Ever since last spring, I have been holding my breath for the latest season of United States of Tara. (Not literally, of course.) I’m not a big TV fan in the least; in fact, most days I don’t watch any television, and if I do, it’s either a nature program with my daughter or an episode of Law and Order: SVU (which I got hooked on while in the hospital, actually) that I recorded on DVR. Now and then I catch an episode of South Park, but that’s pretty much it.

Tara, however, is something I dug my claws right into. Not only is it written by one of my favorite writers, Diablo Cody; it also stars one of my all-time favorite actresses, the extremely talented Toni Collette. (Of course, hottie John Corbett doesn’t hurt the show, either.) Coupled with the original premise of several personalities all featured on the show (complete with their own clothing, personalities, and storylines), the feminist and progressive attitudes taken by the show’s family, and the overall creativity that ensues, I’m hooked. Completely.

So you can imagine how excited I was to watch episode one of season two last week, and boy was it ever good, for the most part. It always is. A single half-hour episode is always too short (most fans I’ve encountered complain of the same thing), and always leaves us hanging desperately for more. This season, we’ve already met some cool new characters, seen a new side of Kate, and watched a bit more of Tara as Tara than we’ve seen in the past. (Isn’t she incredibly goofy, sweet, and as imperfect as you could ever want such an endearing character to be?)

But there was one thing that really bothered me in the episode—and given that I’ve not been bothered by much of anything Cody’s ever written (I’m even a fan of Jennifer’s Body, though I’m fully aware of it’s Razzi-ness!), it surprised me.

Tara’s neighbor committed suicide in the episode, and given her own history of mental illness—and her family’s various issues, not to mention her intelligence—I would have expected her to handle the situation with a little more gravity. (We actually do see her get more serious, almost scarily so, when meandering through the dead man’s home later.) But as the EMTs are hauling his body from his home, she cracks jokes about him and about how she wasn’t the most messed up person on the block after all.

Come on, Ms. Cody and company—don’t you think that suicide is a bit more of a sensitive issue than that? I happen to love your dark humor and your irreverent touch; it’s probably what attracts me to your work the most. But this isn’t either of those things. Making light of someone’s death and problems like this—especially after Tara sought understanding and was judged by her own community over and over again in the last season—is simply disrespectful and, I think, goes against the entire idea of the show. Raising awareness and garnering understanding about one issue is good, but doing so about another is a joke?

Having had a family member, friends, and several acquaintances either attempt or commit suicide, I know firsthand that it’s not even the slightest bit funny. I don’t know why the writers chose to use such snappy dialogue in the scene—perhaps to ease the tension?—but it came off as completely unnecessary and perhaps harmful. I would expect Tara to treat those who suffer from mental illness and other problems the way she’d like to be treated, and while that might include pithy lines after her death depending on its circumstances, I don’t think it would include making suicide a laughing matter.