UNITED STATES OF TARA - SEASON ONE (a review)

UNITED STATES OF TARA - SEASON ONE (a review)

A tv show from Diablo Cody, the stripper turned writer who won an Oscar from Juno. The story is about a wife with multiple personality disorder. Stars Toni Collette, John Corbett, Brie Lawson.

The story: (since this is a series, there isn't a specific storyline but here's the jist...) A housewife with multiple personality disorder tries to go off her meds to learn to deal with her disorder and get to the cause of it, struggles with her family -- her incredibly understanding husband, her annoying sister, her slut daughter and her gay son -- as they struggle with not only the chaos of a mom who is constantly changing, but also with their lives -- the daughter has an abusive boyfriend and then gets a job where the manager tries to sleep with her and the son has a crush on a Christian who may or may not be gay.

Was it good?

It was okay. It's never great. There are times it tries to be shocking or daring, but those are all kind of awkward. The strange thing that makes it watchable is the way that amid all the chaos of what's going on the family still comes off as fairly normal. While most shows with families are completely unrealistic -- and the more normal the family the more unrealistic the show feels (*cough* Cosby Show *cough*), this show with it's completely out-there premise actually helps make the characters and family feel normal.

This normalicy makes the show very watchable. If you are doing something and it's in the background, it's easy and enjoyable to follow. Still, as a show there never is anything compelling enough to allow me to recommend it. It's frustrating because this seems to be the modus operandi with a lot of the cable shows nowadays -- they are interesting but never that compelling.

So why is this mediocre-good while SEX AND THE CITY was so compelling, or SPARTACUS or BURN NOTICE? Well, the problem comes from two questions every writer should think about -- what is it about and how far do you push it?

What it this show about? The multiple personality thing is okay, but for non-multis what does it mean? In other words, what are we, the audience, supposed to take from it? The thing I get out of it is that even with all the choas they are normal...which is fine, but it's not much of a statement. In fact, it's a total non-statement because it's about them. Good statements (in fiction) are statements that affect the viewer. They are statements that the audiences take with them into their own lives. This doesn't have that sort of statement. You'd think they would use the multi as a metaphore for the ways a woman gets pulled in every direction, the way every woman needs to be many different people to be a woman and a mom...but no. It's used mainly just to make her life more chaotic. So what it is about? A normal family. And that's about it.

How far do you push it? This isn't just about being outrageous. This is about knowing whta the series is about and pushing and pushing the story to get deeper to the heart of what it is that you are exploring. Except here the story is just that they are normal. It's hard to push that. You can surround them with more chaos, but tat just feels like more and more stuff. So things like the sister having had a bad boob job...meh. So while the series is enjoyable it never gets to greatness because there just never seems to be anything at the heart of it.

So, no I can't recommend it. But I understand why others would find it enjoyable.

*** NOT RECOMMENDED ****