United States of Tara

We recently found this show on Showtime - and wow. It's hard to stop watching. Good thing it's summer and very little is on TV. We watch 2-3 every night - and have trouble not continuing on. Gotta sleep LOL. Toni Collette is amazing - she is totally believable as she transitions from personality to personality. John Corbett is great as the long-suffering husband. AND the kids! SUCH A WONDERFULLY DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY. Hate that there's only three seasons...

I started watching this show not knowing anything about it, and was expecting something along the lines of a Tracy Ulman variety show. I was surprised to find something much deeper. It's not really even a comedy, though it has some comic elements. I found the characters likable, and oddly enough...believable. Someone else mentioned that this is not the typical family, but what the heck IS a typical family? As for making a joke out of rape and incest, I don't find that to be the case here at all. Being able to laugh at our reactions to these atrocities is not nearly the same as laughing at the actions themselves. I watched all 12 episodes in a marathon sitting over 2 days (I'm on vacation, what can I say). Love it, and I hope it continues.

Tara Gregson (Toni Collette) is suffering from a dissociative identity disorder. Max Gregson (John Corbett) is her long suffering husband. Her sister Charmaine Craine (Rosemarie DeWitt) is judgmental. Marshall Gregson (Keir Gilchrist) is her shy gay son. Her daughter Kate Gregson (Brie Larson) is trying to find her identity.

This is a great dysfunctional family drama. Toni Collette is amazing in portraying all her personalities. She really pushes her acting range to the limits. And the chemistry with the family is brilliant. They feel like a real family that has real love, real joy, real fights, and real struggles.

My wife has DID (and PTSD, BPD, anxiety, ...) due to childhood abuse. There have been very few movies/shows about this disorder, and I found that I could really relate to this one. It does a very good job showing just what happens with someone who has DID, especially with the nearly immediate transition to alters and back. That was spot on. The dysfunction was also covered fairly well. Nothing is normal with mental illness. Normal day-to-day activities can turn upside down, and planning things can become impossible due to the unpredictability of it all. Even going to your job every day can be a challenge. Then there are days where everything seems perfectly normal.

And that's an area they only lightly touched on. The suicide ideation/attempts, raging, depression, guilt, eating disorders, emergencies, money problems, lack of boundaries... these are much more severe and common than what they showed (but that probably wouldn't make for an as entertaining series.) And, at least in my wife's case, her alters aren't as well defined or as persistent. Some don't even have names, and frequently there is just dissociation without alters. None of them wear different clothes.

The difficulty with getting proper treatment is also shown. But they didn't touch on the cost very much. Most insurances must "pre-approve" treatment for mental health issues, which is a joke. Break your leg, go to the hospital. Have a meltdown and need immediate counseling? Ask your insurance for permission first. And don't even think about paying for it out of your own pocket (unless you're independently wealthy, which you probably aren't since someone with DID isn't likely to be holding down a job).

Overall, an entertaining but also educational look at DID. Someone did their homework.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine encouraged me to watch Showtime's series "United States of Tara." I was unsure, as I had heard the concept and expected something silly and outlandish, but I gave it a shot, because I'm a fan of creator Diablo Cody's film "Juno", and I had heard that Steven Spielberg was an executive producer. He popped in the DVD, and we watched the pilot on his computer. The instant it ended, I pushed him away, loaded up Amazon and ordered the first two seasons for myself! I was that taken by the show! Within two days of the DVDs arriving, I had watched both seasons, ran to my mothers house, hijacked her TV (and her Showtime on Demand), and watched every single episode available! "United States of Tara" is easily one of the best shows on TV right now. It is an often poignant, thoroughly dramatic, and generally hilarious look at the life of a woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder, and how she tries to hold her family together through her struggles.

Toni Collette easily earns her Emmy Award as Tara, the star of the show, and her (thus far) seven "alters" (her alternate personalities) who take over when Tara cannot deal with reality. The performance Collette gives is incredible, because Tara and each of the alters is it's own "being", with its own style, voice and traits. For all intent and purpose, Collette has played eight characters on the show, often switching between 2-4 per episode.

John Corbett, Keir Gilchrist, Brie Larson and Rosemarie DeWitt round out the cast as Tara's supportive (almost to the point of breaking) husband, her kind-hearted son (who happens to be gay), her sometimes troubled teenaged daughter, and her somewhat self-absorbed sister, respectively. This is one of those rare casts that perfectly "gels", and there is no sore thumb in sight!

The show itself is well structured. While I had heard it was comedic, it is actually more often a very serious drama, with comedy thrown in. While you will laugh at it, and with it, you will also often find yourself ready to shed a tear for the characters. Cody and the other writers prove themselves, establishing and paying off characters masterfully, in ways that most shows could only dream of. Story lines also draw you in, and you will feel a very human suspense. This is a show that feels real, feels edgy, feels funny... It just works.

Thus far, the show is comprised of three seasons (I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a fourth, despite season 3's lower ratings). This is why the show didn't get a perfect 10 from me- a slight inconsistency with the second season's quality. The first season was outstanding. It truly was one of a kind. It tugged at my heart, and made me laugh. The second season was at times just a bit too... "blah." It was occasionally too dark (more than once forcing story lines and images that felt just too darned uncomfortable, and derivative of the first season), and it felt like there wasn't as much happening. It was still good, but it wasn't as fresh. There wasn't quite the sense of urgency that season one seemed to ooze. It felt like, for lack of better word, an unneeded movie sequel- sure, it's fun to catch up with the characters, but it's not quite as fresh. Thankfully, it did finally get back on track as the season wrapped up, and the finale was heartfelt and worth the "wonky" earlier episodes. And I'm happy to report that Season Three (the current season) is arguably just as good, it not better, than the first season! It was quite a comeback, and I'm glad the show found its legs again.

All-in-all, I highly recommend "United States of Tara" to all open-minded people who want a touching, thought-provoking and smart comedy-drama to follow. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's a phenomenal show overall, despite an only so-so second season. I give it a near-perfect 9 out of 10!