Review – United States of Tara, Season 3, Ep 2 "Crackerjack"

Air Date: Monday, April 4, 2011 10:30PM E/P on Showtime

Grade ★★★★★

Tara (Toni Collette) hasn’t told her Abnormal Psychology professor, Dr. Hattaras (guest star Eddie Izzard) she has D.I.D but he finds out in a most abrupt way. When he walks into class, he finds Shoshana teaching the day’s lecture. I love the writing on this show! What I love even more is Collette’s seamless transformations into each of her alters. Dr. Hattaras doesn’t believe in D.I.D. and uses Tara’s incident to make an example of her in front of the class. Not cool, prof, but I love having Izzard on the show! He’s brilliant, funny, and everything sounds better with a British accent, doesn’t it?

Shoshana to the class: “You will be stimulated.”

In last week’s premiere, the ending frightened me. Tara has another dark alter lurking just beneath the surface and perhaps Max’s (John Corbett) fear about his wife’s past brush with suicide will come to fruition with the added stress of Tara going back to school.

Review – United States of Tara, Season 3, Ep 2 "Crackerjack" 1

Eddie Izzard as Dr. Hattaras

Ted (Michael Hitchcock) is quite entertaining in “Crackerjack.” He accompanies Tara to her first day at school and when a young, hard-bodied male student runs across their path, he says something that still has me laughing.

Ted: “Working here is like getting invited to a big buffet and being told I can do anything I want with the food as long as I don’t put it in my mouth.”

Review – United States of Tara, Season 3, Ep 2 "Crackerjack" 2

Toni Collette as Tara and Michael Hitchcock as Ted Mayo

Being a young gay teen in a small town isn’t easy. It’s great the show highlights the ongoing predetermined notions of how some people view gays in an artistic class. Take for example Marshall’s (Keir Gilchrist) teacher, Mr. Kern (Dan Bakkedhal). He’s “randomly” paired the class into groups of four but it seems all the gay kids are in one group, save the kid in the halo brace. When Mr. Kern tells them he’s looking forward to something great from Marshall’s group, he will most certainly get it. The short film Marshall, Lionel (Michael Willett), and Noah (Aaron Christian Howles) put together is awesome – complete with a head-crushing ending.

One of my favorite characters, the aimless and adorable Kate (Brie Larson), is ready to leave the nest. Especially after witnessing her Aunt Charmaine (Rosemarie DeWitt) and her boyfriend/baby daddy Neil (Patton Oswalt) having sex on the piano. My eyes are still adjusting to get the image of Oswalt’s rear end out of my brain! Haha.

Kate wants to move to Japan to teach English—another bright idea that will most likely end unsuccessfully. It’s not because I don’t believe she can do it; it’s because it’s Kate – that’s just how she is. She is a young, vivacious woman still coming into her own, trying to find out what she wants from life. I love her nonetheless; however, I don’t like how she twists her mother’s illness to gain sympathy for needing $800 to buy her plane ticket. I do love the relationship Kate and Marshall have. It’s nice to see healthy sibling relationships as they both are opposites of each other and lean on one another for support.

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Keir Gilchrist as Marshall and Brie Larson as Kate

I’m curious about Max’s mother. He has to sell the family-owned company his father started but needs his mother’s signature. He hasn’t seen her in over two years. Of course, selling the company means Neil will be out of a job and with the baby on the way, tensions flare between these two best friends. I’m worried about Max. After being your own boss for so long, going to work for someone else won’t be easy and with the additional stress of Tara transitioning due to stress at school, this season of United States of Tara will be quite interesting.

Tune into United States of Tara, Mondays at 10:30pm E/P only on Showtime.

For more on the show, visit http://www.sho.com/site/tara/home.sho

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Judy Manning

Dream chaser extraordinaire! Judy tends to be a tad sarcastic and kind of goofy! She is an avid admirer of all things supernatural, paranormal, celestial and mystical. She loves to read, write, and watches way too much TV. She enjoys many genres of film and music (and let's be honest, most music from the 80s). She also has a wicked sweet tooth. Cupcakes beware.