ゴロミの部屋第9回：Goromi no Heya: The United States of Tara

January 13, 2009 by Goromi

So I usually try to write about Japanese entertainment but occasionally, I actually do watch American TV as well. After I got home today from working at the bucks and running some errands, I got in my PJs and decided to go through my On Demand options on Comcast. I kept seeing a promo for a new show on Showtime called “The United States of Tara” and honestly, it didn’t interest me at all at first. But, I was bored today so I decided to check it out and I surprisingly really enjoyed it.

A quick summary: it’s a show about a housewife that has multiple personalities. Despite this fact, she lives pretty happily with her two teenage kids and her husband. Honestly, it’s sweet and cute. The humor is dark and I love dark humor. Diablo Cody, who is famous for the movie Juno, is the writer and the executive producer is Steven Spielberg. Only the first episode is available for viewing right now because the premiere is actually on January 18th, 2009 but you can watch the first episode on Showtime’s website or On Demand.
The dialogue is witty and the cast is awesome. Toni Collette does a fabulous job playing all four personalities. Tara is the “normal” personality… pretty much that’s who the wife and mother is. However, when she gets stressed out or when she goes through particular emotions, she changes into her other personalities. The first episode showed two other personalities: T and Buck. T is a 15 year old girl (who seems to love getting high and showing off her boobs and behind) and then Buck is a middle aged, red neck man who loves beer, shooting and bowling. There’s also Alice who is like a housewife from the 1950’s… at least that’s what I gather from the previews.

The husband is played by John Corbett and so far is a model husband. The two teenage kids: Kate (Brie Larson) and Marshall (Keir Gilchrist) are pretty much the opposite of each other. Kate is obsessed with boys (very weird… boys) and… actually Marshall might be as well. Kate’s boyfriend is one of the most amusing sights I’ve ever seen… probably because I’ve seen a lot of kids like him. Kate’s boyfriend was driving a horribly overdone Tokyo Drift car, was wearing mascara and eyeliner, wearing Hot topic bondage clothes, listening to some Asian techno, and then spouted out random Japanese… horrible Japanese and oh, he has pigtails and buns in his hair that he calls Samurai knots. How horrible is his Japanese? “You’re looking very kwai (I’m guessing he was trying to say Kawaii) tonight, Katie-chan.” *twitches* That totally hit too close to home… after spending a few years at anime conventions… bah. Thankfully, I don’t think Kate keeps him around too much longer than the first episode. Marshall loves baking, jazz, dresses properly and is very cute and sweet. In a weird way, he reminds me of a younger Nakamaru Yuuichi from KAT-TUN (If Nakamaru was Caucasian). The way he looks, his mannerisms, and his clothes seriously remind me of him…

I don’t want to give too much away but honestly, the show is super fun. I think I’m becoming a big fan of Diablo Cody. I love her writing style and hopefully one day I can make it as a writer too. If you have free time, I highly recommend checking out the first episode. It’s available on the link below as well as more show information. With that… I think it’s nap time.

http://www.sho.com/site/tara/home.do

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