ABC1: 9:30 Wednesday

ABC2: 9:30 Thursday

Has anyone seen this little gem yet? It’s very, very unusual American TV. It’s clever without being precious, the lead actress, Toni Colette, is not pretty in the American actress sense of the word, she doesn't appear to be starving to death and, to cap it all off, she can act!!

The show is based around Tara and her alternate personalities: Buck the (male) redneck, T the teenage skank and Alice, the 50’s style stepford wife. Colette moves between the three characters seamlessly, they’re all richly drawn, with love and humour and leaving no teeth marks on the scenery. Her husband, John Corbett, who has ousted John Cusak in my affections, is endlessly patient, loving, adorable, and totally believable. The teenage children are slightly overshadowed by the skill and deft touch of the more experienced actors, but still beautifully depicted.

I was a little dubious about this show at first, mental illness would not normally be something I would find entertaining as the subject of a comedy show. But the illness itself is handled well, the situations it causes can be funny, but the illness is never trivialised or demeaned.

The paucity of well acted, well written, intelligent and witty television is thrown sharply into relief when you find something that is all these things, in spades.

Take the time to watch this show from the beginning, ABC’s iview is, I believe, still holding most of the episodes online, if not, buy the DVDs. I promise, it’s worth it.

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