Jill Soloway's 'Transparent' Continues Its Accurate Portrayal of American Jews in Season 2
The second season of Transparent, Jill Soloway’s multi-generational dramedy about the triumphs and struggles of the Pfefferman family as they adapt to the reality of having a transgender parent, premiered this week on Amazon. (Well, technically the first episode of Transparent‘s second season was made public online: Just as we must adapt our pronouns for those who do not conform to arbitrary gender binaries, so too must we change our language to reflect our evolving television and media landscape. Such is the way of the 21st century.) Transparent has received countless plaudits—and several, very countable awards, including Jeffrey Tambor’s Emmy-winning performance as Maura, the trans parent)—for the way it has sensitively portrayed the experience of gender transition, not just for the people undergoing it, but for their families, too.
Important and unprecedented as this is, it’s far from the only ground Soloway has broken with her series. She’s also—far more stealthily—somehow managed to put the most recognizable, explicit, and familiar Jewish characters on American television since…well, since ever. Just look at the title of the season two opener, “Kina Hora,” a Yiddish phrase used to ward off the evil eye at times of great luck or joy. In fact, the title of the episode is so Jewish that even I had to look it up to make sure it meant what I thought it did. (I cannot remember the last time this happened during an episode of American television.)