wikipedia summary
Tales of the City (1993 miniseries) - Wikipedia
Tales of the City is a series of ten novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2024, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBTQ. The stories from Tales were originally serialized prior to their novelization, with the first four titles appearing as regular installments in the San Francisco Chronicle, while the fifth appeared in the San Francisco Examiner. The remaining titles were never serialized, but were instead originally written as novels.
I’m no good at reviewing anything. Mostly trying to explain why I was interested in it. So if you are too, you might wath some and let me know what you think.
The main POV charecter is a naive rich suburban girl who has moved to the city of SF and soon decides to become a San Franciscan. She integrates herself into a chosen family. This part of the series was written prior to the social and economic devastation of AIDS; which is kind of a golden age among some LGBT+ people. We have casual depictions of gay life and customs; without the self-conscious “woke is on trend”.
There is a starring trans character who’s life is complicated and rich. Not perfect but excellent in moments. (They did cast a cis woman in the role.) Of course all this liberation stuff does face res
istance from other community members. And everyone is going about their day having various interactions
The actual story is hard to describe. Sometimes difficult to follow even moment to moment. Maybe it made sense in book form. Or the narrative is intentionally confounding. It somehow all hangs together but I don’t know what that is.
I have been slowly picking through the first TV adaptation. 1993 by Channel 4. If I understand properly, Showtime did series 2 (1998) and 3 (2001). And lastly netflix, of course (2019).
There is also extensive radio adaptations.
