Movie like "More Tales of the City" are not meant to be seen by everybody, and that certainly must be why Showtime opted to show it at such a late running time. However, I was awake on one of the days where they aired a couple of the episodes, and since I was sort of curious about it, I decided to watch, just to see what it would be like.
I will credit "More Tales" with the fact that it stayed on my TV for longer than I expected it to. A particular episode that I saw involved the character of Maryanne Singleton (Laura Linney),who was spending time with her friend Michael. There was also a married couple, who of course, were cheating on each other. I don't usually go for this plot, but it was done in a rather dramatic, soap-opera'ish manner that made it somewhat worthwhile. Also worthwhile was the character of Mona Ramsey, who was excellently portrayed by Nina Siemaszko. Her scenario for this particular episode involved running away from her life in San Francisco and taking the train to who knows where. Along the way, she runs into a two odd personalities:one, a Scientologist woman(Parker Posey doing a funny cameo) who offers her a personality test, which she declines. The other woman she meets happens to be an elderly woman called "Mother Mucka." Mother Mucka may be old, but she's wild and vulgar. She also runs a brothel, we soon learn. Needless to say, this is when I began to get turned off, but I decided to stick with it for just a little bit longer.
I tuned into a scene feauturing San Franciso at night. A man who looked like Matthew Modine, but wasn't, was spying out his window at a woman, while an 80's love ballad played beautifully in the background(I can't remember the title, but the chorus goes: "close the window, come alive. And it will be alright", etc). This was alright. I like when 80's songs play beautifully and dramatically, and I also like to see city life portrayed in movies. I want to somebody live in my own apartment and spy on my neighboors(but not when they're getting dressed, which I think the woman was), so I could sort of relate.
I could not relate to one of the next scenes, however. It was suddenly daytime, and everybody was at a party, including a group of guys called the "A-guys"(or something like that.), who had some dialogue that was very...adult, and perhaps a little too R-rated for my taste. Add that to the brothel and Mother Mucka, and it gets a little hard to take for people who are not used to fare like this. I'm not saying it's bad, or truly offensive (it wasn't like I was watching the Playboy channel), but it's not for everybody. There was some passable entertainment, though, so it wasn't a total waste. It was just...odd.
