I think if you understand TADC as a deeply personal and direct story centering on transness, emotional/self repression, the inner complexity of cruel people, ego, control, self-destructive tendencies, second chances, and what it means to live a meaningful life, all filtered through the core vision of one person, you'll find a raw expression of all those things, an experience being shared. You'll find a story that is consistent in its theme, subject matter, and quality throughout. Not something impossibly esoteric or flawlessly sophisticated, but a story that puts every piece it needs to into place. A story that completes itself, that says what it needs to and leaves a mark after it does.
Conversely, if you understand TADC as a story to take every single aspect, moment, outcome, and detail totally literally rather than in tandem with the thematic signficance it communicates. Or were looking for a more lore-driven story. Or were hoping for a more rounded exploration of its world and characters, a hollistic dive into the premise it sets up rather than a story barreling towards a specific end goal/a very pointed thematic stance. You're gonna end up disappointed with what you got.
And this is not a moral judgement, I don't think any expectation is at all more correct than another. I actually think my last point is probably even the most fair stance to have. Especially if you don't engage with any secondary material and just look at the show itself, since it doesn't totally establish Jax as a core focus until later in its run. Some storylines do feel very sidelined.
But if you view the show for what it was meant to be rather than what it was expected to be, I personally think it was rather beautiful. Not perfect, not the pinnacle of cinema, but as a trans woman, it was meaningful to me, dearly so. I feel like the standards its being held to aren't totally reasonable. I think it's a story that deserved to be told as it is, I think it's human.
