Tara: likable though not really credible

"The United States of Tara" is another series, now in its third season, that thrives within the Showtime formula: a story about a seemingly ordinary family that in fact lives with and undergoes some kind of extraordinary experience, the series held together and built largely upon the skills and popularity of a lead actress. In this case, Toni Collette (Tara) is a mom in a family of four in suburban middle-class Kansas and all's pretty much normal in the fam - dad (John Corbett) a mildly successful landscaper, kids are all right with the usual angst, daughter wants to move away (to Japan) to discover herself, son has come out as gay and wants to make films or videos, Tara herself going back to college for degree she never got - but Tara suffers from DID (multiple personalities). That's the hook - and though the rapid changes of personality are never quite believable they do afford an opportunity for Collette to show her acting chops. Who doesn't like Toni Collette? She makes Tara worth watching, even if it had nothing else. Other than the highly likable cast, it doesn't have a lot else going for it, unfortunately. It's treatment of Tara's illness is completely noncredible - she just kind of flips out in public from time to time and the family just sweetly obliges her and nobody in the town seems to care, particularly. The causes, cures, treatments are not dealt with seriously - DID is just a springboard from which the series can jump. Some might find the writing good, and I agree - if you can accept that everyone in an entire extended family talks pretty much like an edgy 40ish screenwriter, i.e., like multiple versions of June (thank you, Diablo Codey) - and I have to say the producer/director's idea of what a Kansas middle-class family household and milieu looks like is ridiculous - in Tara everyone seems to be living within a Pottery Barn catalog.