I Pledge Allegiance To The United States Of Tara

In general theory, the title character for Showtime's new black comedy United States of Tara (which premieres at 10 p.m. Sunday) reminds me a little bit of Nancy Botwin from Weeds.

They're both suburban moms with seemingly ordinary lives – and they both have more to them than meets the eye. Tara (Toni Collette) has dissociative identity disorder, better known as multiple personalities; and Nancy, of course, is a widow who started selling weed to support her family.

And at first, both situations are portrayed as kind of quaint. Oh, look at Nancy try to sell a baggie of weed at the college – tee hee! Oh look, someone that looks a lot like mom just dropped the c-word and made vulgar hand gestures at the dinner table – how funny!

Well, the wheels have fallen off Nancy's seemingly innocent ride over the seasons, and we expect to see more tangible effects of Tara's condition as well. But the season premiere of Tara is nothing like the typical dark, depressing portrayals of multiple personalities (Sybil comes to mind). It's fairly lighthearted, funny and incredibly endearing. And let's face it, with Academy Award winning creator Diablo Cody (Juno) and executive producer Steven Spielberg at the helm, it's destined for greatness.

In the first installment of the show, we meet two of Tara's alter egos, which present themselves when Tara is faced with stressful situations that, for some reason, she can't handle herself.

T is a foul-mouthed, weed smokin', sexually charged teenager who wears black nail polish, has a MySpace page and doesn't care that lingerie are meant to be worn underneath clothes.

Buck is a male, gun-toting, redneck bigot with a preference for trucker hats, ratty jeans and porn. A Vietnam vet, Buck has a tendency toward violence and is easily provoked.

A third personality – Alice, a prudish, 1960s-era homemaker – appears in later episodes.

I can't imagine another actress pulling this off quite like Collette, who seamlessly brings each distinct personality to life. Four different actresses couldn't do it better; she is simply brilliant in this multi-faceted role.

But of course, Tara's constant changes do shake things up for her husband, Max (John Corbett), and teenage kids, Kate (Brie Larson) and Marshall (Keir Gilchrist). Think about it: Most teenagers are pretty much embarrassed by anything their parents do, so having the added pressure of Buck showing up at your ballet recital or Alice at a meeting with your teacher would definitely raise the angst level.

"Why can't mom just be manic depressive like all the other moms?," Kate laments in the first episode.

Still, the family unit here is strong – Tara included, when she's around – and all of them handle the changes with grace and sympathy. Max and Tara have been married 17 years, and he's able to keep things "normal" as different personalities show up for different occasions. Max's warm personality and obvious adoration for his wife are obvious, even early on.

The one sticking point is Tara's sister, Charmaine (Rosemarie DeWitt), who pooh-poohs the idea that Tara has a disease. Instead, Charmaine implies that she's making it up.

But if Charmaine were around when Buck was dispensing this, er, wise advice to Kate ("You don't want to go makin' no babies until you're 16 and can support ‘em"), she might be more willing to believe.

Showtime has another hit on its hands with Tara, and I'm certainly looking forward to getting to know her (and T, Buck and Alice) a lot better.