Tales of the City

One review brings up Twin Peaks, which seems like a marginal point of reference, and yet it may be true that audiences were opened up to new possibilities by Twin Peaks. Aside from a cast of eccentric characters, and a more benign mystery element, there's little else in common. I found it charming, with a certain edge that keeps things interesting throughout, and more like if the characters in an Alan Rudolph movie were 95% gay.

Enjoyable saga seems to be operating in the shadow of TWIN PEAKS and the sanitised nature of some of its more deliciously tawdry elements almost makes you wish it was made even ten years later – however we might have missed out on Dukakis' wonderful, instantly iconic performance, as well as Linney's naïve "Singleton". Takes its time getting going, but builds a considerable amount of soap opera suspense in the home stretch as all of the "shocking" plot threads come together.

Nails the tone perfectly, mixing the melodrama with the weird, funny, and often sharply insightful and emotional. Dukakis kills it especially but a super young Laura Linney pretty much IS Mary-Ann Singleton anyway.

Starts off well, then slowly runs out of gas