Tales of the City - Netflix

Looks like I am going to have to renew my membership.

I've watched Episode 1, but i'm confused by the timeline. When is this set? The original was set in 78, if they have been away 20 years, that would be 1998, but its alot more modern day than that....

Olympia Dukakis can still deliver a great line and Laura Linney has barely changed at all and i'm so glad they're back for this series. Murray Bartlett is hot. The new characters i'm still warming up to. They're definitely tried very hard to put every gender/sexual identification into the first hour. Maybe tried a little too hard??

I'm looking forward to watching it all over the coming days.

I’m half way through and yes, you’re right. Which is fine but there are some huge inconsistencies such as the twins and DeDe? (love DeDe though 🥂) 
I mean, mess up the storyline fine but the actual family relationships between folk? 

Having said that I’m loving it, I was worried after e01 but I’m totally engaged now. Laura Linney pulls it all together. 

That dinner party scene in e04 was awkward. 

In the books Shawna knew all about her mother Connie from a very young age, but I suppose they had to conjure up some conflict for Mary Ann's return.

Ok, so this goes quite badly off the rails over the last third. There’s an interesting episode set in the 60’s which opens up Mrs M’s backstory but apart from that it all gets a bit silly. Then there’s an incredibly longwinded and slow finale.

If the point of this exercise is to launch future series which features the young characters then there’s a problem, because the younger characters really aren’t that interesting. The only thing that’s interesting about them seems to their relationships with the original characters. Other than that they’re just a bit one dimensional, and whilst I’m all for representing minorities on tv, if the only interesting thing about the character is the fact that they’re LGBTQ then it all gets a bit tokeny. The relationship between Jake and his family had potential that was completely thrown away early on in favour of a madcap mystery plot line. 

Having said that, who would want to be in charge of pulling TOTC out of the bag after everyone is so invested in those beloved books?. I seem to recall hating the original tv series when that came out but now when I think of the characters, those are the faces I see. Impossible task, at least they had a go at it. 

Well I gave the first episode a go last night and was massively disappointed. The younger characters ruined it for me, especially the twins. Don't think I'll be watching any more

I think ‘Maybe The Moon’ is one of his absolute best and could make a fantastic film or tv series.

Darryl Hannah had the film rights to Maybe the Moon at one point, hoping to play the best friend. Don't know why it never got made.

I have finally finished watching it.

And it just isn't close enough to Maupin's tone or style for it to be convincing.

Setting aside the timeline that makes zero sense when viewed from the perspective of the original, it just doesn't work as part of the canon.

There are three great stories to be told in the final 3 books - and they are authentically Maupin. What this production has done is skimmed off a few elements of these and twisted it to tell their own story. Which would have been fine if they had said 'inspired by' but they didn't. They kept some of the original cast which made comparisons to the original more than inevitable. And it is only with those originals that it feels right. The new characters are in no way as fleshed out or real as they need to be to work alongside Mouse and Mary Ann.

There are some lovely cameo performances and some good moments. The flashback episode is probably the strongest of the series (and I would love to see more of the early days of Barbary Lane - and of queer SF in the 60s/70s)

But I just wanted something far more authentic. Maupin's voice rings through the novels and it just isn't there. There were too many producers and story editors and consulting producers etc etc etc etc. It lacked the clear vision that sticking to the novels would have given them.

The original novels should be taught in schools - just because kids should learn to love these stories, to love these characters and to get just a glimpse into a different time.

I wish I had had a Barbary Lane to call home. And whilst this series had that physical space, it wasn't the real Barbary Lane. It was a filtered version, transformed to meet the needs of a bloated production team.

Hurrah for Laura Linney - who was great as ever. Huge love for Jen Richards as a brilliant young Anna. Olympia is Mrs M and will always be her.

But I am glad that Netflix have said that this was a one off project. I don't think it worked as it could - and should - have done. More Maupin was the way to do. We didn't need a vehicle for Ellen Page to look moody - something she did very well, but it was not the engaging heart of the story that it needed to be to have been given such prominence.

One of the other issues was that so many of the climactic scenes took place in between episodes or just off screen - so we never got to see Sam explaining what his role really way, we never got to see Shawna's conversations in the immediate aftermath of discovering her true parentage. There was a heck of a lot of telling and not enough showing. Given the time dedicated to pool parties and 'creating atmosphere', we could have done with a bit more narrative in each episode. Netflix aren't bound by the conventional timeslots of TV drama. More space for the story to be shown could well of made it a more satisfying experience.

A wasted opportunity - and one that could have put people off the novels if they hadn't already discovered them. I urge anyone and everyone to read (or listen to) the originals. They are a joy. Cherish them. Share them with your friends. Create a bit of Barbary Lane in your own life.

My copy arrived this afternoon

Life in London is expensive

I bought the physical copy which is something I don’t really do these days but I have the physical for all of the others so it seemed right to keep going with it.

I did listen to the sample on Audible though, the American performer reading it seemed to be giving the country bumpkin gardener an Irish accent. I’m not very far through it but there’s been no indication that he’s Irish so that annoyed me. 

I bought the original TotC audiobooks with Maupin reading and it was truly awful. Flat, deadpan delivery. I see they’ve reissued them all, hopefully they’re better.