March 4, 2014 | Arts / Entertainment

'Transparent' is probably better than 'Looking'

After the monotony of Looking, we started looking around ourselves for better scripted fare.

Amazon has an interesting way of deciding what series to create for its Prime service. First, it makes pilots for a slew of shows, then it depends on user feedback to help decide which one actually gets made into a series. The latest round, released last month, includes a very unique entry.

In the Transparent pilot,  Mort (Jeffrey Tambor of Arrested Development), sits down for a frank talk with his three grown children, who assume it's about their inheritance. Instead, Mort tells them that he’s been leading a secret life as a transgender. It turns out that everyone in the family is trying to hide feelings about sex, desire and gender. 

The show certainly has writing bona fides, as it was created by Jill Soloway, who has written for Six Feet Under, United States of Tara and Grey's Anatomy. 

A lot of effort goes into pilots and it's hard to say whether the quality would sustain though a full series. Still, it's definitely worth taking a free trial at Amazon Prime to watch what could be Amazon's House of Cards.