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33887388 Junpu Cao. filmmaking

Continuing our investigation of the TVIV portal, it is critical to consider how the design of the streaming services essentially transforms on screen presentation. The Transparent series by Amazon Prime, one of the most radical of its programs, exemplifies how the economic condition brought about by distributing television via the internet has created specific spaces in which transgender and queer stories can be carried.

In order to see why a series such as Transparent can survive within an environment such as Amazon and not on an established television network, we need to examine the economic factors. As Amy Villarejo (2014) explains, the traditional television has been historically based on its ability to provide as wide an audience of mainstream users as a possible for advertisement. In this model, there was a tendency to sanitize contents in order to minimize alienation of conservative sponsors. Conversely, Amazon Prime functions as a subscription business that is successful in capturing and keeping niche audiences of the highest commitment. This structural change enabled the platform to fund and sell a messy, convoluted story about a trans woman and her queer family without necessarily being limited by the channels of traditional advertisers.

Moreover, this freedom of economy results into narrative depth. Based on the Trans TV Dossier, Anamarija Horvat (2017) considers that new television typologies offer crucial locations on which transgressive identities can be discussed with a new level of precision. Other than merely adding a trans character to the usual sitcom formula in a bid to make the show more diverse, Transparent takes advantage of the freedom afforded by the platform to explore a broad range of topics related to gender transition, generational trauma, and queer sexuality without having to sanitize it to meet the demands of network television.

The streaming portal is private and on-demand, which makes viewing it create a special closeness between the text and the viewer. Streaming also enables audiences to consume sensitive or transgressive content in very personal environments, unlike the communal, public nature of linear network broadcast advertising. Finally, Transparent shows that the transition to streaming is not a simple technological upgrade. It is a crucial economic reorganization that has facilitated a new phase of diverse and authentic audiovisual media.

References

Horvat, A. (2017). Trans on TV. Trans TV Dossier, Critical Studies in Television.

Soloway, J.. (2014-2019). Transparent [TV series]. Amazon Studios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SocRFvihFdg .

Villarejo, A. (2014). Ethereal queer: Television, historicity, desire. Duke University Press.