United States of Tara

United States of Tara
File:UnitedStatesofTarapromoseason2.jpg A promotional image for the series, with Toni Collette as Tara in the middle. On the couch (from left to right): Max, Kate, Alter Shoshanna and Alter Alice. (Sitting on the ground): Marshall and Alter Buck.
Genre	Comedy-drama
Created by	Diablo Cody
Starring	Toni Collette John Corbett Brie Larson Keir Gilchrist Rosemarie DeWitt Patton Oswalt
Theme music composer	Tim DeLaughter
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1 aired (season 2 currently airing)
No. of episodes	14 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Steven Spielberg Diablo Cody Alexa Junge (season 1) Jill Soloway (season 2-) Darryl Frank Justin Falvey Eduardo Peixoto
Producer	Dan Kaplow
Production locations	Overland Park, Kansas (setting) Los Angeles, California (actual filming location)
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	approx. 30 min.
Original release
Network	Showtime
Release	January 18, 2009 – present

United States of Tara is a television series created by Diablo Cody. Broadcast in the United States on the premium channel Showtime, the series follows the life of a suburban housewife with dissociative identity disorder. The series' first season aired in 2009; the second season premiered on March 22, 2010.

Toni Collette won the 2009 Primetime Emmy Award and 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role, while the opening title sequence also won an Emmy.

Overview

Tara Gregson is a wife and mother of two children. Tara has dissociative identity disorder (DID). Whenever she is stressed, she transforms into one of her alternate personalities: wild and flirty teenager T; old-fashioned housewife Alice; and male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet Buck. A fifth personality, infantile Gimme, is introduced later in the first season. Tara is supported by her husband Max, her somewhat troubled teenage daughter Kate and quirky, good-hearted gay son Marshall. Her sister, Charmaine, is not so supportive, often expressing her doubt about the validity of Tara's disorder. The show is set in Overland Park, Kansas.

Cast

Family

• Toni Collette as Tara Gregson, is a wife/mother who works as a mural painter. She loves her family and often feels guilty for the bizarre events she puts them through. Tara is only somewhat co-conscious with the alter-egos in her system: she has no recollection of anything they do when they are out, but they know all about what she does. Though Tara's personalities re-emerge because she goes off her medication, Diablo Cody, one of the show's Producers, has stated that Tara isn't being irresponsible by not taking the medication, but rather "wants a chance to try living with her condition, instead of smothering it with drugs" because it is "clear ... that she is not receiving proper treatment for her dissociative identity disorder". Collette has said that she is "excited" and "absolutely in love" with the project.

• John Corbett as Max Gregson, Tara's husband. He is calm and level-headed when it comes to Tara's disorder; The New Yorker called him "a member of that strange breed of TV husband that exhibits infinite patience". After being married to Tara for 17 years, "it's no longer a shock to [Max] when he comes home and finds Buck in the kitchen drinking a beer". Max searches for Tripp Johanson, the man he believes victimized Tara in boarding school. Initially Tara opposes this but in episode 11 decides she too wants to find Tripp. Max runs a landscape business called Four Winds Landscaping in Overland Park.

• Brie Larson as Kate Gregson, Tara's troubled 17-year-old daughter. Kate works in a local outlet of a chain family restaurant. She briefly enters into a casual relationship with her manager, Gene, but grows uncomfortable with his advances and initiates a sexual harassment complaint against him. She studied and received her high school diploma early and now works at a collection agency.

• Keir Gilchrist as Marshall Gregson, (or as Kate calls him, "Moosh") Tara and Max's sensitive, old-fashioned and good-natured 14-year-old son who loves classic films and wants to be a director. Marshall's sexuality isn't defined. He has a crush on a boy in his film class, but he kisses a girl in Season 2; writer Diablo Cody has said that Marshall's sexuality is "just matter-of-fact" and "definitely wasn't intended as any sort of plot point." Though the family is supportive of Marshall, Buck is slightly homophobic and often makes disparaging remarks; Cody thought "it would be really fun" to have the dichotomy of Tara being "incredibly supportive" while Buck is "kind of a homophobe", though "he actually does love Marshall." Gilchrist was praised for his portrayal, and another saying that he was "the real breakout star ... [his] expressive, trusting face will definitely break your heart in some scenes".

• Rosemarie DeWitt as Charmaine Craine, Tara's younger sister. She resents Tara for always being the center of attention and accuses her of only acting out her personalities. Cody wrote Charmaine as an antagonist because she wanted "a voice for the skeptics". She worked for a mail-order vitamin company before an incident involving one of Tara's alters caused her to lose her job. Her first husband pressured her into getting breast augmentation surgery, which resulted in deformed, lopsided breasts. She undergoes corrective surgery, and starts to bond with Buck, who takes care of her while she recovers. In the season 2 premiere she gets engaged.

• Pamela Reed as Beverly and Fred Ward as Frank: Tara and Charmaine's parents, who visit in episode 6 and suggest that Marshall and Kate move in with them because of Tara's condition. Tara and Max reject their idea, subsequently asking them to leave.

Friends

• Patton Oswalt as Neil, Max's co-worker at Four Winds Landscaping and friend who once had a fling with Charmaine.

• Nathan Corddry as Gene Stuart, Kate's boss at the restaurant who is in his early 20's, and with whom Kate starts a casual relationship. He becomes increasingly obsessed with her and wants more out of their relationship, despite her not feeling the same way. In episode 10, Kate files a sexual harassment claim against him, as he often makes inappropriate remarks and frequently finds excuses to touch the other teenage girls at the restaurant. In the Season 1 finale, he was fired, but continued his unwanted advances towards Kate, breaking into the Gregson home. He waits for Kate on the couch, and when she arrives he expresses his obsessive love for her. Fearing for her safety, Kate steals her mother's car, running into several small objects as she flees. He has not appeared in season 2.

• Hayley McFarland as Petula, Marshall's best friend, who dresses in a conservative, "retro" style and isn't afraid to speak her mind. She has not appeared in season 2 (she was seemingly replaced by Courtney).

• Andrew Lawrence as Jason, Marshall's potential love interest and friend. Jason is the son of a local pastor. He is confused about his sexuality. In episode 9, when Marshall kisses him, Jason kisses him back. T lures Jason into the shed in episode 10, where she asks him if he likes boys and if he likes girls. Jason's response is the same to both: "maybe". Marshall discovers the pair kissing, prompting him to burn down the shed. In episode 11, Jason "breaks up" with Marshall because he thinks Marshall will never forgive him for making out with T. Kate later tries to make Marshall feel better by saying Jason is a "bi-curious church monkey" and claims that a relationship between Marshall and Jason will never work because Jason is only experimenting and will end up marrying a woman as an adult. Petula texts Marshall in episode 12 to say she saw Jason at Starbucks on a date with a female classmate. He has not appeared in season 2.

• Jessica St. Clair as Tiffany, a woman who worked with Charmaine and who hired Tara to paint a mural. The mural is later defaced by one of the alters (Gimme), possibly because it felt that she was being disrespectful toward Tara and her DID by asking Tara to "show" her one of the alters. In response to the vandalism, Tiffany takes out a restraining order against Tara and gets Charmaine fired from her job. She has not appeared in season 2.

• James McCauley as Tripp Johansson In the middle of the season, Charmaine told Max (and Tiffany) that he was the man whose rape of Tara in boarding school caused her DID. He finally appears in the season 1 finale in a confrontation with Tara and Max at the DID clinic, revealing that the rape was not the origin of the disorder. He has not appeared in season 2.

• Michael Hitchcock as Ted Mayo and Sammy Sheik as Hany are the gay neighbors who befriend Tara and the family at the beginning of season 2.

• Joey Lauren Adams as Pammy a barmaid who Buck has a sexual relationship with in season 2.

• Zosia Mamet as Courtney a straight girl from Marshall's gay rights group who Marshall kisses in season 2.

• Michael J. Willett as Lionel, a flamboyant gay guy who started the school's gay rights club and constantly encourages Marshall to embrace his homosexuality.

Therapists

• Valerie Mahaffey as Dr. Ocean, Tara's therapist. In episode 10, Dr. Ocean suggested that Tara should instead see a therapist that specializes in DID.

• Joel Gretsch as Dr. Holden, the therapist at the DID clinic.

The Alters

Toni Collette plays Tara's five known alters, whom she "transitions" into when she becomes too stressed or has strong emotions and can't handle the intense situations which arise.

• T is a girl who is perpetually 15. She smokes pot and is wild and flirty. She is provocative in her mannerisms and style of dress. She relates well with Kate, providing her with the morning-after pill and frequently attempting to take her on shopping sprees with Tara's credit cards. She often tries to seduce Max. He refuses her since he and Tara have an agreement that it would be messy to have sex with any of the alters (although under their previous agreement, Max and T did have sex). Her actions often disrupt Tara's life.

• Alice is a "June Cleaver-esque" housewife. Alice often bakes for the family and labels herself as old-fashioned. She claims to have attended the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Her strongest bond is with Marshall. Alice has an extremely domineering personality; she believes herself to be the true personality rather than Tara and wants 24/7 control of her body, and stated that she is the "keeper" for all of Tara's other alter egos. Alice is a very devout Christian; she prays every night for herself and all of Tara's other alter egos, including Gimme (though she has hesitated to say its name). Alice will often try to have sex with Max because she wants to have her own baby (she views Kate and Marshall as only Tara's children, not her own). In episode 12, when confronted by Dr. Holden, Alice says that Tara is weak, and that she needs her (Alice).

• Buck is the only male personality we have seen. He is a loud and profane troublemaker, characterized by Collette as "the aggressive protector type, a man's man". He explains his lack of a penis by claiming that it was blown off in the Vietnam War. Buck has a gun named Persephone and sometimes goes to the shooting range with Max and Marshall. Collette said that Buck is her favorite of the original four personalities "just because he's most challenging", though she has to "always be careful not to make him a stereotype." Unlike Tara and the other alters, Buck is left-handed. He is a heavy drinker and smoker. He wears large glasses and a trucker hat. Buck is loudly attracted to women, hitting on Kate's friends and claiming to have had sex with a waitress at the local bowling alley, who gave him crabs.

• Gimme first appeared at the end of episode six, but its arrival was foreshadowed in episode three, when Alice finds "GIMME" scrawled on the wall of the bathroom in crayon, which she quickly erases before transitioning back to Tara. Max refers to Gimme as "some kind of... poncho-goblin" and an expression of pure id. Initially, this alter ego has no discernible human personality, adopting an animal-like behavioral pattern (e.g., urinating on people). In episode eight, Alice reveals that she has known about Gimme for a long time. Thus far, the only time Gimme has appeared during daylight is in episode 10. Tara mentions before receiving a massage at a spa that being touched (except by Max) makes her uncomfortable, and during the massage she transitions to Gimme.

• Shoshana is a new alter added in the second season, first appearing in the fourth episode. She is a hippie who also happens to be a therapist that is able to directly communicate with Tara and her other alters. She will be a resource, hoping to bring balance to the system.

Episodes

Main article: List of United States of Tara episodes

Broadcasting information and initial reception

The series premiered on the US network Showtime at 10 p.m. on January 18, premiering before the second season of ITV's Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The season aired 12 episodes. In Canada, it debuted on The Movie Network on January 19, 2009, at 9 p.m.

In late December 2008, Showtime offered free viewing on its website for the pilot of United States of Tara. Reaction to the pilot was positive; Variety magazine was the first to review it and gave it a very positive review. After averaging over a dozen reviews of the series, Metacritic concluded that Tara has received "generally favorable reviews."

Customers of cable and satellite services that offer On Demand who subscribe to Showtime got the episode one week early via On Demand during Season 1. This is not the case during Season 2.

Awards

• 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
• 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design.
• 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy

Nominations

• 2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
• 2010 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series

International syndication

Country	Broadcasters	Notes
US	Showtime	Premiered January 18, 2009
Canada	The Movie Network	Premiered January 19, 2009
South Africa	M-Net	Premiered April 10, 2009
Spain	Paramount Comedy	Premiered April 27, 2009
Australia	ABC1	Premiered July 29, 2009
Ireland	RTÉ Two	Premiered September 3, 2009
Portugal	Fox Life	Premiered September 6, 2009
Argentina	Fox	Premiered September 22, 2009
Colombia	Fox	Premiered September 22, 2009
Sweden	Kanal 9	Premiered September 24, 2009
Iceland	SkjárEinn	Premiered October 23, 2009
New Zealand	TV3	Premiered December 1, 2009
Italy	Mya	Premiered December 2, 2009
Brazil	Fox	Premiered February 8, 2010
Poland	TVN, TVN HD	Premiered February 11, 2010
The Netherlands	RTL5	Premiered April, 2010
Czech Republic	HBO
Hungary	HBO
Romania	HBO
Slovakia	HBO
Venezuela	Fox
Mexico	Fox
Guatemala	Fox
Turkey	Fox Life
Slovenia	Kanal A	Premiered March 23, 2010

DVD releases

Season 1 was released on DVD in region 1 on December 29, 2009. The box set contains one episode of the Showtime series The Tudors. The Best Buy version comes with a bonus disc with 2 episodes of Nurse Jackie.

Episodes 1 and 2 were also available as bonus features on DVD Disc 4 (of 4) of Dexter, Season 3.

Renewals

On February 10, 2009, after only four episodes were aired, Showtime Networks president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt announced that United States of Tara has been renewed for a second season, which will consist of twelve episodes and air in early 2010. He said the early renewal decision came after the show averaged 2.67 million viewers per week, giving the network its highest ratings since 2004, when Nielsen Media Research began counting original shows on premium channels in its primetime ratings. Season two premiered on March 22, 2010.

On March 25, three days after the season 2 premiere, it was announced it has been picked up for a third season.

External links

• Official website
• United States of Tara at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com