Grace & Frankie- A Must Watch

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.

 (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)

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://www.bustle.com/articles/76729-ranking-peter-gallaghers-eyebrows-from-while-you-were-sleeping-to-the-oc)

Rizzoli & Isles- A Rant!

Ever since Rizzoli & Isles burst into our small screens with that "I am Shipping Up to Boston" theme song, I have been a fan! Now after all these years, Amazon Prime gave me a chance to re-live the series. I love watching shows that depict women being each others' allies than the ones that pit them against each other as plotting, conniving vamps! And this series does just that, nurtures true friendship between a detective and a medical examiner while they solve crimes in Boston. It is a good show, it has a lot of positive aspects to it, I am sure if you google, you will read plenty of good reviews. So I decided to focus on the "what is wrong" as I usually do! Well hey, I made bullet points and all! Read on.

(image credit: https://www.amazon.com/Rizzoli-Isles-Complete-First-Season/dp/B003VN2HN6)

While the show is a treat to watch, re-visiting it has made me realize that a few story arcs and lines wouldn't stand a chance on TV today. Especially with the entertainment industry in the west making strides towards driving away traditional narratives for women and ensuring problematic story lines are snipped early, a show like Rizolli & Isles would have had to make changes too. Let me explain what I mean.

1) It looks like the writers felt that the only way to immediately draw attention to the show was to include gay connotations between the two main characters in the very first scene of the pilot. And this continues as a trope throughout the series making you wonder if they are really gay. Spoiler! They aren't! Using this angle for the sake of gimmick and attention is just so wrong.

(Image credit: https://www.buzzfeed.com/skarlan/rizzoli-and-isles-is-the-gayest-non-gay-show-on-television)

2) Jane being "one of the best detectives in Boston PD" chases this guy, Casey throughout 2nd and 3rd season while he shows complete disinterest and begs her several times to leave him alone. Why an accomplished woman would want to be with a guy who is that detached is beyond my comprehension. PS: Apparently, it is care and "not being able to make love to her" (cheeziest, most cringe inducing line in TV history) that is masquerading as detachment. Mmkhay! . I don't know about you but that's not a good representation to me.

(Image credit: http://aprilmaynjune.weebly.com/tv-series/rizzoli-isles-on-season-break)

Besides problematic themes, the show has natural abilities to annoy you in a few places. 

1) The fact that Rizzoli rushes everyone around her when they are trying to do their work right. She is rushing Maura, she is rushing Korsak, she is rushing Frost, you wanna just "shush" her! (By the way, she hates "shushing"). It's always, "Come on Maura, what's in the DNA already!", "Have you found anything yet on the victim's mobile yet, Frost?" while she is not doing much of her work in my opinion.

(Image credit: http://rebloggy.com/post/angie-harmon-rizzoli-and-isles-maura-isles-sasha-alexander-jane-rizzoli-rizzles/86406538851)

2) Dr Isles isn't given enough credit for all that she does with less screen time and there is literally no mention of her genius in some episodes where she cracks cases with her knowledge of everything. I remember an episode where she spots where Jane is trapped by looking at the radiator in the room she is locked in, another one where she helps herself and Jane get out of danger by slurring Morse Code in her hazy state. Give this girl an award for her genius already.

 (Image credit: https://www.fanpop.com/clubs/rizzoli-and-isles-shippers/videos/29602948/title/just-put-hands-on-jane-maura)

3) Jane is always meddling in people's relationships. She insists Maura talk to her birth mother, talk to her step sister (even after the said sister wants to banish Maura from her life), she wants lieutenant Cavannah to "go ask himself" how her mother is doing (after he breaks up with the mother!), she is sending signals to Frankie about Frost's mother being gay in front of Frost, she is just an unstoppable meddler.

 (Image credit: http://rebloggy.com/post/angie-harmon-rizzoli-and-isles-maura-isles-sasha-alexander-jane-rizzoli-rizzles/60081887228)

4) I am realizing my annoyance towards Jane seems to be endless. She generally isn't very nice towards Maura. Her irritation at Maura's knowledge of "useless information", at Maura's refusal to arrive at something before she has done a thorough examination aside,in one particular episode she forces Maura to perform a surgery on her brother despite Dr Isle's continual stance that she has never operated upon a live human. In another, she is angry with Maura for trying to keep herself away from a threat of legal action (by not revealing confidential information related to Rizolli's family), that's just emotional blackmail!

(Image credit: http://rebloggy.com/post/angie-harmon-rizzoli-and-isles-maura-isles-sasha-alexander-jane-rizzoli-rizzles/60081887228)

4) What's more,entire Rizolli family is employed at Boston PD and stays at Dr Isle's house. They are not only doing detective work, they are also serving at the cafe! They are raising babies at Maura's house, and getting some action in the guest house, etc.

 (Image credit: https://wifflegif.com/gifs/19042-rizzoli-and-isles-lorraine-bracco-gif)

Ok, I will stop here. All rantings aside, the show is surely worth a watch! Beautiful Boston, creative criminals, smart detectives, easy on the eyes main characters, it IS fun.  You should totally give this a try especially if you like a detective and their unusual side-kick solving crimes in a big city.

 (Image credit: https://just-fan-of-series.skyrock.com/3107164053-Fiche-serie-Castle.html)

Oops, wrong picture! Although, if you replace this cast with those from Rizzoli & Isles, you have the same series! I will save that for another post.)

 (Imge credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/270427152598246507/)