User Reviews

We finally meet Norman Neal Williams, the mysterious new tenant on the top floor, a man not even referred to before, and obviously creepy from the start. Character actor Stanley DeSantis may give you the willies, but there's no denying that he's perfect casting for this short-term character who deals with a part of society that most people do not want to read about let alone see on a TV show. Mary Ann, who will become involved in his story arc, has to deal with another depressing character, a volunteer at a suicide hotline who greatly needs therapy himself. Mary Ann has greatly changed since arriving in San Francisco, as evidenced by the phone call with her mother in the final of episode two. A scene on the roof shows the architecture of the city close up and give us our first insights to DeSantis's character whose lies to Mary Ann are obvious.

Mouse looks "pantastic" in his Halloween costume, but he's the only one from 28 Barbary Lane going to the festivities, and Marcus D'Amico is excellent in presenting his sweetness that indicates somehow there will be a sad ending for him, probably more than one. Here, he enters a dance contest at the End Up which ends awkwardly when a man he had just begun seeing shows up unexpectedly. His presence at a gay uppercrust party has cameos by Ian McKellen and Paul Bartel as the snooty host and a guest whose snobbism is worthy of jeers with their condescending manner towards him.

Dee Dee, basically supporting in the first two episodes, is now established as one of the shows leading characters, going to a spa where a famous '70s movie actress makes a cameo as herself. Earlier, she confronted Mary Ann, but the confrontation. In fact, you come out of it thinking that they sympathize with each other and under different circumstances could have been friends.

"You didn't choose Barbary Lane. It chose you", Anna tells Mona during their venture out, going to see Beach Blanket Babylon which has a hysterical drag version of the song "San Francisco", based upon a real nightclub act that was part of the city's gay culture for years. This scene hints at something going on in Anna's mind, a secret that has yet to be dealt with.

"I don't hire men who don't want my job", Edgar tells Beau in a confrontation where you get to see the soul inside this tortured conservative man, and it's rare to see such a liberal show deal with the republican patriarchy in such a sympathetic manner. Poor Franny is rejected by him for a dinner date once again, and you see the sadness in her that becomes slightly better thanks to her confiding in her black maid who seems repulsed by having the constantly be her sounding board but having no other choice.

So much of San Francisco's culture that you never get to see on screen (or that type of culture from any city) is expressed here, a little hint of reality from author Armistead Maupin who obviously collected these tidbits from his own life and shared them. Otherwise, we might not be privy to such goings on that while dated in human psychological behavior now older audiences can relate to yet cringe when confronted with the memory.