Tales of the City --- one more time

Laura Linney as Mary Ann; Olympia Dukakis as Anna Madrigal.

So I've been watching for the last few days, episode by episode (there are 10 in all), the Netflix reboot of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City." Not quite as big a deal as it was 25 years ago, in 1994, when Iowa Public Television aired the original version. 

At the time, my television and VCR were closeted --- stashed because I worked nights, never watched and had decided a tasteful display of antiques would look better.

Maupin's light-hearted tales of life at 28 Barbary Lane in San Francisco, featuring such memorable characters as Michael Tolliver, Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney) and television's first trans character, Anna Madrigal (played by Olympia Dukakis), had been brought to the small screen by the United Kingdom's Channel 4 during 1993 then picked up the next year by PBS. Mild fare by today's standards; quite shocking to delicate American sensibilities back then.

Iowa Public Television, after much grumbling grounded in its solid reputation for banality and  an intense fear of offending straight "friends," opted to air a bowdlerized version --- naked breasts and buttocks pixilated and the sound track cleansed of questionable language --- and scheduled it for 11 p.m. on consecutive Wednesdays preceded by stiff warnings about unsuitability for general audiences.

Naturally, I hauled the TV and VCR out of the closet, finally figured out again how they worked together and recorded the series for viewing after long midnight drives home from Mason City.  Later on, I bought the boxed set in order to watch it all without Iowa Public Television as mediator.

So how does the new series, set 20 years later upon the occasion of Anna Madrigal's 90th birthday,  stack up? There are familiar faces --- Laura Linney as Mary Ann Singleton and the magnificent Olympia Dukakis, at 87, as Mrs. Madrigal. Michael "Mouse" Tolliver returns in a new incarnation (Murray Bartlett) with a younger boyfriend, Ben (Charlie Barnett), paralleling in a way the life of Maupin, who now lives in London with a younger husband.

The rainbow colors are more vivid --- this time around trans non-binary Garcia portrays Jake Rodriguez, struggling with his partner to make what had been a lesbian relationship work after transition, for example.

I suppose it's more earnest than the original production and, therefore, somewhat less witty. The Guardian, in its review, used words Mrs. Madrigal used to describe San Francisco 25 years on: "Flawed, narcissistic and doing our best." That's about it.

But of course I'm going to keep watching. I have this deep need to know why Mrs. Madrigal has decided to sell 28 Barbary Lane and how it's all going to work out. And yes, I've read all the books, too.

Charlie Barnett as Ben; Murray Bartlett as Michael.