Skip to footer

'Transparent': Where Amazon TV stands as the show's second season debuts

'Transparent' stars Jeffrey Tambor. After the show debuted in 2014, the program quickly racked up Emmy and Golden Globe awards and nominations.

|
Danny Moloshok/Reuters
'Transparent' stars Jeffrey Tambor.

The critically acclaimed program “Transparent” will soon debut its second season on Amazon.

Amazon, which was previously best known as an online retailer, debuted the show starring “Arrested Development” actor Jeffrey Tambor in early 2014. The program quickly racked up awards and nominations, with the show being nominated for best comedy series at the Emmy Awards and Tambor winning the award for best actor in a comedy at both the Emmys and the Golden Globes.

The full second season of the show will debut on Dec. 11 (the first episode is already online). How have Amazon’s fortunes changed in the TV world since the debut of the first and second season of “Transparent”? 

“Transparent” certainly put Amazon on the map as a provider of original content. The show and Tambor’s performance quickly got critics’ attention and garnered awards. The company had debuted the John Goodman comedy “Alpha House” before, but “Alpha” didn’t get half the attention that “Transparent” gained. 

As with competitor Netflix, we don’t have as clear a view of whether a show is a success or a failure when it’s on streaming as we would with, say, a broadcast show, where viewership numbers would be available. However, it’s safe to say “Transparent” is the Amazon program that has gotten the most attention.

Amazon debuted the police program “Bosch” earlier this year and the show got mostly positive reviews. When it debuted, the show became Amazon’s most-watched series in the program’s debut weekend. 

Meanwhile, the 2014 classical music show “Mozart in the Jungle” was well-received by reviewers but the show doesn’t seem to have gained wide recognition yet. (A second season of “Mozart” debuts later this month.)

Amazon had an outright misfire with the show “Hand of God,” which stars Ron Perlman and debuted this fall. Critics panned the program and there’s no news yet on whether the show will get a second season. 

However, with “Transparent” and “Bosch” (if the popularity of the latter show continues), Amazon has two hits. It has yet to attain the cultural ubiquity and stable of high-profile programs of, for example, Netflix, but the company has shown that acclaimed shows can find a home there. 

Amazon’s original programming is still a work in progress, but the streaming service has already gotten its name into the increasingly crowded TV conversation. Now it just has to maintain its momentum.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Transparent': Where Amazon TV stands as the show's second season debuts
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2015/1208/Transparent-Where-Amazon-TV-stands-as-the-show-s-second-season-debuts
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe