A teeny tiny yearbook indicates the small town mentality of a girl from Ohio, Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney), and her first night in the city (San Francisco), she's finding a disco inferno, not only literally but psychologically. A phone call with her heard but unseen mothers indicates her naivete, and an encounter with a pervert at a nightclub as her immediately moving out of the small apartments of a high school classmate. Conservative must quickly learn liberalism, and when she moves to 28 Barbary Lane, conservativeness goes right out the window.
When she first meets Anna Madrigal, you sense that Mrs. Madrigal is looking her up and down to completely analyze her. The fabulous Olympia Dukakis makes a great entrance, completely bohemian (here an adjective, not a nationality), and the presence of a home rolled joint from her own stash shows exactly why she has no objection to anything.
This is San Francisco 1976 where anything goes, and changes in culture are rampant. It's very amusing to watch the somewhat uptight Mary Anne get her first glimpse of the gay community, and the soap opera like structure takes off deliciously as she gets to know everyone in Mrs. Madrigal's charming apartment building.
Anyone who has ever spent any time in San Francisco will get a nostalgic feeling the minutes that you see the bridge from up top Nob Hill and see all the archetypes during the actual revolution the mid 1970's. The equally bohemian Mona Ramsey (Chloe Webb) becomes Mary Ann's quick confidante and guardian angel, getting her a job and teaching her how to lighten up.
Cameos by MacLean Stevenson and Edie Adams are a lot of fun, and Donald Moffat, as Mary Anne's boss, is terrific, frightening and imperious, yet touchingly vulnerable underneath the surface conservative extremism. The episode surrounds Laura Linney, and there are enough clues dropped about Dukakis and Webb here to build up story potential as hinted in a conversation between them. There are a lot of characters, but even some of the major ones from the future only have a little bit to do so the story builds up gradually rather than trying to rush you into getting to know everybody all at once.
"Mona, you're very special to me, dear", Dukakis says, and it is obvious that this is a character that will rival Rose in "Moonstruck" and Clairee in "Steel Magnolias" as a character she will forever be known as. Veteran actress Nina Foch as Moffat's alcoholic socialite wife and Barbara Garrick as his daughter, along with Thomas Gibson as his son-in-law "My favorite year hasn't happened yet", Anna says in a avant garde dinner party with guests we'll never see again, but it definitely gives a view of the times and the mentality. For our first glimpse into this world that will cover three additional miniseries and movies, it's a terrific introduction, and like a good novel, very difficult to put down.
When she first meets Anna Madrigal, you sense that Mrs. Madrigal is looking her up and down to completely analyze her. The fabulous Olympia Dukakis makes a great entrance, completely bohemian (here an adjective, not a nationality), and the presence of a home rolled joint from her own stash shows exactly why she has no objection to anything.
This is San Francisco 1976 where anything goes, and changes in culture are rampant. It's very amusing to watch the somewhat uptight Mary Anne get her first glimpse of the gay community, and the soap opera like structure takes off deliciously as she gets to know everyone in Mrs. Madrigal's charming apartment building.
Anyone who has ever spent any time in San Francisco will get a nostalgic feeling the minutes that you see the bridge from up top Nob Hill and see all the archetypes during the actual revolution the mid 1970's. The equally bohemian Mona Ramsey (Chloe Webb) becomes Mary Ann's quick confidante and guardian angel, getting her a job and teaching her how to lighten up.
Cameos by MacLean Stevenson and Edie Adams are a lot of fun, and Donald Moffat, as Mary Anne's boss, is terrific, frightening and imperious, yet touchingly vulnerable underneath the surface conservative extremism. The episode surrounds Laura Linney, and there are enough clues dropped about Dukakis and Webb here to build up story potential as hinted in a conversation between them. There are a lot of characters, but even some of the major ones from the future only have a little bit to do so the story builds up gradually rather than trying to rush you into getting to know everybody all at once.
"Mona, you're very special to me, dear", Dukakis says, and it is obvious that this is a character that will rival Rose in "Moonstruck" and Clairee in "Steel Magnolias" as a character she will forever be known as. Veteran actress Nina Foch as Moffat's alcoholic socialite wife and Barbara Garrick as his daughter, along with Thomas Gibson as his son-in-law "My favorite year hasn't happened yet", Anna says in a avant garde dinner party with guests we'll never see again, but it definitely gives a view of the times and the mentality. For our first glimpse into this world that will cover three additional miniseries and movies, it's a terrific introduction, and like a good novel, very difficult to put down.
