The United States of Tara is a new series on Showtime about a wife and mother who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder, or multiple personalities. While I am impressed by the Australian Toni Collette in the lead role doing four different kinds of American accents, there's not much else about this show that impresses me.
John Corbett can be found in the same role he usually plays of the loyal, dorky but lovable sidekick. But here's the twist- he does it with short hair. It must be a huge stretch for him professionally.
The rest of the cast has mildly decent acting skill, but it goes to waste on a bad script. A lot of the lines are forced and the scenes drawn out. In one episode, Marshall, played by Keir Gilchrist, suffers an allergic reaction. John Corbett's character gives his son a shot of epinephrine, and the audience has to suffer through hearing him count slowly to ten before the scene ends. The counting was completely irrelevant to the rest of the show, and did not advance the plot in any way whatsoever; it was filler. He might as well have been counting the seconds until I completely tuned out the rest of this series.
While the subject matter has potential to make a really dramatic, gripping show, it is ruined because the stories go from realistic and intense to comedic clichés, extreme cheese and unrealistic situations. A little versatility is good in a TV program, but this is just indecision. The writers don't know what kind of show they want, so they give it multiple personalities also. Here's some advice: find another job before you go down with this ship.
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