# United States of Tara (2009)

> A suburban mother with dissociative identity disorder shares her life with her alter personalities, and her family fights to keep her whole.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/6607

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 36
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy, drama
- Created by: Diablo Cody
- Network: Showtime
- Cast: Toni Collette, John Corbett, Rosemarie DeWitt, Keir Gilchrist, Brie Larson, Stephanie Courtney, Viola Davis, Michael Hitchcock
- TMDB rating: 8.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001482/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: sardonic, warm, bittersweet, darkly funny, tender

## What critics say

Audiences broadly rate the series positively, praising Toni Collette's multi-character performance and its warm, unusual take on dissociative identity disorder within a family.

## Synopsis

United States of Tara (2009-2011) is an American Showtime dramedy created by Diablo Cody. Toni Collette plays Tara Gregson, a suburban mother whose dissociative identity disorder brings out alternate personalities: the wild teenager T, the rough biker Buck, and the controlling homemaker Alice. Her husband Max (John Corbett) and teenage son Marshall (Keir Gilchrist) try to keep ordinary family life together, while her sister Charmaine (Rosemarie DeWitt) and daughter Kate (Brie Larson) feel the strain of each switch. Each half-hour episode builds its engine from everyday frictions: school pressure, marriage strain, and the small public embarrassments that come when a personality surfaces at the wrong moment. Across three seasons of twelve episodes each, the series keeps returning to one question, whether Tara can ever simply be herself. The tone is warm and sardonic, with sharp comic timing sitting beside real sorrow about mental illness and family loyalty. Its suburban, domestic setting and frank treatment of trauma place it in the company of Weeds and Dead Like Me for viewers who like dark family comedy with emotional weight.

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