Question: I just watched the second season of Transparent. Talk about a sophomore slump. I kept thinking it would get better but each episode got worse. The ninth episode where Moppa and her daughters go camping was a particularly bad episode You said it was bad, and I don’t think I will watch next season. That is, unless you tell me it has gotten better. — Gary
Matt Roush: This debate takes us back to last December, when Amazon premiered the second season, but as often is the case with streaming series, you never know when someone will get around to the binge. As I said at the time, my biggest problem with the second season of Transparent, which I didn’t exactly characterize as “bad” as much as disappointing at times, was that the show suffered whenever it marginalized Maura (the great Jeffrey Tambor), veering too often into tiresome subplots about the angst of her more clichéd offspring. I also have to take issue with your criticism of the ninth episode, which is around the time when I felt Transparent began to gain momentum again, with Maura feeling ostracized while attending an all-women music festival because she was shunned for not being born female. That was an unexpected twist, and led to her new relationship with Anjelica Huston, which I found fascinating and moving.
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