Does Watching Transparent…
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Transparent
Jaybone23 — 9 years ago(July 19, 2016 11:07 AM)
you feel better about your own messy family dramas? (I didn't want to use the word "dysfunctional".) Or are the situations on the show so out there that you can't relate at all?
The show has made me feel better sometimes, especially during its funny moments, as dark and cringe-worthy as they might be. -
trrish — 9 years ago(October 18, 2016 10:30 AM)
Yes, for me it does. I felt similarly about Six Feet Under, which I loved. I notice that in my case, it brings up seriously painful grieving about my original family that split up (I grew up in the 60's/70's). That makes me feel so sad. Yet it helps me see my current family (husband + 2 older teens) in a good light. We have had all sorts of dramas but I feel like we have handled them the best that we could. We're doing ok.
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Jaybone23 — 9 years ago(October 20, 2016 06:23 PM)
I can understand some of the other comments here. The Pfferman's (sp?) are a pretty privileged family. But that's kind of my point. Despite all the advantages, that doesn't mean a family will be happy.
Glad you're doing ok, @trrish. My family is going through a difficult time right now, but I do indeed feel better about things when watching TRANSPARENT. It is fiction, yes, but fiction often informs our lives better than real examples of family strife. -
gentelg — 9 years ago(October 22, 2016 04:21 PM)
I can understand some of the other comments here. The Pfferman's (sp?) are a pretty privileged family. But that's kind of my point. Despite all the advantages, that doesn't mean a family will be happy.
Agreed. The Pfferman's seem to remind me of a more affluent and Jewish version of The Conners ("Roseanne"). They were also dysfunctional at times and all of them at times could be very self absorbed but in the end they all loved and supported each other no matter what.
From what I observed from my own upbringing in a middle class Ohio suburb was the families that went out of their way to look like a perfect family that walked out of a TIDE commercial were usually the most screwed up behind closed doors. A prime example I can think of would be An old coworker of my Mom's plus his 4 kids who I went to school with who we will call "The Vanderbeek's" (LOL). Well anyways the kids always acted like the perfect wholesome christian kids who never drank or swore and wore purity rings. A few years later I found out that one of the kids (The youngest Vanderbeek daughter who was about 2 grades younger than me.) dropped out of the bible college she was going to (Oral Roberts) after her freshmen year, got some tattoos and piercings, started smoking a lot of weed, and basicly ran off and eloped with a random guy that knocked her up not to long afterwards who was rumored to be a drug dealer. Last I saw once Facebook she divorced the guy after just a couple years, got remarried again and had 2 more kids only to get divorced again the 2nd time around. She does fine for herself now doing hair but she is hardly the perfect wholesome Jesus girl I remember from high school. One son got into drugs and has been in and out of rehabs for the past 10 years or so and even did a 2 year stint for heroin possession(His 3rd or 4th offence.) The other kids turned out fine (However the oldest son is now an obnoxious Trump supporting teabagger who I eventually deleted off of FB after he made some homophobic comments after the Supreme Court ruling for same sex marriage.) -
Jaybone23 — 9 years ago(October 27, 2016 04:57 AM)
Yes. Thanks so much for that reply. Very enlightening. We, of course, all know people like that, or we ARE people like that.
All of this is summed up perfectly by Steve Buscemi's character Tommy in the great "Tree's Lounge". At one point, Tommy says, "Everybody's f*@#ed up, but nobody wants anybody else to think they are, but everybody knows they are anyway."
Some people, their egos just can't let them admit that they aren't perfect, or that their lives aren't perfect. Life is hard and having to struggle with life shouldn't be seen as failure.