What I’m Watching: Transparent

Transparent: Season 4, Episode 3 “Pinkwashing Machine” (B)

I have to be careful to separate my personal feelings about the content of this episode from my assessment of its quality. I was excited to see what this show would do once I heard that Maura was planning to go to Israel, and it’s certainly true that Ali accompanying him changed things. So far, after a quick shot of the two of them kissing the ground at the airport, Tel Aviv is reduced to just another Los Angeles and Ramallah to just another Brooklyn. Ali barely spent five minutes in Israel before she whisked off to a place where the boycott is cool and every positive facet of Israel is torn apart, and her new friends even suggest that she go home and bring back a bunch of Jews to fight for them. Maura’s experience isn’t any more positive, since she’s learned that Israel is a land where fathers go to abandon their children, as evidenced by the commercial featuring Jerry Adler of “The Sopranos” and “The Good Wife” as another Pfefferman whose existence I had assumed and hoped would be just a coincidence. I’m hoping that they’ll be a bit more depth to their visit aside from just this so far, even if the relationship to the country is complicated for both of them. The return of Jason Mantzoukas’ Steve was merely a way to get Josh to lash out at his mother, who doesn’t understand improv, for refusing to listen, and to experience a scary moment of thinking that she had committed suicide in the car. Sarah’s sudden desire to write a blog or a book on parenting means that Len is now aware of her making contact with Lila, and all I can hope that means is that Alia Shawkat will recur this season.