Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

After watching with great pleasure the original Tales of the City, i delved with excitement into this continuation story of the 28 Barbary residents. However with some disappointment i discovered that a less adventurous director and some unfortunate cast replacements has stolen some of the magic.Now don't get me wrong, it is still a fun and well written metro-sexual adventure in the heart of Sanfrancisco, and with exceptional performers Dukakis and Linney returning it keeps the spark burning bright. The new addition of Paul Hopkins as Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver is an interesting new slant on a wonderful character and he pulls the transition of well, retaining Marcus D'Amico's youthful hopefulness, whilst adding a new cheeky side to mouse. Paul however is the only new cast member to manage this, Nina Siemaszko is given the impossible task of replacing the magnificent Chloe Webb and Mona suffers terribly for this, not only does she now look 10 years younger, she has lost the kooky charm that gave the character so much punch and spunk, she seams permanently depressed and miserable. The other disappointment is the departure of Paul Gross who's slimy male chauvinist pig Brian was a joy and torture to watch in the original as he carried on with his self destructive behaviour and loathing of women. Whip Hubley (who this time looks 10 years older) simply seams like to much of a nice guy to pull of this role and Brian's character seams to have had a personality transplant within the space of a few months.With this massive moan over and done with, it is still an enjoyable romp and worth watching for Dukakis's Mrs Madrigal's empathic presence, and Linney's heart and warmth.

"More Tales Of The City" is actually better than the original. PBS caved into pressure and decided not to follow up the series, which gave Showtime the go-ahead to continue the series. Set months after the original, Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney)is more relaxed and receives a letter from her late boss, which contains money. She decides to invite Mouse (Paul Hopkins)on a cruise. On the cruise, Mary Ann falls in love with Burke Andrew (Craig Ferguson), who has amnesia, and Mouse reunites with Dr. Fielding (Bill Campbell).Meanwhile, her new boss Beauchamp (Thomas Gibson)is increasingly angry at his wife DeDe (Barbara Garrick), who is pregnant with another man's child (Who is also Asian), and decides to hire some thugs to "get rid of her problem." DeDe meanwhile becomes friends with D'orothea (Francoise Robertson), who has broken up with Mona Ramsey (Nina Siemaszko), who ends up in a whorehouse in Nevada with Mother Mucca (Jackie Burroughs), who is not only connected to Mona, but also connected to Mrs. Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis). Meanwhile, Brian Hawkins (Whip Hubley) is intrigued by a mysterious woman that he sees through a window. Finally, Mona's mother, Betty (Swoosie Kurtz) comes to town, setting up an interesting confrontation between her and Anna.There are more twists in this series than the previous one. There's a cannibalistic cult, an unexpected demise, and liberation for one of the inhabitants of San Francisco. However, this is a wonderful addition to the series.

More Tales find the characters just a few months after the last one left off. The characters stay pretty much the same, which really impressed me. In a lot follow ups the characters seem to change dramatically. Another aspect of the mini-series that I really liked was how the story expanded of of the first tales. Instead of creating a whole new circumstances, much of the story was just adding to what was all ready there.The one main issue I had was with the cast changes. I realize that it has been almost five years since the first series ended and that it was hard to get everyone back to do another one. However, I feel that the actors they did replace the characters with did not come close to resembling those in the first one. I did however like the new Micheal (Paul Hopkins) better than the first one. It was mona and Brian that I had the problems with. I applaud Showtime for having the guts to air this mini-series and the cast and crew that were willing to take on a project that was considered to be controvsial.

Far better casting than the original TV series. Looks like the cable aspect of the production (as opposed to American public TV) opened up the writing and performances. Paul Hopkins is a far superior choice to play Michael! That Marcus Whoever was way too nineties for the 70s look and sensibility of Maupin's gay San Francisco.