Featured TV on DVD Review: United States of Tara: Season Three

July 28, 2011

United States of Tara: Season Three - Buy from Amazon

When the first season of United States of Tara came out, I thought it had potential, but the alters felt gimmicky and that hurt. Season two fixed some problems, but the addition of two other alters left the show on very thin ice in my mind. Was it able to turn things around season three?

The Show

I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news. The good news is Eddie Izzard joins the cast as Dr. Hattarras, Tara's psychology professor. In the first episode, Tara decides to go back to school and get her diploma, as she's just a few courses short of graduating. However, she's also had issues with Buck, one of her alters, running off and her not remembering what happened. (We learn right away that Buck has been looking for Bryce, Tara's half-brother, whom we learned about at the end of last season.) Because of this, Max doesn't think it's a good idea. He may be right, as Shoshana shows up in her abnormal psychology class. Dr. Hattarras doesn't react as poorly as one would expect. In fact, he's rather intrigued, especially since he doesn't accept Dissociative identity disorder as a real condition. That changes and he tries to help Tara, while getting an academic paper out of it.

There are other major storylines in this season, but that's the biggest and the best. Max has to sell his business to his biggest competitor, which puts Neil out of work. Neil and Charmaine have their kid, and the events that lead up to that force Charmaine to ban Tara from seeing her newborn niece. Kate is still Kate, that is to say, she's still trying to find her footing as an adult. Finally, Marshall gets into a love triangle, which is more complicated than most.

For the most part, the season moves along well... until Bryce shows up. Warning, major spoiler... I don't mean Bryce, Tara's half-brother, but Bryce, Tara's new alter. And that's it, I'm done. You can't keep doing the same thing and expect it to be shocking the fourth time it's happened in three seasons. The only thing good about this turn of events, is that it led to a guest appearance by Robert Picardo, who is excellent in nearly everything I've seen him in. The show was already on thin ice, and this was too much to take.

The Extras

The only extras are some text-based bios and an image gallery.

The Verdict

United States of Tara was canceled at the end of Season Three, and I can see why. It really feels like the writers didn't know how to move the main story along. Character interactions were fine, and the acting was uniformly great, but what set it apart had now become an anchor for the show. And with no extras on the two-disc set, it's really hard to recommend, unless you are pining for a fourth season that will never come.


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