I recently watched Jill Solloway’s award winning TV series “Transparent” (on Amazon Prime) and immediately began to consider it within the Dramatica structure. But analyzing Dramatica is still new to me and I’m already a little stuck. For anyone else who has seen the show, can you consider the following and offer your insight?
It seems the OS would be named the same as the series title, ‘Transparent’, and is the story of what happens to the Pfefferman family as they cope with their father’s gender identity and transformation from Mort to Maura.
But I get stuck in regards to MC and IC throughlines.
- Is Maura the MC (Protagonist), trying to enact change?
- Is Maura the MC (Antagonist) challenging her family’s sense of self and each members sense of self and gender identity?
- Is Maura the IC (Protagonist? Antagonist?) influencing a series of Main Character handoffs between each of the three children?
- Is Maura the IC (Protagonist? Antagonist?) to three separate Main Character throughlines, one for each child? And each with their own Relationship Story with Maura?
The reason I wonder whether the children are the MC’s and Maura is the IC (for three separate MC throughlines) is that the Pilot leads in with each of the 3 children hearing separately from their father, Mort, that there is something that he wants to tell them. We don’t see Mort until later, and he seems to be the IC influence on each of them, with each being their own MC, having their own throughline and RS relationship story with Mort/Maura. Even the show’s name (which I think is brilliant, with so many layers of meaning) leads one to think the MC’s are the children, with the influence coming from the Trans-parent, Maura.
I initially considered Maura as the protagonist. But then considered that she was the Antagonist to each of the 3 MC throughlines. Thoughts?
Then there is the question of change. Is Maura a change or steadfast character? On the surface, it seems she is the change character, being the one transforming. But consider she is steadfast, simply completing the path of who she is, who she has always been. Consider the transformation is not a change energy, but a steadfast energy of completion. But in order to complete, she needs to enact change in her family and her family relationship so she can be fully expressed in who she has always been. So the 3 MC characters are each change characters. Thoughts?
The multiple MC angle has me perplexed though (Ah, the trouble with ensembles, eh?). There are aspects of each character that I identify with. Similar to how I identified with the 3 main characters in Six Feet Under, each for different reasons. But are there really 3 MC’s in Transparent or in Six Feet Under? Or is one supposed to be the main MC? In Six Feet Under, it seemed to be Nate who was the series long main MC. Could it be that Ali, who is the youngest, and was the first character shown on screen, is the main MC? She is also the one that had the most intensified conflict with Maura in the season finale episode.
Wondering if anyone else has thoughts on this or any additional thoughts/analysis of its Dramatica structure?
P.S. I’m considering the series as a whole, which is essentially a 5 hour movie. But there is probably Dramatica discussion relative to each 1/2 hour episode too.