What this show sets out to do, it does exceedingly well. Viewers are able to follow key events in these people's lives and see what they're going through, and interspersed throughout the show are the reactions of other people as well as informative sections with doctors, therapists, stylists, etc. As such, this show is great both for people who don't understand the emotional side of transgenderism and for those who are looking for factual information about the subject.
It is worth mentioning that I happen to know of one of the people in this show, so I asked a question of them before coming to review; aside from being asked to say stuff like "it's been x time since y happened and we are at x location doing y," there's nothing fake or scripted about the show, so if that's a concern potential watchers have, you can lay it to rest.
Most of the show focuses on the emotional aspect of transitioning and how it affects the cis wives in particular. One of the families is really hurting financially, something I think most Americans today can relate to. Three of the transitioning spouses are 40+ years old, and the show goes into the struggle of transitioning later in life. The show covers body dysphoria, child abuse, conversion therapy, relationships, depression, substance abuse, suicidal ideation and suicide, and divorce in a frank and honest manner, and shows both the strain and damage that hiding gender dysphoria puts on people and their relationships, as well as the positive effects transitioning has on people's lives.
I do have two issues with the show, but they are minor compared to what the show does well and one of them is just a matter of personal preference. I think that some of the editing may have resulted in a skewed depiction of conversations in a couple of scenes. There are some awkward jumps in conversations that seem to be trying to make a situations more tense than it already was, which I think is unnecessary. That said, if that is what is going on, it happens very rarely.
My other issue with the show is that there is a lot of time spent on scene transitions. When switching from one family to another, there are shots of the region in which that family lives with music, and while the footage is beautiful, I would have much rather had fast transitions without music so that the show had more screen-time for the people. If we get another season, I hope it has shorter scene transition sequences so we get more meat from each episode.
I would very much like to see a second season, and I would also like it if they included more trans men. Trans men rarely get media coverage, and this show would be a great opportunity to show people the emotional and factual aspects of FtM transitions, something I myself know very little about.
