{"id":11367,"date":"2010-06-27T16:01:53","date_gmt":"2010-06-27T23:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=11367"},"modified":"2023-12-02T21:16:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T04:16:52","slug":"serial-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=11367","title":{"rendered":"Serial (1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You-ness. Me-ness. Us-ness. We-ness.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Serial-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Serial-Poster-166x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"166\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-61191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Serial-Poster-166x300.jpg 166w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Serial-Poster-71x128.jpg 71w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Serial-Poster-150x270.jpg 150w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Serial-Poster.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 166px) 100vw, 166px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA Marin County husband (Martin Mull) and wife (Tuesday Weld) struggle to keep their marriage and family together in the midst of New Age temptations.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Christopher Lee Films<\/li>\n<li>Counterculture<\/li>\n<li>Marital Problems<\/li>\n<li>Sally Kellerman Films<\/li>\n<li>Satire<\/li>\n<li>Tuesday Weld Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nI&#8217;ll admit to a fondness for this silly but frequently giggle-inducing satire about California&#8217;s post-hippie culture in the late 1970s (based on a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Serial:_A_Year_in_the_Life_of_Marin_County\">novel by newspaper columnist Cyra McFadden<\/a>), which mercilessly skewers some of the era&#8217;s more far-out fads and phenomenons &#8212; from teenagers joining Moonie cults, to psychobabbling pseudo-therapists, to &#8220;free love&#8221; in its many forms &#8212; all within the very particular socio-cultural milieu of upper-middle-class, primarily white Marin County. While the motley ensemble of characters (including Christopher Lee as a closeted gay weekend motorcyclist!) never emerge as more than simply iconic representations, they&#8217;re not really meant to: Martin Mull&#8217;s put-upon lawyer-husband-father is simply a representation of a &#8220;sane&#8221; reaction to the crazed-out world he finds himself and his family immersed in. <\/p>\n<p>Not all the vignettes are equally humorous, but many are inspired &#8212; particularly those involving Sally Kellerman as a happily spaced-out mom whose son (Anthony Battaglia) is in continual psychotherapy with a coke-sniffing shyster therapist (Peter Bonerz); who asks her African-American maid (Ann Weldon) to shuck her uniform in order to look like an acquaintance rather than an employee; and who thinks nothing about engaging in casual serial marriage as a hobby. I wouldn&#8217;t call <em>Serial<\/em> a must-see comedy for all film fanatics, but it remains a personal wacky favorite. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Numerous humorous vignettes<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/serial-wedding.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/serial-wedding.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11370\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/serial-maid.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/serial-maid.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11372\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/serial-therapist.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/serial-therapist.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11373\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but it&#8217;s definitely recommended &#8212; and a personal &#8220;must see&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0081485\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/serial-1980\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thevideovacuum.livejournal.com\/550313.html\">Video Vacuum DVD Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You-ness. Me-ness. Us-ness. We-ness.&#8221; Synopsis: A Marin County husband (Martin Mull) and wife (Tuesday Weld) struggle to keep their marriage and family together in the midst of New Age temptations. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Christopher Lee Films Counterculture Marital Problems Sally Kellerman Films Satire Tuesday Weld Films Review: I&#8217;ll admit to a fondness for this silly but frequently giggle-inducing satire about California&#8217;s post-hippie culture in the late 1970s (based on a novel by newspaper columnist Cyra McFadden), which mercilessly&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=11367\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11367"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93683,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11367\/revisions\/93683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}