As expected, the focus of Diablo Cody’s new Showtime program, The United States of Tara, is
Toni Collette and her portrayal of the unfortunate housewife living with a
punishing, for all parties involved, case of dissociative identity disorder. The
major focus of the show is granted to Tara’s unforgiving alternate
personalities as they wreak havoc on the lives of the Gregson family. As the
show progresses there are minor interludes to the lives of the other members of
Tara’s clan, however, their side stories are usually diluted with some
disastrous event caused by one, if not many, of the alternate jerks living
within Tara’s head. The supporting characters of this show are often neglected
and seemingly without just cause. Tara’s husband, daughter and son have more
emotional depth than all four of Tara’s personalities put together. With all of
the madness that surrounds and lives within Tara Gregson, the conflicts unsettling
the lives of her family members usually go unresolved. It is clear that Diablo
Cody doesn’t give them much attention but doesn’t anyone care about these luckless
characters?
The first,
and arguably most unfortunate, of the supporting characters is Max, Tara’s
husband who is played by John Corbett. Comparable to the Danny Tanner’s of
family sitcoms, Max is not only good at house chores, but also great at taking
care of a family. Not to mention he is as loyal as he is handsome. It is a
shocker for anyone who is familiar with Diablo Cody’s previous works to think
that she could create such a humble character. Even as his wife practically
dives off the deep end, Max holds it together for his family and remains the
glue that keeps whatever fragments remain of Tara’s mind, in one piece, for the
most part. With all of the noble characteristics that describe Max Gregson, one
would imagine his character grows boring rather quickly. However, Max’s
“good-dog” mannerisms are the hamartia that makes his character so
devastatingly tragic you can’t help but become emotionally invested in his
favor.
Cody jumps
right back into her familiar niche with Tara’s teenage daughter Kate, who is
played by actress Brie Larson. As any fifteen-year-old would be, Kate is
primarily focused on boys, clothes and being a rebel, no surprise there. Filled
with both acceptance and resentment, Kate is very naïve about her mother’s
condition. Out of all of her mother’s alternate personalities, “T” the teenager
that has crashed on the couch that is Tara’s mind, is the one Kate gets along
with most, for obvious reasons. When “T” is out of her shell Kate has an excuse
to misbehave and blame Tara for it in the end. However, when Kate is not
pretending to be a badass with “T”, she is still an awkward little girl that
just needs her mother sometimes, awh. At one point Kate lashes out about her
mothers disorder with “Why can’t
she just be manic-depressive like all the other moms?” Just think of it this
way Kate, at least your mom is original.
Lastly, but in this critic’s opinion most
importantly, we have Tara’s son Marshall played by Keir Gilchrist. Wise
beyond his years and sassy as they come, Marshall too comes off as a cliché
character for Diablo Cody. With a marvelous taste for anything old-fashion and
sepia-colored, Marshall is dripping with that hipster essence that Cody just
loves, cough Juno cough. It soon becomes quite apparent to any
focused viewer that Marshall’s voice of unexpected reason has the other
characters, especially Tara, chanting quiet hymns of inferiority. As
mature as Marshall is, he is still the youngest of the Gregsons and has a long
way to understanding himself and his sexuality. Tactlessly, Tara’s mental
issues once again undermine Marshall’s journey to finding himself. It is not
only frustrating but also disheartening to watch the caricatures of sitcom
archetypes win preference over the substance of good character development.
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