Great start, but looses steam towards the end of the seasonAuthor: Nate Saint OursI was seriously moved by the first 3 or 4 episodes of Transparent. The style of the show attempts--and is successful--to portray people as they are in real life, more or less. It is made to seem unscripted and chaotic, and does. This alone makes the show worth watching, because few other TV shows or movies are capable of this effect.First off, this show is exceptionally depressing. It is a very sad show and uses this sadness for its comedy and its drama. The first few episodes, I loved the balance between the sadness and the comedy. It was in no way overwhelming, and whenever it approached becoming overwhelming, a very real, quite good moment would keep you satisfied and moving forward. Towards the end of the series however, I felt that the good moments in the lives of this dis-functional family really dwindled, and I felt much less interested. It simply needed more good moments towards the end. This show is about two things; 'coming out' and selfishness. Its strength comes with the acknowledgment that we all are pretending to be someone we are not in our daily lives. We bullshit constantly to those around us and any time we try and get serious, we complicate things immensely. Our true selves, whether it is a love-addict, a depressed and intelligent drop-out, a lesbian, or a woman in the body of a man, are all the complicated parts of our life that we usually keep suppressed in order to engage in the shallow activities of life. Each member of the Pfefferman family, who are by far the most Jewish family I have seen on TV in forever, are struggling with trying to express their most authentic selves, and it is brutal to watch what sh*t and sadness is handed to them for this basic desire. In the pursuit of trying to 'come out' we are essentially placing the importance of our own identity above those around us, and this is portrayed many times in the show as the direct cause of trouble, pain, and alienation. Tambor's trans friend says that her family deserted her within 5 years of her coming out, and we are left with the ominous and real chance of this happening to him as well. The exceptional selfishness of each character, Tombor's included, is on full display and it is so difficult to watch because, let's face it, everyone in modern America can relate to this in some degree. As much as we want to sympathize with those who 'come out,' life isn't that simple, and this is what the show is about. While one person tries to assert their authentic self by wearing certain clothes or identifying with a certain gender, everyone else cannot help but question their role and fight for their own authenticity in reaction to it. The LGBT community is not alone in their struggle in life to be accepted for who they are. We all struggle in a very similar way to be recognized as an authentic individual. However, the ultimate theme of this story may be a tough one to swallow--namely that what is much more important than individual authenticity is one's ability to compromise one's true self for those one loves. Being fake, letting go of the 'true self,' especially when a part of a family, can sometimes be the best way for everyone, as sad as this may be.http://www.imdb.com/user/ur55481200/按，英文很簡單所以不翻譯了，給懶得看的朋友一個（夾帶一點私貨的）摘要：在這個強調“個人”、“自我”和“身份/認同”的年代，渴望“活出真我”的柜中處境絕不僅僅為LGBTQ群體獨有。但，“真我”（遑論其十分可疑的實在性、單一性和穩固性）是否理應凌駕于個人所有社會關系之上？“出柜”改變的其實是周遭所有人的角色定位和生存體驗。