Grace and Frankie (2015, Netflix)
Ever wonder what would happen when your husband and his best friend came out as gay lovers? Ever wonder what it would be like when you’re seventy? Yeah…me neither. Yet, somehow this exact story unfolds within the first season of Grace and Frankie and manages to be captivating.
After my heavy summer filled with Hannibal and Scream, I needed some laughs. Netflix sent me a recommendation for their new series starring Jane Fonda as Grace and Lily Tomlin as Frankie. Grace is more of a Martha Stewart/socialite who focuses on extravagant things, whereas Frankie is more of a hippie who believes in the healing power of yoga and recreational drugs.
The new series follows these women in their later years as they become unlikely friends and roommates after discovering that their husbands, who are partners at a law firm, are partners in a whole different sense of the word.
Grace and Frankie try to stay friends with their husbands and also remain civil for their kids’s sake, but they also feel so betrayed. They don’t have much else in their lives except each other. The show focuses on the unlikely friendship between Grace and Frankie as they support each other during this difficult time.
Throughout the first season, you see these two women grow to understand one another and even try things the other likes. You watch them figure out the weird world of dating at age seventy in 2015. You are with them when they discover that men only pay attention to young women. You join them when they get accidentally accepted into a nursing home. The goodhearted vibes and laughs are well worth the watch.
Grace and Frankie earned Lily Tomlin an Emmy nomination this year for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Grace and Frankie is available for streaming on Netflix
— Michael Cotter, Poetry Editor
