Truly, truly, I was even more surprised when I saw how much was "revealed" in this particular sequel; sorry no major descriptions--instead I highly recommend that you see this for yourself. Thought this was a fine ongoing continuation of "More tales of the City" which opened some doors that were promptly closed within this sequel. Enjoyed seeing more life in the City, San Francisco, enjoyed seeing the scenery, and I enjoyed seeing the ups and downs of relationships. One such relationship I enjoyed seeing was between a certain "daughter" and her mother--again no names as I definitely recommend that you see this sequel for yourself and find out who I am referring too.

You have to start at the beginning, so I'd suggest watching Tales of the City and More Tales of the City first. These mini-series are based on a six part series of books by Armistead Maupin. Maupin began writing these stories for a San Francisco newspaper in the 1970's. They became the Tales of the City book series. And in the early 1990's, he started serializing them for the small (TV) screen. I've watched all three of these films over and over again. They are (like the books) like getting a really juicy letter from an old friend you've been aching to hear from. This third installment is shorter than the previous, but packs in a great storyline and lots of fun. All of the actors from the 2nd Tales are back for more mystery and romance. The best thing about Maupin's stories for the new millennium is that he was the first author to integrate gay and straight characters into a novel and then watch them grow and age together as a family throughout the six books. For the cinema, this is still a HUGE leap. For those of us who've been living in reality, it's our world come to life. I'm anxiously awaiting the fourth book, Babycakes to be made into a mini-series, but in the meantime I watch Mrs. Madigal, Michael, MaryAnn, Brian and all their extended family look for love and excitement in late 1970's San Francisco.

This third installment of "Tales" takes place four years after the original and continues following the story of Mary Ann Singleton (Linney) and the gang at 28 Barbary Lane into the Reagan era. The plot goes a little haywire with too much time spent on Jim Jones, Mary Ann trying to advance in her career, and other much sillier points. The series also suffers from too much focus on Garrick's DeDe Halcyon Day. The character, as she appears in the third movie, is not particularly sympathetic and her motivations are not well explained. Again, this series really is worth seeing because of Linney, she knows her character very well by now and does a great job. Campbell really only has about 15 minutes of screen time in this one and Dukakis is good, but her character is getting tiresome. Certainly watchable, but not up to the caliber of either of the first two installments.

Another enjoyable installment, from Mr Maupin, about normal fun people who do find themselves tangled in many webs.For anyone to whom the pacing seems a bit odd. Please remember that this was originally written for a newspaper. Each installment had to move quickly and leave the reader interested. It's good to see that Showtime has remained true to the articles (which were turned into books) again.