IF you think nothing screams “Fun, baby, fun!” like family-destroying illnesses, have I got a series for you.
On Sunday, Showtime premieres “United States of Tara,” a “dramedy” about the wacky and fun world of a woman’s dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personalities, as it used to be known), and the impact, or lack thereof, on her family.
But not to worry, Tara (Toni Collette), her alternate personalities and her whole nuclear family aren’t broken by it. In fact, we know that they are all having fun through their tears because, for one thing, they only speak in bon mots – the way some families speak a second language.
Inside of Tara lives 1.) T, who is a filthy-mouthed, thong-showing teen; 2.) Buck, a redneck guy who “is always up for a good fight at a titty bar;” and 3.) Alice, a 1950s-type housewife.
The wardrobe alone should break a family’s budget, but luckily for Tara/T/Alice/Buck, they not only have enough money but, more important, closets and hair products aplenty.
Tara’s happily suffering family includes her saint of a husband, Max (John Corbett), who won’t sleep with any of her other personalities, her teen daughter Brie (Kate Larson) and her bed-wetting teen son, Marshall (Keir Gilchrist).
They all spend a huge amount of time throwing around the “F” word and talking about sex.
And because of all of the above, the series from Academy Award-winning “Juno” screenwriter Diablo Cody and Steven Spielberg smacks of smugness and self-congratulatory cleverness. This, not to mention the fact that ex-stripper Cody, who conceived this series, must have serious issues of her own.
For one thing, every time Brie has a sexual encounter of some kind, it sends Tara spiraling into another personality.
Dissociative disorder? More like Cody’s Freudian slip is showing!
The “Juno”- type dialogue, which worked like crazy in the movie, doesn’t work at all here. For one thing, there’s nobody who seems real.
Take this line from Marshall to his English teacher: “I’m not an expert or anything, but I think I know my literary boners.” Oy.
Or from Alice to the PTA ladies: “I was going to make a cake for the cake sale for the cleft palette kids of Brazil!”
Problem is this dramedy is neither funny nor sad.
What next? Fun with diabetes?
“United States of Tara” Sunday night at 10 on Showtime