User reviews

Another enjoyable installment, from Mr Maupin, about normal fun people who do find themselves tangled in many webs.

For anyone to whom the pacing seems a bit odd. Please remember that this was originally written for a newspaper. Each installment had to move quickly and leave the reader interested. It's good to see that Showtime has remained true to the articles (which were turned into books) again.

You have to start at the beginning, so I'd suggest watching Tales of the City and More Tales of the City first. These mini-series are based on a six part series of books by Armistead Maupin. Maupin began writing these stories for a San Francisco newspaper in the 1970's. They became the Tales of the City book series. And in the early 1990's, he started serializing them for the small (TV) screen. I've watched all three of these films over and over again. They are (like the books) like getting a really juicy letter from an old friend you've been aching to hear from. This third installment is shorter than the previous, but packs in a great storyline and lots of fun. All of the actors from the 2nd Tales are back for more mystery and romance. The best thing about Maupin's stories for the new millennium is that he was the first author to integrate gay and straight characters into a novel and then watch them grow and age together as a family throughout the six books. For the cinema, this is still a HUGE leap. For those of us who've been living in reality, it's our world come to life. I'm anxiously awaiting the fourth book, Babycakes to be made into a mini-series, but in the meantime I watch Mrs. Madigal, Michael, MaryAnn, Brian and all their extended family look for love and excitement in late 1970's San Francisco.

Being a huge fan of Mr. Maupin's previous two series as well as the books, I knew there was no need to worry about being disappointed...once again the "Gang" delivers...Pierre Gang, that is; he also directed "More Tales" a few years back and returns to helm this installment as well. The primary cast is back, however, noticeably absent is Mona Ramsey, who's gone off to Seattle, presumably to find herself. Laura Linney once again dives in displaying "further" sides (not to mention views) of Mary Ann. In fact, that can pretty much be said about every character this time around. Everyone gets to explore sides of themselves that before went untouched.

And that's as it should be, considering "Further" picks up four years after "More" as opposed to the few month gap between the first two series. It's 1981 and the feel of the seventies is dwindling, making room for the "me" decade to come. For this writer, one of the coolest aspects was the return of Mary Kay Place to the role of Prue Giroux, which she originated in a mere couple of scenes in the first "Tales" back in '92. This time around she is a main character with some very real problems, most of which center around a peculiar man named Luke, whom she finds living in the park. Luke, as played by Henry Czerny, is the character you will be hard pressed to forget. Olympia, as always, gives just the right balance necessary to keep everyone else in line. Bruce McCulloch (Kids in the Hall) is a riot as Father Paddy. Joel Grey shows up in a role that (if one didn't know better) seems tailor-made. Barbara Garrick goes round three with a new and improved DeDe; she gets my vote as the most underrated character and actress of the saga.

Armistead Maupin has always said that his primary influence when writing is Alfred Hitchcock - as you view, you'll see why he says that. As usual, the stories and characters overlap one another, going seemingly unnoticed by the participants. Maupin himself gives perhaps his most clever Hitchcockian cameo yet (big laugh).

My only complaint is that the we're treated to less screentime with this series. It's about a third shorter than the previous two. As I haven't read the book in some time, I don't know what had to be sacrificed to make this possible. One of the great strengths of the first two series was the near seamless adaptations of the books upon which they were based. Was it a budgetary decision? Or just simple storytelling? It does indeed move faster than the last series. In any case, some "Tales" are better than no "Tales". Let's hope they do the next three as well.

OK so this strays from the book slightly, but the extra story line written for Mother Mucca is great- Jackie Burroughs does such a fantastic job at playing this curious character and it's brilliant to see her back to play this funny and sweet role. It's also good to get some depth to her character as well as flesh out Mrs Madrigal as well.

The casting fits the books perfectly as in the previous two series with pretty much all of the same actors returning.

If only the next three books would be make for the screen. Can't wait to see the film interpretation of Night Listener, give it a look when it comes on general release.

I have previously seen both the Tales of the City and it's sequel Tales of the City 2.

I did not expect to find a new or unique storyline, however, regardless of how far-fetched it may be, they came up with one, one that has twists and turns. I marvel at the entire series, including this part as to how the author has maintained an intertwined relationship between all of the characters, past and present.

I realize that the author has not released any more stories related to these, but I would love to see another sequel, if only invented my Showtime.

Truly, truly, I was even more surprised when I saw how much was "revealed" in this particular sequel; sorry no major descriptions--instead I highly recommend that you see this for yourself. Thought this was a fine ongoing continuation of "More tales of the City" which opened some doors that were promptly closed within this sequel. Enjoyed seeing more life in the City, San Francisco, enjoyed seeing the scenery, and I enjoyed seeing the ups and downs of relationships. One such relationship I enjoyed seeing was between a certain "daughter" and her mother--again no names as I definitely recommend that you see this sequel for yourself and find out who I am referring too.

This third installment of "Tales" takes place four years after the original and continues following the story of Mary Ann Singleton (Linney) and the gang at 28 Barbary Lane into the Reagan era. The plot goes a little haywire with too much time spent on Jim Jones, Mary Ann trying to advance in her career, and other much sillier points. The series also suffers from too much focus on Garrick's DeDe Halcyon Day. The character, as she appears in the third movie, is not particularly sympathetic and her motivations are not well explained.

Again, this series really is worth seeing because of Linney, she knows her character very well by now and does a great job. Campbell really only has about 15 minutes of screen time in this one and Dukakis is good, but her character is getting tiresome. Certainly watchable, but not up to the caliber of either of the first two installments.

What a disappointment and what a boring mini. Totally wasted the talents of Jackie Burroughs, Parker Posey, Joel Grey, Billy Campbell, and John McMartin. Hideous "happy" ending and quickly tied-up endings. There may have been a good story, but it didn't make it to the screen (and Maupin wrote the damned screenplay himself).

What can I say? Mother Mucca is a character I just can't quite get into. I find her crusty, salty and slightly repulsive. You just know if you got too close to her she'd have that old person's smell. And with the cigarettes added to that well,......ugh. She doesn't have ANY of the love-able quirkiness Mrs. Madrigal has.

And the rest of this? It becomes tawdry and tedious. And then,........oh dear, we add in the terrible Jonestown Massacre and how two characters escaped and a fake Jim Jones. No, no, no! This is something out of Mary Hartman Mary Hartman, not Tales of the city!

If you've seen the first one there is something innocent and charming about it all. It may be very cliched but it works. The dialog here is bad, there are no real intimate conversations or situations with the characters. Maybe by this point in life we had lost that so no writer could quite come up with any ideas. We had moved on to empty sex and that was supposed to just hold everyone over.

Eh,.....hope they don't do anymore of these.

This is definitely a step up from the last installment. I still don't like some of the recasts. Overall, still not that great but good that the original series ended here on a better note.