Serial

Martin Mull and Tuesday Weld prove to be a terrific comedic match as a married couple in fad-crazy Northern California who decide to separate yet can't seem to get into the swinging lifestyles of their too-groovy friends. Colorful supporting performances, lots of fast, brash talk, bitchy humor and funny set-pieces, yet "Serial" works only intermittently. It's structured like a naughty TV-sitcom, with wacky episodes, some of which hit and several which don't (the daughter's involvement with a religious cult was maybe good for one or two scenes, not an entire reel). Still, it's a pleasure watching Mull and Weld work so easily together, and theirs is a believable union which holds the morass together. A fitfully fun time. **1/2 from ****

Hilarious send-up of the PC tyranny of the late 70's, though this movie seems to work even better now than it did then. This film is a much more three dimensional criticism of American culture than Mull's hilarious TV shows, America and Fernwood Tonight. This is indeed Martin Mull at his best. Also a plus is all the great vintage 1979 character actors we all saw on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.

"Serial" IS the Seventies!!! With the exception of Disco (and I'm not complaining) this movie captures all the angst, sexual pseudo-liberation, and self-help movements we experienced in the 1970s.

Martin Mull and Tuesday Weld made a perfect Harvey and Kate Holroyd, a "typical" Marin County couple. They make their way through a sea of 1970s kitsch, complete with sexual experimentation and cults. Their teenage daughter Joanie also tries everything, eventually joining "The Sunnies," a religious cult.

The movie abounds with scenes of the 1970s. For example, in Kate's women's conscious-raising group, the wives invite the African-American maid to join them. When they ask her about the sex in her marriage, her husband's prowess doesn't disappoint them. When they ask her about Black men's sexuality in general, she answers "I wouldn't know. I've never been to bed with anyone but Wong." Reverend Spike (Tommy Smothers) makes religion hip at all occasions.

Kate and Harvey both learn the hard way that sex is not the euphoria as overhyped in the 1970s. They separate for a while, and Harvey has an affair with an 18-year old cashier from the supermarket. They have so much sex that Harvey gets worn out. Kate has a very unsatisfying affair. She also tries to start something with a young South American man who turns out to be gay and living with her hairdresser, who nearly uses his scissors on her in jealousy. Kate also tries est, a popular cult of the time. I got a special laugh from the est references, as I worked with a few estholes (that's what they call themselves) who tried to recruit me. Kate and Harvey manage to retrieve Joanie from the Sunnies and they get back together, giving the film its obligatory happy ending.

I also highly recommend the book, "The Serial" by Cyra McFadden.. It may not still be in print these days, but if you can get a hold of it, you won't stop laughing. I had the opportunity to read the book before I saw the movie and I got a lot more of the subtleties. There were a few elements, like the Skulls and Rev. Spike, that the film added. I believe the book was originally written in installments (hence the name "Serial") in Marin County.

If you ever get the chance to see the movie or read the book, do it! A great comedy gem!

Y'know how sometimes a movie gets absorbed into your life? You quote from it, you think about it, you occasionally have real-life experiences that jog your memory of a particular scene. For a lot of people, this movie is "Casablanca," or perhaps "When Harry Met Sally." For me it's "Serial."

In 1980 I was 15 years old and going to High School in Marin County, California, the same time and place as "Serial." My formative-to-rebellious years were spent at ground zero of the birth of the new age and PC movements (some might argue that this was actually Boulder, Colorado or Sedona, Arizona, but let's not split hairs).

Natch, I grew up hating these attitudes. Like the protagonist Harvey Holroyd, I would listen to the pablum puke coming out of peoples' mouths and (figuratively) weep for the future.

It's only gotten worse.

"Serial" is a hilarious and sharply observed comedy which can easily strike the casual viewer as dated and arcane, but listen, really *listen* to the minor characters in this movie: - The bearded hippie who wants to help Kate carry things up the stairs but demurs because, "like, that would be sexist." In 2002, is not chivalry truly dead? - The flighty and annoying trend-hopper Carol, who by the end of the film has decided she's gay, even though according to Kate she's "still a c***." Ever know a LUG (Lesbian Until Graduation)? - The young checkout girl with whom Harvey has a fling, who from the get-go stands Nazi-like over Harvey's eating habits, rigidly attempting to control what Harvey puts in his "one and only body." Ever know someone who deals with the chaos and vagaries of life through their eating disorder?

So, is "Serial" merely a dated light comedy? To me, it's much more: it's an open-handed slap to the face of the now-prevalent ideas that started in this time and place. Two years after this film came out, I became an angry young punk rocker, and left this film for a few years, but it never left me.

P.S.: My laserdisc copy looks and sounds terrible. I want a DVD!!

This is in my top ten of all time favourite films.

Harvey Holroyd can't understand what's happening around him. His wife has started to raise her consciousness, his daughter is concerned about her rights, his best friend who has a preoccupation with the Johnny Carson show is bombed out on pills and he's been a loser for 5 years!

I can sum this fantastic film up in two quotes from it: "Reality is watching a pair of self proclaimed assholes getting pair-bonded by a priest from the gong show". "Are they hell's angels?" "No they're gay. On weekdays they're regular guys with regular jobs but at weekends they dress up like hell's angels and listen to a lot of Judy Garland record". Priceless!