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A bad situation for all involved behind the scenes at Amazon’s Transparent has now culminated in series star Jeffrey Tambor’s decision to leave the show before production begins on its fifth season. Tambor, who’s won two Emmys for playing lead character Maura Pfefferman, had been accused of sexually harassing multiple trans women on the set of the show, including his co-star Trace Lysette (Shea) and assistant Van Barnes.
Tambor’s statement, peppered with passive-aggression as it is, concludes by saying, “Given the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set, I don’t see how I can return to Transparent.” Though according to Deadline.com, the powers that be on the Jill Soloway-run show may have been moving to write Maura out of the show anyway.
The notion of removing Tambor/Maura from the show is certainly appealing (and likely justified) from a behind-the-scenes perspective. From the beginning, there was ambivalence in the transgender community over the fact that television’s shining beacon of trans visibility featured a cisgender actor in its lead role (and getting the highest-profile accolades). To now find out that said cisgender actor was also acting inappropriately towards trans women behind the scenes must have been especially galling.
As the show added more trans voices behind the camera (including writer Our Lady J, who has publicly supported Lysette and Barnes), it has also evolved over the course of four seasons into a an ensemble series about the Pfefferman family and their various satellites. But is it ensemble enough to move on without Maura, whose coming out to her family as a trans woman was the inciting incident for the show and whose journey of learning and changing and failing and succeeding has been, if nothing else, a theme around which the show’s seasons could revolve?
The question Amazon is facing with Transparent is similar to the one Netflix is facing with House of Cards, whose own lead actor is in the process of being written out of the show in disgrace. It’s not that these shows are nothing without Tambor or Kevin Spacey, respectively; the question is whether there is anything left in the tank for them to stick around for. With House of Cards, a show that has always enjoyed a roar of thunder louder than the actual quality of the show beneath it, the one real reason to return at all would be to give Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood the chance to end the series with a run at the top of the show. House of Cards was already going to end in its sixth season, after diminishing returns. Now it’s just a question of how soon that end comes and with which personnel.
That’s not the case for Transparent, which doesn’t have as clean a trajectory to work with. It’s pretty demonstrable that popular interest in the series has gone down since its highly publicized premiere. Whether it was bouncing its premiere dates around the calendar (its second season moved from September to December, before reverting back for seasons 3/4) or simply the rigors of competing in the Peak TV era, measurable trends (Amazon doesn’t release ratings numbers) show Transparent quieting down. This past summer, the show was snubbed from the Outstanding Comedy Series category at the Emmys, and the outrage about it was minimal.
That said, while the heat on the show may have cooled, there is no way to claim that Transparent isn’t still a massive creative triumph. Its fourth season, released just two months ago, featured an ambitious series road trip to Israel and explored its various characters (trans and cisgender alike) in its usual smart, sensitive, and disarmingly artistic way. Taste is subjective, of course, but it’s in this writer’s opinion that Transparent has been one of the five best shows on all of television for each of its four seasons, and even with the prospect of a Maura-less season 5, I see no reason why that would change. If House of Cards is slouching its way out of Netflix, Transparent remains the best creative product on Amazon Prime by a huge factor.
So creatively, then, how would a Transparent without Maura look like. Some options, with the caveat that the writing staff will always be more nuanced and elegant than a bleary-eyed entertainment writer on a Monday morning:
- Maura dies in the off-season before season 5 begins. Whenever an actor is written off of a show, killing off the character is the first instinct. In this case, it would be a galvanizing incident for the Pfeffermans, it could bring the family closer with Maura’s friends Davina (Alexandra Billings) and Shea, who could then provide the transgender center of the show, around which we can all agree Transparent must revolve. The drawback of having Maura die is that it is too cruel. In a world where trans women die is horrifying numbers, having the lead character of the most trans-visible show on television — precipitated by real-life accusations of trans harrassment — feels overly cruel to the trans community.
- Maura leaves California for a job or something. This feels more likely. After all, it was Maura’s teaching job that brought her and her family to Israel in the first place last season. It would feel organic to the show that her exit would involve another such pilgrimage in the name of academia. It would mean a minimal impact on the Pfefferman family as we know them, and would only really feel awkward if there are events like family weddings that Maura won’t attend.
- Re-cast the role of Maura with a trans actress. This feels less likely in this day and age where audiences freak out when roles are re-cast. It also might be far too jarring after four seasons with Tambor in the role. But on a message level, this would be a blockbuster. (It also might help re-ignite popular interest in the show.)
The bottom line is that while Transparent may not be the traffic-generator it once was, it remains one of TV’s elite shows when it comes to quality. Moreover, its importance to the LGBTQ community in general and the trans community in particular, cannot be overstated. It would be damaging to the point of being out of the question to end the show due to the bad actions of a cisgender actor, even if that actor was the face of the show. There’s more at stake here than ratings or trending numbers. This is about a show that represents a community, and season 5 will be its chance to represent that community better.
