“Transparent,” Amazon’s new dark comedy starring Jeffrey Tambor, has been picked up for a second season less than a month after the company released all 10 episodes of its first outing. Since its launch, the show has remained at the top of Amazon’s Prime Instant Video charts, and has a 98 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest of any Amazon show to date.
Having seen it, the show’s success makes sense – it’s smart, funny and touching – but it may have also been helped by Amazon taking a page from Netflix’s playbook. “Transparent” is the first show Amazon released all at once, which has made it available for people to binge watch. According to Amazon, nearly 80 percent of viewers watch two or more episodes of the series in one sitting.
It’s good news for Amazon Studios, which has been searching for a hit show ever since the company started its foray into original video programming. “Alpha House,” the company’s only returning series, will have its entire second season released all at once later this month.
