The Netflix Original Series Grace and Frankie is a humorous and dark-toned masterpiece by Marta Kauffman (Co-Creator of Friends) and Howard J. Morris, and should be on your top watch-list.
Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin) expect their husbands Robert (Martin Sheen) and Sol (Sam Waterston), business-partners of twenty-years, to announce their retirement. They indeed divulge their retirement but to their vows of marriage for no other reason than marrying each other. With their worlds shattered at age seventy, Grace and Frankie individually flee to the beachfront home the two families purchased together, finding themselves stuck in the middle with each other as they progress through their shared fate.
On the face of the Kauffman and Morris creation is the wonderful dynamic between Grace and Frankie, two characters that could not be more polar opposite if they tried. Grace, stiff and proper, is a retired cosmetic industry guru that attracts attention by her mere presence, whilst Frankie is a bohemian and hippie personality who teaches art to ‘society’s outcast’. Sarcasm and punchy lines are therefore to be expected amidst a dark and emotional undertone.
Season one gives a natural portrayal of Grace and Frankie navigating with weakness and strength, showing the rollercoaster of hurt, anger, sadness and denial whilst concurrently picking up the pieces of their lives to move on the best way they know how. Meanwhile, snippets explore how their to-be-ex-husbands manoeuvre through dismantling their lives, reconfigure the family structures and the difficulty of separating themselves from the women they love to be with the person they are in love with.
Season two continues Grace’s and Frankie’s journey in moving on that soon diverges into exploring new paths, more dating, hard decisions and lessons to be learned. With similar comedic and dramatic tone, the second season also expands on the theme of being heard and taken more seriously as well as devotes more coverage to the young adult children of Grace and Frankie. The end of season two leaves Grace and Frankie embark on a new journey, a business venture that only promises bold moves and further comedic highlights for its upcoming third season.
Uniquely for television and film, the show brings the silent generation in lead roles to the screen, dealing with millennial themes that typically are only spoken about with younger generations. It brilliantly harmonises themes of admitting sexual preference, separation and divorce, family and friendship dynamics, dating and sex that only polarises on their importance and relatability across the age-span.
