With a Musical Finale, it's Curtain Call for 'Transparent'
the final installment of “Transparent” has a lot of problems, most notably the same ones that plagued the final “House of Cards” season: It can’t move beyond its disgraced lead star.
There is no question that "Transparent" is one of the most important TV shows of the decade. Though far from perfect, Jill Soloway's dramedy, which began in 2014, paved the way for mainstream transgender and nonbinary representation on the small screen, shining light on many trans and queer issues. It also recently made TV history again for far a less savory reason: Jeffrey Tambor, the Emmy-winning star of "Transparent," was fired from the series last year after an investigation was launched about claims of sexual misconduct made against him. Like the truncated final season of "House of Cards," which faced the same set of circumstances with its lead Kevin Spacey, "Transparent" continues on for one last bow but without its central figure. And for better or worse, again, just like "House of Cards," the "Transparent: Musical Finale" is all about its missing star. After an Alanis Morissette-inspired number about loneliness and L.A. traffic, sung by the cast, the Pfefferman family learns that Maura (previously played by Tambour) has suddenly died; the body discovered by her close friend Davina (Alexandra Billings). Maura is never shown — not photographs or in flashbacks (although, during a daydream, a young girl represents her at one point) — but she nevertheless looms over the final chapter — a cloud that is similar to Spacey's there-not-there presence in the final season of "House of Cards" that was ostensibly all about Robin Wright's character. Instead of moving past Maura's death, the 100-minute finale focuses on it, paying ode to the trans parent for a last goodbye.
Directed by Soloway, the finale is full of songs written by their sibling Faith Soloway, who is also a writer on the series. Making the finale about how Maura's death impacts the Pfeffermans, which includes children Josh (Jay Duplass); Sarah (Amy Landecker); Ali (Gaby Hoffmann) — who now goes by Ari — and ex-wife Shelly (Judith Light), is an understandable albeit not the best way to close out the show. Wrapping "Transparent" up with a movie is another agreeable option. But making it a musical — at least with this set of songs, which includes a number in which the cast sings about a "joyocaust" (the opposite of the Holocaust?) is confounding. Most of the songs don't work and are a jarring juxtaposition to the finale's somber tone. There are a few successful moments, however, including a beautiful ballad called "Let Her Be OK," sung by Davina and LGBTQ youth during Maura's funeral. Through song and dance, the "Transparent" finale takes place over a few days where the Pfeffermans come to terms with the passing of their "moppa," setting up her funeral arrangements and dealing with what she left in her will. Each child responds to the sudden death differently, as does Shelly, who pulls an all-nighter and writes a play about her family, recruiting a small troupe to act it out in order to avoid helping her responsibilities and her own emotions in the grieving process. As always, "Transparent" is a deeply Jewish show and its finale continues to explore identity, faith and inherited generational trauma but ends on a sour note with that perplexing "joyocaust" song. It's an attempt to turn the decades-lasting effects of the Holocaust into something positive and hopeful but is probably the single worst thing the show has ever done; an unfortunate blemish on a groundbreaking series.
"Transparent: Musical Finale" is ambitious in its attempts to close the book on Pfefferman family in an unexpected way. It mostly does not work, sending off one of the most interesting queer series in TV history with a cringe. The finale debuts in a different TV landscape from which it began five years ago and it's hard not to notice the show's whiteness and its privilege. The Pfeffermans are rich and secure; they face adversity to be sure but their privilege is a safety net. Maura's coming out as trans in 2014 was brave — and it would be similarly brave if she came out in 2019. But with "Pose" — one of the very best LGBTQ series ever — it's impossible to ignore the different obstacles someone like Maura faces compared to a trans person of color from a different socioeconomic background. "Transparent" has indeed explored this divide in the past, and for a brief moment, the finale touches upon it, but there's absolutely no room to properly deal with it in this form. Instead, the "Transparent" finale faces inward and is small. It has nothing to say about the state of trans people and trans rights in 2019 and opts to be a specific story about a family dealing with a sudden loss of a complicated character.
