Watching the third instalment of the Tales of the City series was a bit tricky since it’s not available on any streaming service I subscribe to or any of the free apps. The other two were on All4 but I couldn’t find this one anywhere but YouTube… which meant I could not download it for commute watching. I am not entirely sure I should have bothered.
This time, Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney) and Brian Hawkins (Whip Hubley) have entered into a relationship. There is no understanding of why or how they’ve gotten together. They’re just together. Mary Ann is pursuing a career as a TV presenter and struggling and Brian… well I’m not sure what he was doing. I either missed it or I’ve forgotten.
Meanwhile Mouse (Paul Hopkins) has split from Jon (Billy Campbell) and is whoring around and Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis) has a new suitor.
When DeDe Halcyon (Barbara Garrick) suddenly reappears as an unexpected survivor of the Jonestown Massacre, her mother Frannie (Diana Leblanc) hires Mary Ann to manage her PR as she reenters normal life. At the same time Prue Girouux (Mary Kay Place) is dating a mysterious man, who seems awfully familiar to DeDe.
Did you ever get to the end of a series and think “what the fuck did I just watch?”. Well this is a prime example. Tales of the City was a little bonkers. More Tales of the City was pretty bonkers. Further Tales of the City is on another level. The amount of unexplained randomness we’re expected to swallow has reached a point that no longer works for me and getting through it was a bit of a chore. However if you are a big fan of full frontal male nudity, you are likely to enjoy this,
None of the actors really seemed to want to be there and no Mona, who was my favourite character. As there are several further books that were never adapted, I didn’t actually achieved my goal of understanding the full backstory to watch the new Netflix series.
Oh well… I guess it’s time to read some book synopses.
1.5/5
abbiosbiston 
Sounds like a case of ‘two series too far’. Shame about that, Abbi. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
I think some of the problem is the source material!
I felt that way after watching all the seasons of Mad Men. I kept watching hoping the characters would learn and grow in some way, or at least a couple of them. Spoiler alert, not a single one of them changed. They ended the series doing the same old dirty deeds they always did. Very disappointing.
I lost interest in Mad Men about 2 seasons in. It just wasn’t for me.