''Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City'' is an American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

that premiered June 7, 2019, on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

, based on the ''Tales of the City'' novels by Armistead Maupin.

Laura Linney Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress. Having studied acting at Juilliard School (1986-1990), she became known for her complex and multilayered performances on stage and screen. She has received various accolades, ...

, Paul Gross,

Olympia Dukakis Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 – May 1, 2021) was an American actress. She performed in more than 130 stage productions, more than 60 films and in 50 television series. Best known as a screen actress, she started her career in theater. Not lon ...

, and

Barbara Garrick Barbara Garrick is an American actress. Garrick has appeared on stage, television and in film. Life and career Garrick was born in Los Angeles, California. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama, she has several stage credits, including ' ...

reprise their roles from previous television adaptations of Maupin's books: the original '' Tales of the City'' in 1993, and the sequels '' More Tales of the City'' (1998) and '' Further Tales of the City'' (2001). The series was Dukakis's final television role before her death. The show won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Limited Series at the

31st GLAAD Media Awards The 31st GLAAD Media Awards is the 2020 annual presentation of the GLAAD Media Awards, presented by GLAAD honoring the 2019 media season and held on July 30, 2020. The awards honor films, television shows, musicians and works of journalism that ...

, the third time the series has won the award following the original ''Tales of the City'' at the 1995 awards ceremony and sequel ''More Tales of the City'' at the 1999 ceremony.

Premise

Mary Ann Singleton returns to 28 Barbary Lane in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

after a 23-year absence for the 90th birthday of her former landlady, Anna Madrigal. Mary Ann is happily reunited with Michael Tolliver and Anna, but things are more complicated with her ex-husband, Brian Hawkins, and Shawna, the daughter she left behind to pursue a broadcasting career. Shawna follows a mysterious attraction to a new girl in town who is making a documentary about 28 Barbary Lane. The relationship between transgender man Jake Rodriguez and his lesbian girlfriend Margot Park faces challenges as Jake explores his newfound attraction to men. Michael struggles with the option to stop using condoms now that he is in a relationship with Ben Marshall, who is on PrEP. Anna begins receiving mysterious letters threatening to expose a secret from her past.

Cast and characters

Main

as Mary Ann Singleton, Shawna's estranged adoptive mother who returns to San Francisco after leaving over 20 years prior *

Elliot Page Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Elliot Page, various accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Actress, Academy Award nomination, tw ...

as Shawna Hawkins, Mary Ann and Brian's adopted daughter * Paul Gross as Brian Hawkins, Mary Ann's ex-husband and Shawna's adoptive father *

Murray Bartlett Murray Bartlett (born 20 March 1971) is an Australian actor. His roles include Dominic "Dom" Basaluzzo in the HBO comedy-drama series ''Looking'', Michael "Mouse" Tolliver in the Netflix revival of ''Tales of the City'', and Armond in the HBO sa ...

as Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, Mary Ann's best friend from 28 Barbary Lane * Charlie Barnett as Ben Marshall, Michael's younger boyfriend * Garcia as Jake Rodriguez, a transgender man who is Anna's caregiver at 28 Barbary Lane * May Hong as Margot Park, Jake's girlfriend *

as Anna Madrigal, a 90-year-old transgender woman and the owner of 28 Barbary Lane *

as DeDe Halcyon Day, a socialite, Mary Ann's friend, and Margot's love interest

Recurring

Ashley Park Ashley Park is a private residential neighbourhood at Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. Its central feature was a grandiose English country house, at times enjoying associated medieval manorial rights, which stood on the site, with alterations, betw ...

as Jennifer / Ani, an

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

influencer alongside her twin brother, Raven * Christopher Larkin as Jonathan / Raven, Ani's twin brother * Zosia Mamet as Claire Duncan, a documentarian and Shawna's love interest * Michael Park as Robert Watson, Mary Ann's husband who is divorcing her * Caldwell Tidicue as Ida Best, manager of the Body Politic burlesque bar *Dickie Hearts as Mateo, DeDe's deaf butler *

Michelle Buteau Michelle Buteau (born July 24, 1977) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, television host, and podcast host. Early life Buteau was born in New Jersey to a Haitian father of partial Lebanese descent and a Jamaican mother of half-French desc ...

as Wren, Brian's neighbor and friend * Victor Garber as Sam Garland, a man from Rainbow Readers who reads books to Anna *Benjamin Thys as Eli, a man who begins a polyamorous sexual relationship with Shawna and his wife *

Samantha Soule Samantha Soule is an American actress. She is known for her role in the Netflix series '' Godless'', as well as ''Nurse Jackie'', ''The Blacklist'', '' The Queen's Gambit'' and ''Tales of the City''. She also appears in the Martin Scorsese film ...

as Inka, Eli's polyamorous wife *Juan Castano as Flaco Ramirez, Ben's co-worker and Jake's love interest *Matthew Risch as Harrison, Michael's ex-boyfriend *

Jen Richards Jen Richards is a transgender American writer, actress, producer and activist. Life and career Richards was born in Mississippi and resides in North Carolina. She graduated from Shimer College with a BA in Philosophy, and studied at Oxford Unive ...

as young Anna Madrigal *

Daniela Vega Daniela Vega Hernández (born June 3, 1989) is a Chilean actress and mezzo-soprano singer. She is best known for her critically acclaimed performance in the Academy Award-winning film ''A Fantastic Woman'' (2017). At the 90th Academy Awards in ...

as Ysela, a transgender woman and Anna's first friend when she moved to San Francisco

Guest

* Malcolm Gets as Stan, a friend of Harrison *

Dan Butler Daniel Eugene Butler (born December 2, 1954) is an American actor known for his role as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe on the TV series ''Frasier'' (1993–2004); Art in ''Roseanne'' (1991–1992); for the voice of Mr. Simmons on the ''Nickelodeon'' TV ...

as Dan, a friend of Harrison. Butler previously portrayed the character Edward Bass Matheson in '' More Tales of the City''. *

Stephen Spinella Stephen Spinella (born October 11, 1956) is an American stage, television, and film actor. Early life Spinella was born in Naples, Italy, to a father who was an American naval airplane mechanic. He grew up in Glendale, Arizona, and graduated fr ...

as Chris, a friend of Harrison * Bryan Batt as Chris Bauer, a friend of Harrison * John Glover as Bill Schwartz, a retired SFPD officer and resident of the Flamingo Arms *

Luke Kirby Luke Farrell Kirby (born June 29, 1978) is a Canadian actor. In 2019, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest role as Lenny Bruce on the television series ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel''. Early life Kirby was born in Hamilton, Ontario, to ...

as Tommy, an SFPD officer who is Young Anna's boyfriend * Molly Ringwald as Mrs. Duncan, Claire's mother and an art collector * Katya Zamolodchikova as wedding officiant *

Mary Louise Wilson Mary Louise Wilson (born November 12, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. In a career that has spanned more than 50 years, she has appeared in a number of plays, films and television shows. Wilson's most notable work includes a ...

as Doris, a resident of a retirement community that Anna visits

Episodes

Production

Development

announced June 28, 2017, the development of a revival of the ''Tales of the City'' television miniseries, based on the novels by Armistead Maupin. A subsequent April 23, 2018, announcement included a production order for ten episodes, with the series to be written by

Lauren Morelli Lauren Morelli is an American television writer, producer, and director. Early life Morelli, who grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of McCandless, Pennsylvania, graduated from Winchester Thurston School and then studied dance at Marymount Manha ...

, who would serve as showrunner and executive producer, alongside an all-LGBTQ writer's room. Other executive producers would include Maupin, Alan Poul,

, Andrew Stearn,

Liza Chasin Liza Chasin is an American film producer. She is the president of the American production company 3dot Productions. Life and career Chasin is a graduate of NYU Film School.

, Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner.

Michael Cunningham Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel '' The Hours'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is a senior lectur ...

would serve as consulting producer and Poul was also expected to direct. Production companies involved with the series include Working Title Television and NBCUniversal International. An announcement on April 9, 2019, revealed the series would be released on June 7, 2019.

Casting

Alongside the initial series development announcement, it was reported that

and

would reprise their roles as Mary Ann Singleton and Anna Madrigal, respectively. Concurrent with the news of the series order, it was confirmed that Linney, Dukakis, and

would be reprising their roles, and that

would be joining the main cast of the production in a new role. In October 2018, it was announced that Paul Gross would reprise his role of Brian Hawkins and that

, Charlie Barnett, Josiah Victoria Garcia, and May Hong had also joined the main cast. Additionally, it was further announced that

, Christopher Larkin, Caldwell Tidicue, Matthew Risch, Michael Park, Dickie Hearts, Benjamin Thys,

, Juan Castano, Zosia Mamet, and Victor Garber had been cast in recurring roles. Molly Ringwald later joined the cast in a recurring capacity.

Filming

Principal photography for the series began by July 2018 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Filming of interior scenes of the series were shot in New York while exterior scenes were set to be filmed in

, California. On October 5, 2018, the production was shooting in the Nodine Hill section of

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

. On October 24, 2018, filming took place at

Mission Dolores Park Mission Dolores Park, often abbreviated to Dolores Park, is a city park in San Francisco, California. It is located two blocks south of Mission Dolores at the western edge of the Mission District. Dolores Park is bounded by 18th Street on the nort ...

in San Francisco. By January 2019, filming for the series had reportedly concluded.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series received an approval of 83%, and a 7.50/10 average rating from 42 reviews. The critics' consensus states, "Like a pleasant visit to a place you used to live, ''Tales of the City'' provides ample nostalgic comforts and continues the series' mission of celebrating the diversity of San Francisco on its own terms."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

scored it 63 out of 100 based on 15 critics, signifying "generally favorable reviews".

Notes

References

External links

* {{Netflix original ended series (2019–present) 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series 2019 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings American LGBT-related web series English-language Netflix original programming Tales of the City Television shows based on American novels Television series by Universal Television Television series by Working Title Television Television shows set in San Francisco Transgender-related television shows Gay-related television shows Polyamory in fiction