Carrie Brownstein is The Secret MVP Of ‘Transparent’

I’m going to say something that may upset some critics: the Pfeffermans from Amazon’s Transparent are incredibly unpleasant. As a whole, the family is continually selfish, indecisive, and self-obsessed. Though these qualities make this family’s journey of sexual and self discovery as believable as it is strangely heart-warming, if you were friends with the Pfeffermans in real life, you probably wouldn’t stay friends with them for long. They’re good people, not great, which I think is one of the greatest appeals of the series. It’s also what makes the show’s cast of supporting characters so remarkable.

I’ll admit: The reason I first started paying close attention to Carrie Brownstein’s performance in Transparent was because I like Carrie Brownstein. Portlandia is consistently one of my favorite sketch comedy shows (I still laugh at “Put a Bird on It!”), and I love Brownstein’s music. However, the more I watched her limited interactions with the Pfeffermans, the more I realized how crucial these interactions were to both grounding the central characters and making the universe lighter.

In the series, Brownstein plays “Syd” Feldman, Ali Pfefferman’s (Gaby Hoffmann) sarcastic lifelong friend. Typically their relationship plays out as any believable best friendship does: There’s a lot of ribbing and casual mentions of family secrets. Often, Syd’s sarcasm pulls Ali out of her pensive and aloof nature, while Ali’s whimsical and often supremely sexual ideas amuse Syd. They complement each other. However, more than that, Syd softens the often hard-shelled Ali.

After Ali learns of Maura’s (Jeffery Tambor) existence, she sets her sexual sights on a trangendered man in her gender studies class. Right before they’re about to have sex, Ali panics and runs, leaving Syd to explain her best friend’s change of heart to a complete stranger. Though we later learn that Ali has put Syd in similar uncomfortable positions several times before, Syd jokes the incident away, claiming that Ali is a vaginal learner and that she was just exploring the world. It’s a funny and light-hearted moment, but more importantly, it shows Syd’s strength. She understands that her best friend is hurt, torn, confused, and guilt-ridden over thousands of different things she can’t explain, so she transforms the incident into a joke. She gives Ali permission to laugh and to be a less heavy person, which is what we want as viewers.

Ali becomes a more compelling, relatable, and lovable person around her best friend because Syd brings out a side of Ali her family typically doesn’t. However, her lifelong status as a Pfefferman ally also exposes another side of the family, namely their problem with decisiveness.

Several of the family’s problems stem from not knowing what they want. Ali is still pursuing her Bachelor’s degree at 33 and has no longterm plan. Sarah (Amy Landecker) bounces between romantic partners, seemingly without considering consequences. Josh’s (Jay Duplass) entire life is characterized by a lack of commitment when it comes to everything, save his job and family. Even Shelly (Judith Light) flippantly changes her mind about being part of her community’s board after she’s elected president. In the series, there seems to be a correlation between this lack of decisiveness and open-mindedness. However, Syd reminds us that this isn’t always the case.

Syd is incredibly open-minded and expands Ali’s boundaries, but she knows exactly what she wants. Throughout most of Season Two, the best friend duo date, but the relationship crumbles when Ali is unable to answer whether she sees a lasting relationship between the two of them. Ali sees their relationship as an opportunity to completely rewrite romantic involvement as she traditionally knows it to be, and while Syd understands her friend’s perspective, Syd wants monogamy.

The series beautifully doesn’t use this revelation to “feminist shame” Syd. If anything, their breakup ends with the audience feeling more sympathy for Syd than Ali. In a way, Syd mirrors a character from another Jill Soloway project: Lynda Frazier (Viola Davis) from Season Two of United States of Tara. Just like Lynda, Syd is used by the main cast as they grow and discover themselves. While those main cast members may pursue ideas and actions that are more or less traditional than Syd’s or Lynda’s, these two women still intimately know who they are and what they want. They are still overtly feminist, though that feminism may be taking another form. These series’ focus on feminism is another reason why this character is so amazing.

Let’s remember who the hell Carrie Brownstein is. She’s a feminist rock goddess who was part of the one of the pioneering bands of the riot grrrl movement in the Olympia music scene. Brownstein, as a person and not a character, has helped develop Third-wave feminism, and her current band, Sleater-Kinney, continues to prove that women can and should rock (thank you for reuniting).

Having this character played by this actress is not coincidental. In an interview with The New Yorker, Soloway said about Transparent, “It’s feminism.” This show is a beautiful ode to feminism and femininity, and Brownstein plays her part with the same raw, powerful emotion she brings to her musical endeavors. Sure, Syd isn’t perfect, but she’s believably flawed, giving this already complicated series another layer of depth. Keep dominating, Carrie.