When I went to last summer's press tour, one of the more intriguing previews I saw there was of Showtime's new series The United States of Tara. It was intriguing for a couple of reasons: first, it was written and produced by the combination of Diablo Cody and Steven Spielberg. That's right; the stripper-turned-Oscar-winning-screenwriter of Juno fame is teaming up with the hitmaker to produce this show.
But the topic of the show is also interesting: Toni Collette stars as Tara, a suburban housewife and mom who also happens to suffer from dissociative identity disorder. Each of her three alternate personalities can pop out at any time, and her family has to deal with it when it does.
Showtime is offering an unedited version of the pilot if you want to sign up for it, but we also have the full pilot (albeit a bit edited for content) after the jump, thanks to our friends at AOL TV. I'm sure it'll be funny and touching all at once. As long as none of Tara's personalities ever says "honest to blog," I'll be a happy camper.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-09-2009 @ 4:34PM
royce said...
I watched the pilot on SHO HD ondemand yesterday. It was OK, but I doubt I could watch it every week. Toni Collett is great in it, but the writing is very annoying.
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1-09-2009 @ 5:30PM
Kaycee said...
It's also on Netflix Instant Watch until February 3rd.
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1-09-2009 @ 9:12PM
MCW said...
Netflix loves their little "Expiration Dates" don't they? I added it thinking maybe I'd watch it, but then I saw Feb. 3rd and said, no thanks. I don't like being rushed by Netflix to watch my entire instant queue. ARGH.
1-09-2009 @ 5:31PM
whawha said...
Um...so the mother has a multiple personality disorder and her kids don't bat an eyelash? (Except, of course, to trade oh-so-hip dialogue and snark)
Not so good.
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1-11-2009 @ 7:39AM
Tamara said...
whawha - The kids are acting the way they are supposed to, and what is advised by medical practitioners to the families of the sufferers.
1-09-2009 @ 9:46PM
segsig said...
I just want to watch it because Nate Corddry will be showing up.
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1-10-2009 @ 3:34AM
Monkeydog said...
I saw this the other day on On Demand...I wasn't too impressed. It just doesn't grab me the way Californication, Weeds, This American Life, or BS! did.
It's...interesting...though.
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1-10-2009 @ 11:13AM
Justin said...
I'm ready to give this a chance. When I say Juno and first 20 minutes was brimming with annoying chatter and too-hip phrases, I thought I was going to hate it. But the movie settled in to its rhythm and I imagine The United States of Tara will take a few episodes to fall into an enjoyable rhythm as well.
Besides, how many good pilots made people think a show would be awesome and it wasn't (Studio 60--though I enjoyed most of the show anyway) and the opposite holds true. It can take a new show a few episodes to feel its way through.
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1-10-2009 @ 3:29PM
La-Di-Dah said...
I watched it and I loved it. Nice, unique premise. Nice acting. Nice family who'd rather have their screwed up mother than a robot. Funny as well. The dynamic reminded me a little of the riches. I will be keeping my eye on this.
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1-10-2009 @ 3:37PM
La-Di-Dah said...
...and I forgot to mention, better written than my own worst enemy!
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1-28-2009 @ 5:43PM
Susa said...
Apparently Showtime doesn't want to know the REAL facts about DID, and what a person who has DID struggles with on an hourly basis. I feel insulted to have received an obvious "form email letter" in response to my heartfelt email to Showtime. What I saw in the first episode, is that Mr. Spielberg is using "sex, sex, and more sex", to sell a series.
At least with the massive number of anti-Tara emails that Showtime obviously has received from DID sufferers, they have included an "informative" video from Dr. Kluft; however, even in his short documentary, he did not address the magnitude of the horrific childhood sexual abuse that causes Dissociative Identity Disorder. The so called "consultant" that the writer, Diablo Cody is conferring with, had DDNOS, not DID. Apples and oranges... sigh.
Imagine for a moment, if you can: A new Showtime series called, "The Deformed State of Tara" - a COMEDY about a girl who confronts comedic situations in her every day life revolving around her dealing with her inability to climb stairs, her sexual encounters, and her comedic experiences with people staring at her scarred and deformed face and arms. (As a child, her parents had physically abused her so intensely, that her repeatedly broken bones resulted in a leg amputation, and the repeated burns the parents inflicted on her arms and face resulted in grotesque scarring which made her face appear as almost inhuman.)
This scenario is NO DIFFERENT than creating a "COMEDY" about a person who suffers from a disorder caused by repeated, early childhood RAPE AND INCEST. One might say that the results of childhood physical abuse are apparent to outsiders, but the results of childhood sexual abuse resulting in Dissociative Identity Disorder are also readily apparent to others in public. Raping young children is NOT comedic.
Does this life seem like a comedy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JZcEsOQFXc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5DEV6OqPJk
http://www.netmdc.com/~schaeffer/oursurvival.html
.
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