"United States of Tara" casting several new queer characters, none played by Toni Collette

Diablo Cody's original series, United States of Tara, was one of my break-out favorites of last year. Toni Colette (love her!) stars as Tara Gregson, a wife and mother of two who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The show centers around Tara and her family dealing with the multiple personalities taking over her body — usually at the most inopportune time.

The best part of having a show whose main character suffers from having multiple personalities, is that there are endless ways to make that character’s characters do almost anything. Her main alters consist of, Alice, who is pretty much a '50s housewife complete with dress, apron and crock pot in the oven:

Buck, a gun-shooting, beer drinking, porn watching dude who sometimes does some male bonding with Tara’s husband, Max:

And last, but certainly not least, is T, the pot-smoking, slutty, whale-tail wearing teenager who is well past her prime to buy booze for the neighborhood kids.

Last season, Tara’s personalities got into a fight with her daughter’s boyfriend, tried to seduce her husband (which you’d think would be OK), damages property in her sister’s boss’s house, got a tattoo, peed on her parents as they slept on the pull-out couch and hooked up with her son’s crush — a boy he had made out with the previous night. I mean, it can’t get much better than that, right?

This season, it appears as though Tara’s alter, Buck, will be breaking some hearts. Showtime is currently casting the role of Pammy, who is described as:

In her mid 30s, working in a local bar in Overland Park, Kansas, Pammy is feminine, vulnerable, a little tired, and feels as if her best days are behind her. Funny and warm, she has a history of picking the wrong men, so when Buck (Tara’s male alter-ego) shows up and pays her attention, Pammy falls head over heels in love.

The role is recurring, which should present an interesting dynamic in the already screwed up Gregson household.

Showtime is also casting for several gay male guest roles in episode 2.1, and a “Dykey girl, 16, this openly gay student sits at ‘the gayble,’ the table in the lunch room where the gay students congregate. 1 LINE CO-STAR. OPEN TO ALL ETHNICITIES."

The weird thing is, if you look at the rest of the casting — the characters all have names. This one just gets “Dykey girl”. I’m not saying anyone should get upset about it, just that anyone could really play a dykey girl. I wonder what the one line is that she’ll get to say — maybe “Vaginas rule!” or something about being vegetarian/having steel-toed boots/loving k.d. lang — oh the list goes on. Anyone want to place bets?

I, for one, am really excited for the new season to begin. Tara and her personalities are great but the supporting cast really makes this show so fantastic. Will you be tuning in?