Historias de San Francisco

This ten-part miniseries has some very high highs and some very low lows.

Back at Barbary Lane are Laura Linney as the sometimes annoying Mary Ann and Olympia Dukakis and the magical Anna Madrigal. Two superb actresses. Also back is Paul Gross, the original Brian. Michael is now played by Murray Bartlett, a huge improvement over smarmy Paul Hopkins in the previous two outings, but not as sweet as the original Michael played by Marcus D'Amico. Barbara Garrick also returns as DeDe, but she's a marginal character here.

Chief among the newcomers to Barbary Lane is Ellen Page as the tough Shawna, the daughter of Brian and Mary Ann .... or is she? We also get a complicated lesbian couple (Garcia and May Hong), a snoopy "reader" (Victor Garber). and a strange lesbian filmmaker (Zosia Mamet).

I found DeDe's misbegotten twins extremely annoying. I'm not sure if they were meant to be comic relief, but they ain't funny. There are several other recurring characters but they're not terribly important.

A few name actors pop up in one or two appearances: John Glover as an old cop, Mary Louise Wilson as the home resident, Luke Kirby as a 1960s cop, Stephen Spinella as a dinner guest, Molly Ringwald as an art collector, and Danny Burstein as Connie's old husband.

The standout episode of this series in #8, which re-enacts the infamous drag queen riot at Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco. This looms as the backdrop to the flashback of Anna's arrival in San Francisco in 1966 as a 40-something woman.

And despite a largely annoying storyline that clutters the achingly sad finale, we finally clear the gaudy debris and get to the great loss we all knew was coming.

Many kudos to the indomitable Olympia Dukakis for her portrayal of Mrs. Madrigal over the decades and to Laura Linney for her chirpy performance as Mary Ann and also for producing this series.

At first I was a little disappointed since I've been in love with the book series for more than 20 years. But it grows with every episode and now I'm hooked! The old characters make me feel like home and the new ones have already taken a place in my heart.

I thought this production was done well and was really poignant, although at times the acting was a bit contrived. However, speaking as one who was born and raised in The City, I found this to be very "San Franciscan"... the gay, the straight and the in between. I found myself getting nostalgic and teary eyed, especially with the night scenes from the roof showing North Beach....I could just feel and smell that night air. All in all, enjoyed it.

Having read all the books several times I was looking forward to this series on Netflix. I'm so glad Olympia Dukakis, Laura Linney, Paul Gross and Barbara Garrick came back. Shame one of the original 'Michael' actors didn't return. The story was ok but hardly resembled the story in the last 3 books that would be appropriate for the passing of time for the characters. Anna's flashback story was a good addition however but the ending was quite underwhelming. I feel that it missed an opportunity to tell the real story of the characters as there was a wealth of story available from 'Michael Tolliver Lives' 'Mary Ann in Autumn' and 'The Days of Anna Madrigal' to make a brilliant season. Shame they got the timing wrong! Michael and Mary Ann should be in their 60s now! It would have sat better if it was set in the late 90s yearly 00s.

Also a shame they didn't keep the original theme music. It would have helped to retain some of the magic of the original. Netflix seem to have aimed the series at a new audience but forgetting the existing fans of the books and first 3 series.

A good watch that filled a rainy day.

We wait now for the next book by Maupin about Mona as he announced on Radio 2 last week.

I was really looking forward to the updated version, as I have seen every episode as it originally aired on PBS. The story-line was great, it was awesome to see the original actors'actresses reprising their iconic roles. Then came "the twins". Absolutely not even needed to be a part of the series. Those characters ruined it for me. I understand that perhaps the creator wanted to include Millennials to introduce the series to a new generation, but OMG, the extreme stereotypes of our youth and their digital habits seem to have gone too far, and the outcome that was in the show was not only extremely annoying but downright ridiculous. And to think I was worried about the stereotypes of the LGBTQ community.