Hello everyone, it is I, your Feisty Indian Aunty who just watched the first four episodes (which Netflix surprised us with last week) of the latest season of Grace and Frankie. When my son set up Netflix on my newly purchased iPad a few years ago, Grace and Frankie was my first binge watch. It is still one of my favourite shows and I have never laughed as much as I did watching every episode of the previous six seasons.
Jane Fonda as Grace and Lily Tomlin as Frankie are so brilliantly suited for their roles. I am constantly in awe of how incredible Jane Fonda still looks at her age. Good God, she’s 83 years old and still a hottie. (Do the kids still call people “hotties?”)
The sitcom, or dramedy, is mainly about the development of their friendship over the years, particularly after their gay spouses, Sol (Sam Waterston) and Robert (Martin Sheen), decide to come out of the closet and marry each other. While it was initially set up that the classy Grace and the whimsical Frankie could never be real friends, it was through their respective hardships, imagination, perseverance, and even business acumen, that they eventually came together to be besties.
Season 6 saw Grace getting married to Nick (Peter Gallagher), who is then arrested for fraud. The cliffhanger of the season sees Grace discovering a whole load of money stashed in the settee in Nick’s home.
Season 7 opens with their gay ex-spouses back in their beach house with due to flooding of their own home. And the four episodes we’ve got so far deal with Grace and Frankie trying to hide the illegal cash from both Sol and Robert, and the FBI investigators. Their kids are all still around and all of them still have plenty of issues for their parents to deal with.
So why do I love this series so much? While it still succeeds in providing a good laugh, there is so much more to Grace and Frankie. The range of relationships that are dealt with, both within and without a marriage is staggering. It’s about friendship and love. It’s about dealing with exes. It’s about children, and also their children. You could live with someone your whole life and never know their deepest darkest secret. You could end up with someone who is completely different in thought, word, and deed, and still develop a caring bond.
This is a series about how children can get affected by their parents’ behaviour, and how that influences and shapes their character. It is about how parents deal with their children. Frankie is protective. But Grace believes in tough love.
But mostly, this is a show about two strong and powerful women who work through their differences, build their strengths, and end up making a successful career out of their skills. They did it without their men. They did it at an age when the world would have written them off.
After six seasons, it is clear that there is a real love and friendship that exists between these individuals. Frankie and Sol remain good friends, as do Grace and Robert (even though it took them a longer time to get there).
Marriage, whether you’re straight or gay, isn’t always a bed of roses. Sol and Robert have problems despite their love for each other. As do the women in their relationships with men throughout this series. Yes, love is important, but it is also about the hard work that goes into making it work. Every loving relationship needs constant attention and evaluation. It takes into account egos, sexual incompetency, illness, and validation. And Grace and Frankie does a fantastic job in channeling all of this into something that is funny and moving, but most of all, real. There is a powerful message here for all of us.
Also, how often do you see something this great in which all of the actors are over 70? Give us more please!
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