United States of Tara: The First Season

Imagine Sybil as a sitcom mom in a cable TV universe and you have Tara Gregson (Toni Collette), the titular character in this high-concept Showtime series created by Oscar-winning Juno writer Diablo Cody. Tara is happily married to loving husband Max (John Corbett) and has healthy (if rebellious) kids, as well as a career as an artist and decorator. Tara also has multiple personalities (here called dissociative identity disorder or DID), including a sassy and reckless teenager, a homemaker right out of 1950s television, and a beer-drinking, gun-happy truck driver who likes to recall Vietnam experiences he never actually had. In the opener of this 12-episode 2009 debut season, Tara has unwisely gone off her meds, giving the “alters” (shorthand for alternate identities) free reign to appear in times of stress, taking over her life for a few hours or days. Max and the kids are amazingly tolerant of the intruders, who are simply absorbed into the family unit and are protective of the children (and even Tara) in their own inimitable way. Viewers won't mistake United States of Tara for real psychological science, but like many other cable depictions of unconventional households, the show uses distorted perspective and extreme situations to explore familiar issues of parenting, marriage, adolescence, sibling jealousy, and other realities of domestic life. DVD extras include an episode audio commentary, a brief interview with Cody, and promo featurettes. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)