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Diablo Cody’s new Showtime series, United States of Tara, seems oddly suited to her. An ex stripper turned award winning screenwriter of the movie Juno, Cody is no stranger to disguises and transformations.

The script, about a wife and mother with Multiple Personality Disorder who decides to go off her medication, is not content to explore the adventures of its central character. Instead it delves into the many personas we all use to make it through our daily lives.

In a radio interview with Elvis Mitchell, Cody points out that most sitcom characters are painfully consistent, hardly the way people behave in real life. By contrast, she follows Tara’s family members into the varied strands of their lives to find they’ve got their own inconsistencies and shape shifting going on.

Drawn from an idea originated by Steven Spielberg who hand picked Cody for the project, it stars Toni Colette of the Sixth Sense and Little Miss Sunshine.

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