Yesterday we received a DVD screener of the first few episodes of United States of Tara, the new Showtime drama that stars Toni Collete as a woman living, unmedicated, with multiple personalities. It's a bizarre premise on the surface, and the biggest question seems to be: Is this gonna be depressing or funny? I mean, if you've seen Sally Field's portrayal of a woman suffering from the disorder in the 1976 TV movie Sybil, you know this reality can be freakin horrific. Instead, Diablo Cody (yes, the over-hyped Juno scribe) has managed to take the modern dysfunctional family with unusual sidelines that have been the latest bread-and-butter of HBO and Showtime and make Dissociative Identity Disorder (the new classification of multiple personality disorder) seem like crazy hi-jinks for the whole family.
Instead of getting one role to play, Collete inhabits four distinct personalities (eat that Charlize Theron!) in what is a blend of AMC's Breaking Bad and HBO's Big Love. Tara's understanding husband Max (played by John Corbett) has three wives ('50s housewife Alice, 16-year-old T, and Tara, the personality he married) and one trucker buddy named Buck all inhabiting one body. So he's faced with the complications of sexual indiscretions although they all share the same body parts. And Tara's two teenaged kids, Marshall (Keir Gilchrist) and Kate (Brie Larson), have the added strangeness of having a freaked-out regular mom and her other personalities, which (in)conveniently appear when needed to speak to them about crises like boys, sex or bed wetting.
It's fascinating TV to watch. Collete does a remarkable job of crafting each of her roles. I thought I'd watch the pilot and be done with it, but I felt compelled to watch all four episodes in one sitting. You'll have to wait to see Corbett beat off in the shower (what so many have desired since his days on Northern Exposure) and Colette as prim and proper Alice is perhaps the most fun. But I'm uncertain how long this can be sustained.
I mean, the woman is obviously suffering and as fun as it would be to have a crazy fun mom, it's not. Will they be able to pull off a Six Feet Under or Weeds feat (or not near Sopranos territory here) and create a believable enough family out of a bunch of misfits? I guess that's what will keep us watching. The series premieres Jan. 18 on Showtime and there will be a special screening at the Landmark Sunshine Theaters on Jan. 13. In the meantime, check out this horrible preview clip that makes the show seem like a sad sack TV movie.
