This may be the very best writing of any television series yet. This particular episode is filled with multiple layers and complexities, nuances, and subtleties that positively create, for me, the best viewing experience on TV today. The acting is perfect: perfect individual performances and ensemble playing. What a gem of a cast! And the show deserves additional kudos. For example, look at the costumes in the opening 4-minute long single shot (that's an accomplishment in itself) in the first episode of season two. There are wonderful mismatches and mis-fittings, and the scene itself is one of the best examples of madness and family dis-functionality. I wanted to scream by the end of it. Talk about capturing the essence of something! Bravo. And you have to watch the episode more than once to catch some of the one- liners that pepper this episode. They are hilarious: as when people are told to smile for the camera and the reaction of "You can't smile when you say that" punches you in the gut. The flashback sequence is mesmerizing and horrific, knowing history as things turned out. And the closing shot of the 4 rooms across the hotel balcony is breath-taking, ending with another gut-puncher.
Review of Transparent
