Tales Of The City (Mini-Series)

Tales of the city, More Tales, Further Tales.. these three series along with Queer as Folk were some of the very original series that were an introduction for me to the whole world of queer content available on cds and TV. As an individual who came out late in life, I was quite fascinated and in awe of these shows and what they represented of this community. They were very helpful in making things normal for me and help me deal with all internal struggles that Iw as going through. Naturally when I saw this Netflix limited series coming out which will take some of these characters forward, I had mixed feelings. I was scared of my memories being impacted. What if, I didn't like it, or what if the characters didn't end up the way I wanted them to, and others and this was precisely the reason I delayed watching this show for almost two years. Finally I got through watching it last week and it has taken me some time to gather my thoughts.

But to present time and we are back in Barbary Lane. Matriarch Anna Madrigal is turning 90 and her inlays retentive daughter Mary Ann is visiting SF after a long time to celebrate this along with a whole new set of people who now live in this housing and nearby. We see a a previously lesbian and now queer couple are negotiating their way through one person’s transition with too much telling, not showing; we have a twin sibling (are they queer? Is never addressed) or are trying their social media influences to make a difference to the society, Michael 'Mouse' from the original show is still very much here with a younger boyfriend Ben, with whom he occasionally gets onto clashes about ideology and changed times etc and finally and most importantly we have Shawna, Mary Ann's adopted daughter, some she abandoned many years back and left SF for the sake of her career and who has single handedly been raised by her single father Brian, another character from the original. All of these people have back stories an everyone gets ample time to explore. We also have a wanna be documentary film maker whom Shawna gets attracted to. The leads are still very much Anna, Brian, Mouse and Shawna in this case.

First thing when you watch this show is is not get into doing any actual calculation of the time line. It won't make sense at all. So just assume what you are being shown is fine and done bother how come Mary Anne and Mouse have aged so slow. It Tok me a few days to watch this 10 episode series , each of almost an hour length. Fort 3-4 episodes are so all over the place. A whole bunch, in fact all of these new characters are thrown in your face in very first 15 minutes of us starting the series, which confused the hell out of me. All I kept thinking was the makers are trying to capture the entire spectrum of LGBTQIA+ alphabet soup, which on paper sounds good, but ended up consuming at least me a lot until about fifth episode when I got more comfortable with characters and started relating to them. Till then, I have to be honest I was so dissatisfied and almost angry at why make this a mess of a series. But I was eventually proven wrong. We soon see a story setting in where mysteriously Anna Madrigal decides to sell the iconic building for some reason and also Shawna trying to comes to terms with abandonment issues while Mary Ann trying to rediscover herself yet again. I believe the idea was to attract more of a younger audience here, which makes sense but in the process all it ends up doing is bit e a whole lot more than it can chew. The real magic only comes alive, towards the end of the show, where we get to see the story of Anna Madrigal, and how she came to be who she is today, and those two episodes for me were the most effective of them all. And then there was this scene where the younger Ben gets into an argument with a group of gay men who lived through 70s and 80s, around the younger generation’s fussiness over language and privilege. It was interesting to hear the two perspectives. But every time it is back to present, it is a mish mash of issues, isms, social culture etc, which are all brushed open without taking anything into details for us as an audience to care about. The show is curiously muted on the modern realities of San Francisco. I just wish the show was sharper and a bit less didactic about the newer dynamics, which are often forced, or canned, or otherwise not right. The whole lesbian turned trans turned gay wasn't explored as much as it should have which would have given it a more humane angle. Brilliant Ellen Page (now Elliot Page) role of a disgruntled and angry daughter was also just there to add drama. Coming to Mary Ann, it was just odd to see a 50-something woman behaving like a kid in a candy store for a the first time being in awe of everything new and exciting the city has to offer. Her portrayal was more like a 20 something first timer in the city.

I really wanted to like and love this show but its the expectations with this series which was a problem. When you have something so iconic to compare to, you are bound to get disappointed at some level. The show's holistic approach to the queer experience is certainly not unwelcome but in the process it loses the whole seance of what it wants to say. There’s a sense that it’s trying to be all things to all people and generations. An understandable attempt to please that unfortunately results in a dilution of the original’s radicalism, mischief and warmth. (6/10)