Comedies on Netflix with strong female characters, retired old lawyers living lavishly in La Jolla, openly gay characters with freedom and glee, these are a few of my favorite things! Grace & Frankie packs it all neatly and produces episodes that never cease to get interesting and fun to watch, each season. Packing punch to great story-lines are its lead actors, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen & Sam Waterston.
Following the lives of Grace and Frankie, two recently divorced strong women who form an unlikely friendship despite not having tolerated each other before. Why are they divorced and why is their friendship unexpected? <SPOILERS>
A) Because their business partner husbands (more like lawyer partners) have realized they have been in love with each other for years and decided to come out to the world to become *drum roll* real life partners!
2) Because Grace and Frankie are poles apart in their world. Grace runs a successful cosmetic company aptly named, "Say Grace" while Frankie is an independent hippie artist. Grace wears designer business clothes and Frankie has a more hobo bohemian style. Grace likes planning things and Frankie likes doing things on an impulse! You get it.
(Yes, the bullet points read A) and 2) ala Uncle Jess style. and yes, I may be slightly obsessed with bullet points!)
The show has been going strong for 6 seasons and is now being renewed for season 7 because imho, it gets everything right! The bond between the leading ladies gets stronger each season. As the show progresses, you can see how they stop being judgemental of each other, how they start developing compassion and understanding that near the end of each season you want to root for them to never live apart from one another.
These ladies are also badass businesswomen! Frankie knows what products need to be made for their target market, women of a certain age as themselves and Grace knows how to run the business. They end up developing a thriving company with 2 successful and one not so successful products. This, despite living in an ageist world (that refuses to sanction loans or fund them). This representation of people of a certain age being strong, creative, and still having it in them is such a rare scene on TV and Cinema. Definitely a welcome change and me stepping into old age doesn't seem so scary after all!! What's more its Jane Fonda, come on! (I only know Lily Tomlin through this show, I do enjoy watching her but I don't know much about her yet)
I also love Robert and Sol, the husbands who divorced Grace and Frankie respectively to marry each other. Two successful lawyers who have settled down to a life full of love, great friends and passion pursuits. Martin Sheen has played Robert wonderfully! You despise him at first but then he goes from extremely unlikeable to tolerable! Sam Waterston's Sol is also a flawed but sweet character (!) with fluctuating morals and childish stubbornness, a treat to watch.
Then there are their "collective" children Brianna, Mallory, Coyote and Nwabudike supporting the lead characters with their own brand of charisma. I am especially fond of June Diane Raphael's Brianna, a sassy potty mouthed boss lady who takes over Say Grace. Ethan Embry plays Coyote Bergstein with equal hints of adorable dumb and funny. We are yet to see Malory and Bud's characters shaping up to something worth mentioning (so far their arcs have been boring/ non-interesting). Oh also, the ultimate dad and might I say dreamboat from The OC, Peter Gallagher plays Grace's love interest Nick in the later seasons. Another reason to watch this show! All in all, for the beautiful story it is, I am going to give it 5 stars (well, duh!)!
(Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_and_Frankie#/media/File:Grace_and_Frankie_title_card.jpg)
Following the lives of Grace and Frankie, two recently divorced strong women who form an unlikely friendship despite not having tolerated each other before. Why are they divorced and why is their friendship unexpected? <SPOILERS>
A) Because their business partner husbands (more like lawyer partners) have realized they have been in love with each other for years and decided to come out to the world to become *drum roll* real life partners!
(Image credit: https://screenrant.com/grace-and-frankie-10-ways-robert-sol-got-worse-and-worse/)
2) Because Grace and Frankie are poles apart in their world. Grace runs a successful cosmetic company aptly named, "Say Grace" while Frankie is an independent hippie artist. Grace wears designer business clothes and Frankie has a more hobo bohemian style. Grace likes planning things and Frankie likes doing things on an impulse! You get it.
(Image credit: https://tvline.com/2020/04/09/grace-and-frankie-live-stream-watch-season-7-episode-1-video/)
(Yes, the bullet points read A) and 2) ala Uncle Jess style. and yes, I may be slightly obsessed with bullet points!)
The show has been going strong for 6 seasons and is now being renewed for season 7 because imho, it gets everything right! The bond between the leading ladies gets stronger each season. As the show progresses, you can see how they stop being judgemental of each other, how they start developing compassion and understanding that near the end of each season you want to root for them to never live apart from one another.
(Image credit: https://gifer.com/en/BZpf)
These ladies are also badass businesswomen! Frankie knows what products need to be made for their target market, women of a certain age as themselves and Grace knows how to run the business. They end up developing a thriving company with 2 successful and one not so successful products. This, despite living in an ageist world (that refuses to sanction loans or fund them). This representation of people of a certain age being strong, creative, and still having it in them is such a rare scene on TV and Cinema. Definitely a welcome change and me stepping into old age doesn't seem so scary after all!! What's more its Jane Fonda, come on! (I only know Lily Tomlin through this show, I do enjoy watching her but I don't know much about her yet)
(Image credit: https://www.out.com/television/2017/3/03/grace-and-frankie-get-vibrator-business-season-3-trailer)
I also love Robert and Sol, the husbands who divorced Grace and Frankie respectively to marry each other. Two successful lawyers who have settled down to a life full of love, great friends and passion pursuits. Martin Sheen has played Robert wonderfully! You despise him at first but then he goes from extremely unlikeable to tolerable! Sam Waterston's Sol is also a flawed but sweet character (!) with fluctuating morals and childish stubbornness, a treat to watch.
(Image credit: https://www.out.com/television/2017/3/03/grace-and-frankie-get-vibrator-business-season-3-trailer)
(Image credit: https://www.bustle.com/articles/76729-ranking-peter-gallaghers-eyebrows-from-while-you-were-sleeping-to-the-oc)
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