The latest production of Jill Soloway, Hollywood’s go-to scribe for tales of Jews and sex, is the Amazon TV series “Transparent,” the story of a Jewish family whose patriarch has just revealed to his three grown children that he is transitioning to life as a woman. The show premieres Sept. 26, when the entire season will be available for streaming through Amazon.com.
Decked out in a red polka-dotted miniskirt, striped tights and brown boots, Soloway, 49, presided over a recent writers’ meeting like a nurturing mom, jumping up from time to time to write key phrases on a drawing board. Scribbles on a nearby board included the words “Shabbat” and “sexercise.” “We’ve got to go back and figure out what’s happening at that shiva,” she said as the writers bounced around ideas for a crucial Jewish mourning sequence: Should the show’s lesbian couple break up during the episode? Should one character hook up with another for some unexpected hanky-panky? Will the entire family blame Maura, the father-turned-female, for not coming out sooner? Will one of Maura’s children complain that Maura never taught her to believe in God?
Just as Soloway is an unconventional executive producer — determined to run her TV show in a more feminine fashion than the “militaristic” style she said graces most television series — “Transparent” is groundbreaking on more than one front. The show depicts perhaps the first fully rounded transgender character ever on a TV series, in what in Soloway’s words is “the most Jewish show ever written.”
This article was reprinted from the L.A. Jewish Journal. To view the full story, visit www.jewishjournal.com.