Transparent

I recently blazed my way through the first season of Amazon's television show Transparent. I knew the premise of the show before I started watching: Transparent is about a family consisting of divorced parents and three adult children, and, in the first episode, the patriarch of the family attempts to tell his children that he is a transgender woman.

Despite knowing the premise, Transparent took me completely by surprise. I thought the show was a comedy. The casting of Jeffrey Tambor (of George Bluth, Sr. fame) as Mort/Maura, and the promotional pictures for the show gave me that impression.

Look at these smiling faces--would you have thought this was a comedy as well?

While the show has humorous points, it is not a comedy. The tone is similar to HBO's Girls--awkward and realistic. The members of this family are sometimes cruel and almost always selfish. 

But, despite the show not being what I thought it would be, I thought it was very good. Uncomfortable to watch at times, but very good. I liked how the characters are full, if flawed, people.