by Chris Feil
Most of the awards talk over Transparent’s three seasons has orbited around Jeffrey Tambor’s genius work at its center. This past season was its best acted among the entire ensemble, with emotionally raw complexity from Jay Duplass and Amy Landecker that also deserves Emmy’s attention. But the most rewarding powerhouse performance this time was Judith Light as fraught matriarch Shelly. Many months ago, she became my favorite performance of the TV year and remained so ever since.
The third season brought Shelly closer to the forefront, detailing further the abuse she suffered as a child and her quickly developing romance with the increasingly suspect Buzzy (Richard Masur). When Buzzy’s manipulations come to light and her family continually shrugs off her abrasive attempts at connection, we see not only her mounting disappointments but a growing ability to stand on her own two feet. It’s how Light makes her knees wobble as she does so that makes the season arc so moving. She's a brand!
The actress’s greatest tour de force yet on Transparent came in the season finale “Exciting and New”. The Pfeffermans set out on a family cruise after Shelly and Buzzy split, each of them indifferent to Shelly’s naked need for their attention. She finds encouragement in her personal concierge Trevor, and the opportunity to present her one-woman show To Shell And Back for a large audience. Give Light an Emmy alone for her pitch perfect matter-of-fact delivery of “Trevor is the gay that comes with my room.”
The season-capping performance of To Shell And Back is a revelation, one of the series highs thanks to Light’s breathtaking vulnerability. The tricky balance she has to constantly strike with Shelly is that she is both incredibly self-aware and yet oblivious to her own inner workings. Shelly’s play should be misguided for its bizarre use of Alanis Morissette’s “Hand In My Pocket”, but the lyrics fit Shelly’s displacement perfectly as Light builds Shelly’s resolve and hope before our very eyes.
It is thanks to Light’s always stellar work on the series that it feels so rewarding to watch Shelly finally find the words to express her longing and bare her lingering fears. Light slowly thaws Shelly’s musical performance from trepidation to anxious relief to surprise at her own ultimate optimism. It’s the kind of moment that feels seasons in the making, a long game in character payoff that provides the catharsis that she’s has been denied. Like Transparent at its best, it’s wholly unexpected and deeply moving.
While her performance in this episode is sensational enough to be worthy of Emmy, Light delivers unexpected layers throughout the entire season. This third season was Shelly’s most significant journey yet but she leaves us with the knowledge that she is ready to make some big changes, so its fitting that the song she sings is about a journey still in progress. Wherever the song’s final taxi cab takes her, I cannot wait to see what Light does when she gets there.
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