'United States of Tara's' Alexa Junge talks first season

The first "United States of Tara" season wrapped last night -- if you haven't yet seen it, it will re air on Showtime, so set your DVR -- and looking back, I feel pretty good about the show. I wasn't sure at first, but as the episodes progressed I got more and more invested in the characters and their specific drama.

A couple weeks ago, I had the chance to speak with writer-producer Alexa Junge, and ask her how she felt about where the show had come from, where it had gone and where it's going...

Are you happy with the way the season turned out? Did you guys accomplish everything you intended to?
AJ: Yeah, I think we feel really good about it. It's such a journey when you're doing a new show. And [creator] Diablo [Cody] sort of set [the proper tone] in motion, the pilot is this perfect template. But we had to accomplish a lot of stuff too, so it was a tall order. I think part of why it worked out so well is because we're at Showtime, they're not afraid to go anywhere. It can be funny, it can be dark. You're just not dealing with the same constraints as a network situation. Makes my job easier. [Laughs] So that certainly contributed.

How many did Diablo write? Did she start and then you took over?
AJ: No, she did the pilot and the first three. I guess I did four, five and eleven. And then we had a small but mighty writing staff. One team, a part time person, a staff writer and freelance. It was a little bit of a group. Certainly not the size of a normal staff, but I think because Diablo wrote so many, and was so involved, it was a bit of a different animal.

And obviously the network liked what you guys did because they've already picked "Tara" up for another season.
AJ: It was really lovely to know that sooner than later. Of course they did this insane marketing thing, which I'm sure helped too. [Laughs] No diss to all of our hard work, but I've certainly been on shows where you feel like you're calling and saying, please, advertise us! No one knows when we're on and you keep moving [our time slot]! So it helped to have them [give the show such a big marketing push]. And I think the fact that it's downloadable and they air it so many times, all those things contributed [to our success].

When you found out you were getting a second season, had you already finished writing all the episodes?
AJ: Yeah, we had. That's, again, one of the lovely things about cable. We stopped shooting around the end of November, and then I guess it was February when we got the pickup. And that's early for a cable situation. A lot of times, they can go six months to a year before pickup. And I think [a waiting period] is great, because that means there's time to really think about it and get audience and public response. It's just a saner way of going about putting a second season together, because sometimes when you get the immediate pickup and you keep rolling, it's hard to really stop and assess. So for me, it was a great combination of a healthy amount of time and faster they usually do it as well.

If you had known though that a second season was coming for sure, would you have written the season finale differently?
AJ: I think we were just hoping that it would happen, so we weren't closing things off. We were just keeping our fingers crossed.

We started the season meeting three alters pretty early on. Now we have a fourth. Are we going to learn more about this fourth alter going forward?
AJ: Yeah, absolutely. Certainly over time. That's one of the amazing parts of the premise, and it's true to actual DID cases that people can have personalities that were with them for a couple of years and then basically move out, or ones they never knew they had. It's a treasure trove from the writing perspective in that regard. And also because each alter serves a function in the system and in her system. The more you get to know about her, the more I think you start to understand how they're all helping.

Yeah, I really loved the episode where Tara's first therapist explained to Max that Alice came out and created a baby in her head as a response to learning about the fourth alter. The realization of this animalistic alter was so traumatic that she morphed into her most proper female self as a way to protect her marriage. It was such an insight into the character. Do you have a favorite alter to write for, though?
AJ: I can never quite figure out how to answer that, it changes daily. And it's a corny analogy, but it is like your kids, they all have their... [Laughs] I think because they're evolving and we're trying to keep them moving and changing and widening and deepening, they sort of shift before our eyes. You know, we made a conscious effort to give Alice some interesting agendas for the season. And I think T had some great stuff. So it kind of depends on the week, I'm afraid.

Do you feel the same way about the actual kids on the show? Because apart from the main theme, they have their own storylines going on that I find just as interesting. I'm just as wrapped up in Kate and Gene, and Marshall and Jason.
AJ: Well, that's good. That's certainly part of the thing about an ensemble. Certainly Toni is the center of all things, but we want them to have their own lives too. There are a lot of ways the kids are trying to find their identity, just the way [Tara] is. We can usually manage to bring it back to being a family show that is also about identity, as opposed to the happy family show. It's the difficult family show.

Can you say anything about what's going on with the kids' storyline? Nate Corddry's character Gene has kind of lost it.
AJ: Right. He's a mixed bag, and he's such a good actor and we were so lucky to have him. I think that character became more important to us and more of a dimensional character than we originally anticipated. I think you can understand why at first he would be cool to Kate and [represent] a way to get out. When you're in high school, any dude with a car is better than the guys [you're seeing every day]. But at the same time, he's got his own [problems].

Do you think you will have him back for season two?
AJ: Yeah, I hope so! We would love to. Honestly, we wanted to see where we were and have some time to look at the whole season and think about where it was going, but he's so special and feels like such an important part of the show that I think we'll certainly try and keep him in her life.

And what about Marshall and Jason?
AJ: Yeah, that's going to evolve as well. I mean, we tried to bring everything to some kind of interesting place by the end of the season, but that one is going to keep moving and changing too. That one's really nice. I know Diablo has strong feelings about wanting Marshall to be the kind of kid who sort of is who he is, and we're not making a big deal about that in and of itself. He's figuring out his situation and stuff. That's a good one.

And what about Charmaine, she's sort of morphed throughout the season, from someone who didn't seem trustworthy to someone the family really relies on. I mean, can we trust her?
AJ: Yeah. I think she's many things. And part of it is that sisters have really heavy issues, no matter what. And because these two have always been forced to be together and Tara has always had this situation going on, I think it's that thing where it pulls you together and it pushes you apart. So she definitely has her own feelings about it, but I think also, we wanted to have someone in the mix who could be the voice of the skeptical viewer who thinks, come on, this is a little ridiculous. And so some of her, I don't know if it's specifically untrustworthiness, but just her persistent skepticism and stuff is an important part of the character and their dynamic. I think we're interested in the idea that siblings can grow up in the same family and [have] such different experiences of it. For her, [a lot of Tara's illness] is for show. I think what she said in [episode] 4, how she gets how bad things happen, but this seems a little over the top [is representative of her character].

Yeah, I wonder sometimes, does she really feel that way or is that her sort of jealousy talking?
AJ: I think both are true. I think that's absolutely right. And I know that she likes to be the center of attention and she resents that Tara is always taking up so much space, so a lot of her stuff is certainly about that. I think that's a really good point. She probably sometimes uses her skepticism to play out whatever jealousy she has.

Looking forward, have you guys thought about introducing additional alters? Are there new personalities to meet?
AJ: I think because we were so conscious of the fact that we didn't want this concept to be done in a schticky way or a sketchy way, and because the rules of DID are so complicated -- which alter knows what about which other alter and so on -- we kind of felt we really wanted to get to know [the alters we already have] and get people invested in them before we started really taking off from there. I think we are just hoping people feel [as strongly] about [the alters] as they would an actual other character. I know that was behind Diablo's idea for [episode] 7, she wanted the sister to go through a transformation about how she thinks of the alters, so maybe the viewer would have the same feeling. So, I mean, [introducing more alters] is tempting, my God it's so tempting. Think about all the possibilities. And Toni can do anything. But I think we'll get there eventually.

So, how did you feel about "Tara"'s season finale? Pleased? Disappointed? Somewhere in between?

Note: Alexa Junge has since left the show and will not be returning for season two.

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