The United States of Tara ends

We feel like we have really wasted our lives with this show. Maybe the writers didn’t know that it was going to be cancelled in season three, but with their numbers, they had to know that it was a possibility. They couldn’t film an ending scene or two to use for closure’s sake? And just use an alternate ending in the event that there was a season four?

The series finale ended just before the series would have gotten interesting. Why? Because Kate is settled down with a boyfriend who loves her, Marshall is just going to finish school and film stuff, and, best of all, Charmaine is marrying Neil and possibly moving to Texas. It would be a lot harder for the show to waste our lives with these characters.

Tara headed off to Boston with her husband to see a really good specialist. This is where we would have started loving this show like we did in season one. We want to see that therapy. We want to see her get better, merge the alters, eliminate some alters, get some new ones, and bum around with other mentally ill people. But alas. That would have been a lot harder to write. They might have had to pick up a psych book or two to get some material.

Season two was uneven and boring. We would recommend only season one, but there is even less closure there. With the way this show ended and the lackluster episodes that did not focus on Tara, we wouldn’t recommend this show to any newcomers renting DVDs. Toni Collette acted well in it and it was a great concept, but, in the end, this is just a bunch of wasted opportunity.

While the ending we were given was hopeful, ambiguous, and realistic, this isn't the sort of show that we wanted to end on uncertainty. We are left to imagine a real ending ourselves. Tara kills herself? Tara leaves Max and the family to live her own life and stop bothering them? Tara’s evil alter kills Charmaine and does us all a favor? Tara gets better? Tara gets rid of all of the alters except Alice, because she cleans? Buck takes over the body and goes back to that very confused woman in the bar? We will never know. And we’ve stopped caring.

Season one grade: A-
Season two grade: D+
Season three grade: C+