"United States of Tara" Takes Marshall Cruising in the Park in Provocative Episode

Warning: This review contains spoilers for the "Open House" episode of United States of Tara.

I confess I've found the second season of United States of Tara to be something of a very mixed bag. I thought that way about the first season too — too much whiny angst from Kate, too much off-the-charts self-centeredness and negativity from Charmaine, and not enough forward momentum on the whole "why does Tara have disassociative disorder" storyline.

But there was still the always-fascinating Toni Collette and, of course, Marshall's terrific "gay teen" storyline.

This year, Marshall's storyline has been a mixed bag too. 

I loved how the season started with Marshall's conflict with "in-your-face" gay teen Lionel and his attempt at opposite-sex romance with Courtney (even if the affair went on an episode or two too long, and veered dangerously close to Fatal Attraction's boiled rabbit).

But then the terrific Marshall-Lionel conflict, which I thought was going to be a driving point all season long, was weirdly resolved off-camera and they were suddenly best buddies. In the course of two episodes, Marshall's storyline has swerved from his trying not to be gay (with Courtney) to his trying to figure out how to be the best gay he can be (with Lionel).

Yes, I get it: he's 16, a famously mercurial age. But mostly I'm thinking this is just poorly plotted writing. Anyway, I definitely have viewer-whiplash. These abrupt turns are even more jarring considering that Marshall usually only has two or three scenes per episode.

In "Open House," last night's episode, Lionel takes Marshall cruising in a park for sex — one of Lionel's "gay lessons."

On one hand, I applaud the show for being willing to "go there" — somewhere politically incorrect, I mean.

That said, two gay teen friends cruising in the park didn't make a lot of sense to me either: if Marshall and Lionel are curious about sex — and few sixteen-year-olds aren't — wouldn't they be far more likely to experiment with each other, if only in a kind of friends-with-benefits way, than go cruising together in a park?

And if that's not the direction, show creator Diablo Cody wanted to go, wouldn't they do some kind of internet hook-up? Lionel is supposedly a character that defines himself entirely by his very "gay" sexuality. But when it comes to hooking up for gay sex in 2010, wouldn't that involve the internet (or a mobile device, using an app like Grindr)?

I know some men do still meet in public places like parks for sex, but I was under the impression these were mostly married or deeply closeted men — that this is sort of an anachronism from a very distant age.

I was also under the impression that people like this did it at night. Not in broad daylight, fifteen feet from people having picnics.

Next Page! Just when I'm ready to give up on the show, they offer a fantastic scene!