlivingOnesOffspring: In ''Musicale Finale'', Maura's father Moshe is among the relatives attending Maura's funeral.
77* ThePromisedLand: In flashbacks, we see Rose visiting [[spoiler: Gittel, who has left home and is living happily at an institute for gender studies in Berlin.]] However, as it is 1930's Berlin, [[spoiler: things take a turn when Hitler youth storm the estate, destroying research and attacking the people within]].
78** This leads to an AmbiguousEnding where in a later flashback we are [[spoiler: left unsure if Gittel is still alive when Yetta and Rose leave for America]].
79* PunBasedTitle: Maura is the "trans parent".
80* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
81** Maura and Ally to each other during the first season finale:
82--> '''Ally''': Why are you always pushing money on me?
83 --> '''Maura''': Because, my beautiful girl, you cannot do ''anything.'' You know, you have so much more to say now, than when I was writing your checks, giving you loans. Which, by the way, aren't actually loans because you don't pay back dick. Do you understand? Not one cent. I'm paying for your life.
84 --> '''Ally''' ''(while throwing money at Maura)'': I don't need or want, or give a shit about your money. You can't fucking scream at me anymore 'coz I'm an adult. Okay? So there we go. It's settled. Done.
85* RunawayBride: [[spoiler: Sarah leaves Tammy once the wedding ceremony ends; Since Rachel had not yet sent the marriage licence to be notarized, they technically weren't yet married]]. This leads to a [[spoiler:FreakOut]] moment from [[spoiler:Tammy, and leads Sarah into a serious mental breakdown]].
86* SilentCredits: The end credits to the episode "Desert Eagle" lack music.
87* ThatManIsDead: Played with. From Maura's perspective she was always just herself, and 'Mort' was a role she had to play, and most of those closest to her accept that relatively easily. But it's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:Josh feels on some level like his father has died, and Buzz almost (but not quite) drops the name of this trope in convincing Josh to face those feelings.]]
88* {{Tomboy}}: Alexandra, who identifies as female, but doesn't neatly fall into the girly girl box. She doesn't like wearing make-up, usually dresses up in men's clothing (to the point of wearing a men's suit to [[spoiler:Ed's funeral]]) and didn't want her eyebrows touched during a makeover.
89* TransEqualsGay: Subverted with Maura, who [[spoiler: after returning from Idlewild has her first sexual encounter with a woman since transitioning]].
90** However, it appears that is not the case for [[spoiler: Marcy]], who appears to have have some reconciled feelings for Maura.
91* TransEqualsHypersexual: Averted during the first season, where Maura was the only character who wasn't engaging in raunchy sexual behavior. Then, it became an EnforcedTrope in season 2, after trans writer Our Lady J took the reins and made it her mission to sexualize Maura without objectifying her.
92* TransTribulations: Maura, as well as a few other trans characters that have dealt with this trope, particularly Maura who doesn't come out well into her 60s.

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