Netflix’s ‘Tales of the City’ Looks Like Queer Heaven

Netflix's sequel to the 1993 television miniseries Tales of the City finally has a release date. The streaming platform announced Tuesday, in releasing the first teaser trailer, that Barbary Lane will make its return to our TVs just in time for Pride month on June 7.

Inspired by the books of the same name from Armistead Maupin, this original limited series starts a new chapter in the beloved story when Mary Ann (Laura Linney) returns to present-day San Francisco and is reunited with her daughter Shawna (Ellen Page) and ex-husband Brian (Paul Gross), twenty years after leaving them behind to pursue her career. Fleeing the midlife crisis that her picture-perfect Connecticut life created, Mary Ann is quickly drawn back into the orbit of Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis), her chosen family, and a new generation of young queer residents living at 28 Barbary Lane.

Linney, Gross, and Dukakis are reprising their roles from the original, while Page's character (and many others) has never been portrayed on screen. Orange is the New Black's Lauren Morelli serves as showrunner and executive producer.

"In talking to people [about the show], there had been this drop off point where, below a certain age, it seemed like a lot of people were totally unaware of such a landmark thing," she told Out back in March. "It felt really exciting to get to dive back into an overtly queer community and bring in some new faces and new generation of character and audience."

Morelli, along with executive producer Alan Poul, lead a team centering LGBTQ+ perspectives in front of and behind the camera. Their entirely queer writer's room included Andy Parker, Patricia Resnick, Marcus Gardley, Jen Silverman, Hansol Jung, and Thomas Page McBee. LGBTQ+ directors Silas Howard, Sydney Freeland, Stacie Passon, and Kyle Alvarez help bring the world to life. And trans talent include nonbinary actor Garcia, actress Jen Richards of Her Story fame, and Daniela Vega, the lead of the Oscar-winning Chilean film A Fantastic Woman, as well as Thomas Page McBee, Howard, and Freeland. Bob the Drag Queen, Zosia Mamet, and Molly Ringwald also star.

The original series (which you can watch on Amazon Prime) was deemed a seminal piece of television for its depiction of queer people with humor and respect.

Check out the teaser for the reprisal below:

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