United States of Tara

The show is a representation of a seemingly typical American family who must cope with the daily struggles of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Tara Gregson is a wife and mother of two children in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, who has been diagnosed with DID. Suffering side effects from the medication, she is depressed at her inability to focus, to feel, to be intimate, to create art, and to progress in therapy to discover the painful source of her dissociation. With approval from her therapist, she discontinues the medication, knowing that multiple personalities will reemerge.

When stressed, Tara may transition into one of her alters: wild and flirty teenager T; 1950s style housewife Alice; and male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet Buck. A fourth alter, Gimme, is introduced later in the first season. During the second season, two further personalities are introduced: Shoshana, Tara's therapist of sorts, and Chicken, an infantile representation of Tara when she was five years old. Another alter emerges in Season 3, that of Tara's previously unknown half-brother Bryce. Tara is supported by her husband Max, daughter Kate, and son Marshall. Her sister, Charmaine, is not very supportive of Tara, expressing doubts about the validity of her sister's disorder, though she becomes increasingly more understanding and receptive as the series progresses.

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• Tara Gregson ({{nee}} Craine) (Toni Collette), a woman with dissociative identity disorder
• Max Gregson (John Corbett), Tara's supportive husband
• Kate Gregson (Brie Larson), Tara and Max's spirited teenage daughter
• Marshall Gregson (Keir Gilchrist), Tara and Max's gay cinephile son
• Charmaine Craine (Rosemarie DeWitt), Tara's self-absorbed younger sister
• Neil (Patton Oswalt): Max's employee and best friend
• Gene Stuart: (Nate Corddry), Kate's boss at Barnaby's, a fast food outlet.

The show was conceived by executive producer Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw, while discussing the compartmentalization of the typical human psyche. The staff members were challenged with making a comedy show that is counteracted by the unknowable but believable anguish of severe mental illness. They wanted a widely relatable story of fragmentation of the self, and of the loving perseverance of the family. Executive producer Alexa Junge said, "It never comes from making fun of a woman who can't control herself." Series creator Diablo Cody said she was "nervous" about making the pilot funny but not a sitcom, while being sensitive to a mental disorder. Therefore, the disorder was researched and then the scripts were reviewed by dissociative identity disorder expert and medical school professor, Richard Kluft.{{cite web | title=The Four (at Least) Faces of Tara | date=January 9, 2009 | first=Jeanne Dorin | last=McDowell | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/arts/television/11mcdo.html | access-date=February 6, 2020 | website=The New York Times}}

Portia Doubleday was cast as Kate in the pilot episode of United States of Tara. Doubleday was replaced by Brie Larson when the series' creative team chose to go in a different direction with the character.{{Cite news | last = Ouzounian | first = Richard | title = Portia Doubleday: Michael Cera's transformer | newspaper = Toronto Star | location = Toronto | date = January 5, 2010 | url = https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/745966--portia-doubleday-michael-cera-s-transformer | access-date = January 7, 2010}}

Diablo Cody didn't expect the pilot to reach series status, so she considered "three seasons in the lion's den" to be exceptional. She emphatically appreciated the writers, but was pressured with the expectation of writing more "gobbledygook banter" as seen in her recent hit movie Juno; she disliked the institution of the writers' room and wished that it had been primarily a solo effort. She said Steven Spielberg was "incredibly involved", offering "his soul and his input" to the series. She was sad to learn of the cancellation especially without a proper finale, but was fairly satisfied with "a nice, natural end".{{cite interview | title=Diablo Cody on United States of Tara's Cancellation: 'If I Do TV Again, I Would Do It Differently' | website=Vulture | date=May 25, 2011 | interviewer=Patti Greco | first=Diablo | last=Cody | url=https://www.vulture.com/2011/05/diablo_cody_on_united_states_o_1.html | access-date=February 5, 2020}}

{{main|List of United States of Tara episodes}}

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The series premiered on the American network Showtime on January 18, 2009. On February 10, 2009, after only four episodes had aired, Showtime Networks president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt announced that United States of Tara would be renewed for a second season, to 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 prime time ratings.{{cite journal|url=http://www.multichannel.com/article/173970-Showtime_United_With_Tara_For_Second_Season.php |title=Showtime United With Tara For Second Season |journal=Multichannel News |date=February 10, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214045815/http://www.multichannel.com/article/173970-Showtime_United_With_Tara_For_Second_Season.php |archive-date=February 14, 2009 }} Season two premiered on March 22, 2010.{{cite news |url=http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/2009/11/nurse-jackie-tara-both-back-ma.html |title='Nurse Jackie,' 'Tara' Both Back March 22 |newspaper=Hartford Courant |date=November 6, 2009 |first=Roger |last=Caitlin |access-date=April 14, 2013}}

On March 25, three days after the season 2 premiere, it was announced that it would be picked up for a third season which aired in spring 2011.{{cite web |url=http://www.hitfix.com/articles/2010-3-25-showtime-renews-nurse-jackie-united-states-of-tara |title=Showtime renews 'Nurse Jackie,' 'United States of Tara |work=HitFix |date=March 25, 2010 |access-date=April 14, 2013}} Season 3 officially premiered on March 28, 2011.{{cite web |url=http://www.tvequals.com/2011/01/18/nurse-jackie-and-united-states-of-tara-season-3-premiere-date-announced/ |title=NURSE JACKIE and UNITED STATES OF TARA Season 3 Premiere Date Announced |work=TV Equals |first=Michelle |last=Carlbert |date=January 18, 2011 |access-date=April 14, 2013}} On May 23, 2011, it was announced that the series would not be renewed for a fourth season.

Critical response to the show was positive, with many reviewers praising Collette's acting. According to Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the show's first season holds a score of 63 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 24 reviews. Season 2 has 79% with 10 reviews, and Season 3 has 84% ("universal acclaim") with 5 reviews.{{cite web |url=http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/unitedstatesoftara |title=United States of Tara - Season 1 Reviews |access-date=April 14, 2013 |publisher=CBS Interactive |work=Metacritic}}

Troy Patterson of Slate gave high praise to Diablo Cody's infamous style of snarky pop-culture dialog, and to the cast, concluding that "The most elusive of the personalities is Tara herself, and that's as it should be."{{cite web | title=The United States of Tara | first=Troy | last=Patterson | date=January 15, 2020 | website=Slate | url=https://slate.com/culture/2009/01/the-united-states-of-tara-reviewed.html | access-date=February 6, 2020}} Emily Nussbaum of Vulture saw Tara as "the true sister act" to Dexter, Showtime's other hit show at the time, with a more feminine focus on the allegorical roots of mental illness. She said it "has slowly taken its premise deeper, bolder places than I ever expected, all while maintaining an arch-comic tone that could sour if it weren’t so smart. Far more ambitious than bloated award bait like Boardwalk Empire, it has become a truly original series, a dark comedy about sexual abuse, swinging at existential questions about its heroine's struggle to become a real girl."{{cite web | website=Vulture | title=TV Review: Is United States of Tara the New Dexter? | first=Emily | last=Nussbaum | date=March 28, 2011 | url=https://www.vulture.com/2011/03/united_states_of_tara_5.html | access-date=February 5, 2020}} Alan Sepinwall of HitFix said that Tara has "gotten deeper, darker and just plain better as it's gone along" where sometimes "the Gregson family seems in danger of splintering as badly as Tara's psyche".{{cite web | title=Review: Showtime's 'United States of Tara' & 'Nurse Jackie' take different paths in season 3 | url=http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/review-showtimes-united-states-of-tara-nurse-jackie-take-different-paths-in-season-3 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111014170029/http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/review-showtimes-united-states-of-tara-nurse-jackie-take-different-paths-in-season-3 | archive-date=October 14, 2011 | first=Alan | last=Sepinwall | date=March 28, 2011 | access-date=February 5, 2020}}

In a 2014 retrospective, Ariana Bacle at Entertainment Weekly said that she was "still not over" the show's premature cancellation. She said the show portrays mental illness in a realistic, humanizing, and normalizing way that gives appropriate weight to the lives of all the family members who were overwhelmed but not totally consumed by one's mental illness. She found it "dark" but "consistently funny, never taking itself too seriously". She praised Toni Collette's "flawless" transition between personalities that are so multilayered yet "insanely distinct" that they could have each been a different actor.{{cite magazine | title=I'm Still Not Over... 'United States of Tara' getting canceled | first=Ariana | last=Bacle | date=February 10, 2014 | url=https://ew.com/article/2014/02/10/im-still-not-over-united-states-of-tara-cancellation/ | magazine=Entertainment Weekly | access-date=February 5, 2020}}

Episodes 1 and 2 are available as bonus features on DVD disc 4 (of 4) of Season 3 of Dexter, and on disc 4 (of 4) of Season 3 of The Tudors.

In Australia, United States of Tara was rated MA 15+, and in New Zealand, it was rated R13 for offensive language and sexual references.

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• {{Official website|http://www.sho.com/united-states-of-tara}}
• {{IMDb title|1001482}}

{{Diablo Cody}}

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{{Showtime Network programming}}

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Category:2009 American television series debuts

Category:2011 American television series endings

Category:2000s American comedy-drama television series

Category:2000s American LGBTQ-related comedy television series

Category:2000s American LGBTQ-related drama television series

Category:Gay-related television shows

Category:2010s American comedy-drama television series

Category:2010s American LGBTQ-related comedy television series

Category:2010s American LGBTQ-related drama television series

Category:Dissociative identity disorder in television

Category:American English-language television shows

Category:Primetime Emmy Award–winning television series

Category:Showtime (TV network) television dramas

Category:Television series about dysfunctional families

Category:Television series by CBS Studios

Category:Television series by DreamWorks Television

Category:Television shows set in Kansas

Category:Television series created by Diablo Cody