What I’m Watching: Transparent

Transparent: Season 2, Episode 5 “Mee-Maw” (B+)

This was not a very pleasant episode, and it’s installments like these that make this show feel more like a drama than a comedy. For once, it was Josh who took center stage and got to have his life turned upside down by decades-old news that he couldn’t have possibly known. Bringing Colton into his life has put a considerable strain on his relationship with Raquel, who has been unnerved by the continual presence of Rita in her life which has come as an unfortunate companion to the wonderful addition that is Colton. Josh asking her to wear an engagement ring to make the pregnancy seem more conservatively acceptable was not a good start to the visit, and going along with Colton’s comment that Rita would be involved to help out just made it much worse. But it was the pastor’s accusation that Josh had abandoned his family that sent him reeling, and Maura’s casual confirmation that they knew all along about the baby only amplified everything. Colton asking Josh to ask him to stay was hard to watch, and I suspect that the road back to whatever sense of normalcy for Raquel and Josh had won’t be easy either. Maura choosing her moment to break things off completely with Shelly wasn’t kind, and it’s clearly affecting her too. Ali is in decent shape, confident in her relationship with Syd and ready to take the academic world by storm. For the first time in a while, Sarah got the lighter plotlines, being told by the therapist that she had problems simply because she won the session in a raffle and then acting less than cool when her brother’s friend did her a solid by giving her some drugs.