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Salty · Jul 14, 2011, 01:00 AM

Hey all, I know lots of people on here are always looking for good TV. So I thought I'd mention this show, just got cancelled this year. (which is a shame!) I had heard about it but based on a graphic I saw, I thought it was some lame assed family drama or something. Turns out it's about a woman struggling with DID/MPD, and a whole cast of psychologically interesting characters. If you enjoy well rounded characters this is a show for you.

Sadly the ratings dropped significantly in the third season, which is lame because having watched it end to end, I enjoyed the whole thing ... well aside from Marshall's boyfriend in season 2 and 3 who's a total gay stereotype, which he was supposed to be ... but the character got old.

Having had a friend with MPD, and having studied it in college, I can safely say that this show is probably the closest display of it with any level of accuracy you'll find ... obviously it's sensationalized a little bit, TV's always more interesting than real life ... still though, awesome show. If you liked Season 1 of Nurse Jackie, you should like this. (Still mad that they got rid of Momo.)

subego · Jul 14, 2011, 03:27 AM

A good show which is worth watching, though it was definitely losing it's way.

You're not the first person I've heard mention its accurate portrayal.

Buck was awesome.

SpaceMonkey · Jul 14, 2011, 02:07 PM

The accuracy issue is interesting. I've always heard that MPD/DID is so rare (although disproportionately diagnosed in the United States/Canada) that there is a lot of controversy about whether or not it should be diagnosis.

subego · Jul 14, 2011, 02:23 PM

The show has the advantage of being able to make it unambiguous as to whether that's the correct diagnosis. Tara's... let's say she's both really messed up, and not messed up.

OTOH, when they started to get into the why's of her disorder, that's when I started to have my doubts if they were taking the show in the right direction. That last part's an uninformed opinion from a medical standpoint, I could be way off.

I didn't think they knew where to take the show dramatically either, which is, of course, a vastly informed opinion.

OAW · Jul 14, 2011, 05:04 PM

The United States of Tara is really good TV. Such a great balance between comedy and drama. The lady that plays the lead character (I don't recall her name offhand) is one helluva actor. For some reason I haven't kept up with the latest season. Got so many good shows recording on the DVR that I just haven't gotten around to it. The wife and I will probably do a marathon one weekend and watch them all to see how everything panned out since the series got canceled.

Buck was by far my favorite persona. I loved when s/he was teaching the son Marshall how to bowl and said ....

Originally Posted by Buck

I'm gonna show you how to make this ball your b*tch!

OAW

subego · Jul 14, 2011, 05:45 PM

Toni Collette.

Also the mom in Little Miss Sunshine (which is likewise, very good).

RobOnTheCape · Jul 14, 2011, 08:59 PM

Agreed that it's a very good show - sorry it got cancelled. At least there's still Nurse Jackie/Dexter/and Shameless for me. Breaking Bad too.

Salty · Jul 14, 2011, 11:05 PM

As for the accuracy of the root the show got it pretty well. It needs to be an intense trauma before the point where the human mind develops to be able to cope with such things. In this case, it was a childhood molestation.

In the first season Tara thinks that it was a rape in high school, but that would have been too late in development to cause MPD. That's not actually what they finally said was her root though, based on all the research out there it seems that early childhood trauma, often involving molestation tends to be the root.

I had a friend with MPD who has since moved away, and had a falling out with me, and it's really interesting to know that many of the things that they did on the show were pretty well exactly like what he experiences. Things like co-consiousness, different alters having various access to levels of memory and keeping secrets from one another. At one point Alice mentioned that she keeps both T and Buck in check inside the head, my friend had a personality like that who he named Roslyn after the prez in BSG.

The only inaccuracies that frustrated me were the fact that there were so few alters. (Yes, 8 personalities is low) 8 Would have been acceptable if Tara was male, there should have been at least 20ish to make it accurate for a woman. Even if several of those were simply alluded to and never fronted.

I think the reason that MPD is diagnosed more in North America is simply because we're more open to new diagnoses than other parts of the world. Or perhaps because we have fewer checks and balances to protect children from pedophiles. Heck, simply the fact that everyone's crammed tighter together in other parts of the world might help. Also Asia is heavily shame based so I could see an MPD person never telling anyone.