Open your Golden Gate

2014 has seen the release of two chronicles of San Francisco. The first is what has been announced as the final part of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series, with the publication of The Days of Anna Madrigal. The second is HBO's Looking, a new TV drama by Michael Lannan. The former will, for many people, be something of a nostalgia trip, while the latter ostensibly offers a fresh perspective. Having read and viewed them both, I can happily say that it's Maupin who is more up-to-date.

As ever with Maupin, this ninth novel about the residents of Barbary Lane – all since moved onwards and sometimes upwards – is littered with contemporary references, including Breaking Bad, Facebook and cussed post-postmodern novels. It's charming, it's fond, it's dear. Yet it's also moving and ultimately ambiguous. It invites us to indulge in a nostalgia for times gone by, with mentions of Mouse's gorgeous Dr Jon, Mrs Madrigal's anagrammed moniker and all the other glorious paraphernalia of this Dickensian romp ne nos jours. Yet it places these events firmly in the past, making us realise that we can only move on, into Maupin's (admittedly idealised) liberal, pansexual world.

Look at Looking, on the other hand, and you're treated to a very beautiful of the gay ghetto at large in San Francisco. When I visited the city in 2008, the ghetto was the very last thing on my mind, as we saw families and friends mingling happily in the Castro and the Mission. Looking has none of that. It is gay through and through. There are, of course, bit parts for well-meaning female friends, but this is a drama entirely focussed on gay men.

Its references, like the Maupin, are current, with Grindr hookups, OK Cupid and all the vacillating self-confidence of those apps' users. Indeed, there's veracity to its drama and pacing. But you can't help feeling that its focus is limited. Where is the wider community? Even Queer as Folk offered a broader vista of its times. I'll watch Looking through to the end, of course, if only for another shot of Murray Bartlett (complete with Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver moustache), but it's Tales of the City that I'll be cherishing until the day I'm Anna Madrigal's age.

Looking is on HBO and Sky Atlantic.
Click here to order a copy of The Days of Anna Madrigal.

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