United States of Tara

This show wouldn't be notable if it didn't have such great actors. It interested me because it was created by Diablo Cody, and I enjoy her dark-quirky-cheesy sense of humor, but that's definitely not for everyone. There is a lot going on in the show, and it can be a tad overwhelming. And all shows that are so busy risk people losing interest, but this one has held mine just because everyone is so good at acting their part. Everyone just pitches in there and gets the job done. It has the spirit of improvisational theater. The writing is really good too, mainly because the writers seem to know when to understate things. In a show about someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder, playing down the perpetual drama is a strength. It also adds to the sense of unpredictability that matches the subject and character's lives. The viewer never knows what will happen, just like the characters they're watching.

The show obviously revolves around Tara (Toni Collette), who is mostly happily married to a supportive husband Max (John Corbett), with two kids Kate (Brie Larson) and Marshall (Keir Gilchrist). It's a pretty typical setup, except for the inclusion of Tara's extremely varied alter egos: the teenager, the old-fashioned house wife, the manly Vietnam vet who thinks he had his dick blown off in the war. To further complicate matters, while another of her personalities is in charge she doesn't remember anything that happens. And by the end of the first season, another basely animalistic personality was discovered. Tara and family are working on coming to terms with her disorder without medication, as she didn't feel comfortable with other forms of treatment. Either that or they just weren't working. By the time season two picks up everyone's believed her to be all better for a while, but she's starting to notice she's being taken over by the other personalities again. Most likely there will be other personalities surfacing, as Tara works out why and when these things started.

While all that is happening, Kate and Marshall have their own things going on. Kate's rather wayward, and having graduated high school early, has found employment at a collection's agency. Marshall is still working on fitting into school and whether he likes boys or girls. Tara's sister, Charmaine (Rosemarie DeWitt) is less than supportive, but they seem to get along most of the time. They both seem equally crazy in different ways. Max seems pretty patient and always the same and reliable, serving as a good backdrop for all the random things that happen with his wife. Her multiple personalities flare out when she's under stress. Whichever one surfaces in that event, and how that personality handles it, is pretty entertaining to watch. She seems to be more in touch with them at this point, and even having conversations with them sometimes.

I'd say this is a perfectly serviceable dark comedy series. Some of it's funny, some of it's disturbing, but mostly it's disturbingly funny. Sometimes I feel like if I laugh I'm a bad person, but I laugh anyway. I keep watching to see what sort of trouble Tara's personalities will cause for her. And how she'll patch up their mischief in the end. A big example of everyone's acting ability is their capacity to act out all of those mini-mysteries. I initially watched this show pretty casually, catching it whenever I was bored and nothing else was on. I haven't seen the last few episodes of the first season, but I didn't feel like I missed much. This season seems to be a lot more interesting because Tara's personalities are starting to form relationships of their own. It will be fun to see how she deals with her other personalities' personal lives, but right now she's barely becoming aware of them. I also wonder how long she'll manage to keep her family from catching on to her personality difficulties coming back. Maybe I'll make it to the end of the season this time. Yay goals!