"United States of Tara" (2009) TV series 2009-????

User Rating:

(awaiting 5 votes)

Creator:

Diablo Cody

Seasons:

1 | unknown

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A woman struggles to find a balance between her dissociative identity disorder and raising a dysfunctional family.

Plot Keywords:

Dysfunctional Family | Dissociative Identity Disorder | Friend | Kiss | Gay Son

Awards:

Won 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Toni Collette	...	Tara / ... (12 episodes, 2009)
John Corbett	...	Max / ... (12 episodes, 2009)
Brie Larson	...	Kate / ... (12 episodes, 2009)
Keir Gilchrist	...	Marshall / ... (12 episodes, 2009)
Rosemarie DeWitt	...	Charmaine (12 episodes, 2009)
Nathan Corddry	...	Gene Stuart (10 episodes, 2009)
Andrew Lawrence	...	Jason (7 episodes, 2009)
Valerie Mahaffey	...	Dr. Ocean (7 episodes, 2009)

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-MA

Filming Locations:

First Christian Church of North Hollywood - 4390 Colfax Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

DreamWorks Television

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (2009) (TV)

Showtime, you can do better.

It was not in my original intentions to watch this show, but I was forced to sit through a six-episode marathon with my friend, who is a huge fan of the movie "Juno" and thinks that Diablo Cody is a magical demi-goddess sent to save humankind with her unique brand of slang. And, well, I must say...I don't much care for it.

I had fairly good expectations going into this show. I am a huge fan of many Showtime shows, including Weeds, Dexter and Dead Like Me. Californication is pretty good as well. I don't feel that United States of Tara is on par with these shows at all. What's wrong with it? Well, for one thing, it seems like it's trying way too hard to be quirky and clever, and coming up flat. Perhaps Cody's dialog is meant to be this way, but I never really found any of it (the show's dialog, that is) particularly refreshing or thought-provoking, the way I felt about some of the same material which was presented in Juno (which I thought was kind of overrated, but was still a decent enough movie.)

The characters in this show are flat and stereotypical: the put-upon wife, the level-headed father figure, the rebellious teen daughter, the maddening in-laws. The only semi-interesting character in the whole brood is Marshall, the young wunderkind Fritz Lang-watching gay son.

As for the whole DID issue, well, I'm not too well-versed on the subject, so I can't really comment with regards to the arena of Cody allegedly being "disrespectful" to people with this disorder. I don't think that she *means* to be, if that means anything. I have noticed, however, that Cody seems to like to take "dark" issues like teen pregnancy (and now DID) and tries to put a positive spin on it. But I must say, Tara's various personalities are all pretty darn annoying, especially T. That's not really putting a positive spin on things, in my book.

Also, I get a real kick out of reading all of the negative comments about this show on IMDb, which means that something is definitely wrong in my book. Or maybe I'm just more of a fan of schadenfreude than I'd like to admit...

Bottom line: while this show is not terrible in the same way that The Hills is terrible, I'm still not compelled or even semi-interested, I've never laughed once (despite it being billed as a comedy) and I won't be tuning in for more. Showtime has produced a bunch of great shows in the past few years, and United States of Tara definitely is not one of them. I can't believe that it has been renewed for a second season already. For now, all I can do is hope and pray that this show isn't the marker of the downfall of Showtime.