Grace and Frankie
is Netflix’s newest original series, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
Frankie and Gracie’s husbands ( Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen ) leave the two
women for each other, revealing they’ve had an off/on twenty year love affair. Frankie and Gracie have never been two peas
in a pod, but they co-own a beachfront house, an idea their husbands has
suggested years ago ‘ for profit sharing. ‘ They move into the house together,
and life happens. The real angle of this series? They are all in their early
70’s.
The whole thing could have gone kaput in a pot of lukewarm
jokes about gay men and older women, but the writing is sharp and laugh out
loud funny, and the characters are not rushed through plotlines where zany
togetherness replaces real change. The women are crushed when their husbands
leave, and there are moments of true poignancy. In one episode, the women
attend the funeral of an old friend, and Jane Fonda’s character Grace is led
through a series of conversations and confrontations. She ends up standing
alone in the crowd, bewildered and scared look on her face as she realizes how
much has been stripped from her in the wake of her husband’s betrayal.
Jane Fonda plays Grace with a touching vulnerability
shimmering below the surface of her tightly constricted rules- she hasn’t had
ice cream in nine years. Grace is the straight man to Lily Tomlin’s adorable,
loveable Frankie who adopted two boys and named them Coyote and Nwabudike ‘ Bud
‘ and who in her distress immediately
after being told of the news of her husband’s abandonment, smokes peyote and
takes muscle relaxants on the beach, in order to take a spiritual journey. ‘
Prepare yourself, ‘ she tells Grace, who joins her on the beach and guzzles the
peyote drink, believing it to be tea, ‘ for some light vomiting followed by
life altering revelations. ‘ When Grace begins complaining, Frankie coos: ‘
Your anger is frightening the sand. ‘
Frankie’s husband Sol ( Sam Watertson ) and Grace’s husband
Robert ( Martin Sheen ) are interesting and engaging in their own right. I’m a
huge fan of both actors, who do a lovely job of illuminating why these two men
were willing to give up so much to be together. As the show moves forward more
is revealed about their long affair and it becomes obvious that real romantic
love was not in the original marriages for any of these four. Frankie and Sol
were best friends, though, and they suffer the worst pain at the overnight
severing of the life they knew, all of it’s routines, rituals and comforts
ripped away. One episode in particular, ‘ The Spelling Bee’ revolves around
Frankie and Sol’s attempts to stay connected while slowly and painfully
realizing they cannot.
All of the secondary characters add something bright to the
ensemble- Robert and Grace’s daughter Brianna ( played by June Raphael ) is a
stand out, sharp as hell, funny and tough, her blue eyes zing as she delivers
one liners. Brooklyn Decker plays
Briana’s sister convincingly a little drowned in her life, spacey and yet
focused. ‘OK no problem, ‘ she tells her mom as she rushes through a list of
must-do’s, ‘ I’m just going to feed the
dog and do my kegels in the car.’
In the end it is Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda who are the
successful heart of this show. I can’t think of another show about women in
their 70’s that treated them as true invidual women in the thick of life
without the constant focus on age- Golden Girls was hilarious and ground
breaking, but the entire premise was a one liner ‘ look at the old lady being
funny ‘ vibe, whereas Grace and Frankie ask us to see these women as they are-
complicated, still seeking, learning, sometimes on the cutting edge of life
naturally and easily ( as when Frankie teaches Grace about making homeade,
organic lube from ‘the best organic tubers!’ ) sometimes hilariously fumbling
their way through the modern world ( Frankie again, buying a computer and
setting up a Twitter account, which you can visit now at
twitter.com/suckitaynrand thanks to the crafty Social Media crew at Netflix )
Frankie’s observations on Twitter are spot on: ‘ Why watch alone when I can
share the entire experience with millions of strangers!? ‘
Unlike CBS’s failed remake of ‘ Odd Couple ‘ Jane Fonda and
Lily Tomlin’s friendship in Grace and
Frankie are an odd couple worth watching.
Post a Comment