Netflix released Tales of the City earlier today (Friday, June 7) just in time for Pride month, with the cast packed full of LGBTQ+ talent alongside stars of the original Channel 4 series like Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis. Tales of the City stars Linney as Mary Ann, who returns to San Francisco for her former landlady’s 90th birthday. Netflix viewers can read on for our full review of Tales of the City.
Although Tales in the City is technically a follow-up to the Channel 4 series, which aired on PBS and Showtime in the US, it sets itself up as a new show that viewers can watch without any knowledge of its previous episodes.
As such, a whole host of new characters join Tales of the City, including Margot (played by May Hong) and her newly-transitioned boyfriend Jake (Garcia), Mary Ann’s bisexual daughter Shawna (Ellen Page) and Ben (Charlie Bartlett), a millennial boyfriend to established character Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver (Murray Bartlett).
The series’ best moments mostly come from these characters, as the drama grapples with queer life in the 21st century.
For example, the most affecting plot line comes courtesy of Margot and Jake, as the former struggles with being a lesbian dating a man while the latter questions his sexuality in the wake of his transition.
HOW TO WATCH TALES OF THE CITY ONLINE
Tales of the City review: The Netflix series has many tales worth telling (Image: NETFLIX)
An LGBTQ+ drama is not an LGBTQ+ drama without a bitchy dinner party scene and Tales of the City has a great one in which Ben questions an older gay man’s use of a transphobic slur and gets an education on the history of the gay rights movement and the AIDS crisis.
Where the series struggles, however, is with its previous established characters, particularly the former main character of Mary Ann.
When Tales of the City first aired in 1993, a series like this probably needed a white,
