Amazon renews ‘Transparent’ for second season

Amazon has ordered a second season of “Transparent,” its half-hour comedy starring Jeffrey Tambor as a retired professor and transgender woman who comes out to her family later in life.

The series was created by Jill Soloway, formerly a writer on “Six Feet Under” and “United States of Tara,” and co-stars Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Landecker and Jay Duplass as Tambor’s character’s three self-involved (and frequently self-destructive) children, and Judith Light as his ex-wife. Though it is not strictly autobiographical, “Transparent” was loosely inspired by Soloway’s own father, who came out as trans a few years ago.

The second season, with an as-yet unspecified number of episodes, will debut in 2015, according to Amazon.

The renewal, not quite two weeks after the first 10 episodes of “Transparent” became available to stream via Amazon Prime Instant Video, comes as little surprise.

The dark family comedy is easily one of the year’s most talked-about and best-reviewed new shows (Times critic Mary McNamara called it “transcendent” and “astonishing to watch”) and is widely seen as the first series from the online retailer/content provider to pose an awards threat. “Transparent,” like Amazon’s other original series “Alpha House” and “Betas,” was developed using an unusual pilot process which allows the website’s users to vote on which projects should go to series.

While Amazon, like its rival Netflix, has not made raw viewership data available, it disclosed Thursday that “Transparent” is currently the No. 1-ranked series on Prime Instant Video and also the most binge-watched, according to its internal measurements.

“We are absolutely thrilled that the response to ‘Transparent’ has been so positive,” said Roy Price, vice president of Amazon Studios, in a press statement.

Twitter: @MeredithBlake