There’s a new addition to Showtime’s dysfunctional lineup.
Flawed people have been good for the premium pay channel. “Weeds,” featuring a pot-dealing suburban mom, has been critically acclaimed, while “Californication,” focusing on a sex-addicted writer, won a Golden Globe.
Now it’s Toni Collette’s turn, as she tackles four roles in the new series “United States of Tara,” debuting at 10 p.m. Sunday.
Collette plays Tara Gregson, a suburban housewife and interior designer who has dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder).
With her family’s blessing, Tara has gone off her meds. This means that any of her three personalities, or “alters,” can pop up at any time: provocative teenager T, aggressive Vietnam vet Buck or 1950s homemaker Alice.
These sudden changes challenge members of her family, including her landscaper husband, Max (John Corbett), rebellious daughter Kate (Brie Larson) and sensitive son Marshall (Keir Gilchrist). Tara’s younger sister Charmaine (Rosemarie DeWitt) is resentful of all the attention Tara has received through the years because of her condition.
Despite the many sides of the lead character, “United States of Tara” is really a bracing family drama. It’s about a family dealing with its problems, mixing negative emotions with humor. Parts of the Gregson family dynamic will resonate with almost every viewer.
“United States of Tara,” created by Diablo Cody (“Juno”), gets to the heart of what being a family really means.