Should You Come Out In Support Of Grace And Frankie?

What Is This Thing?

When their husbands summon them to a rare double-date dinner, two women are pretty sure that the guys are about to tell them they've finally decided to retire from the law practice they've run together for decades. Turns out their plan is actually to leave their wives so that they can marry each other. Since they're all in their sixties, this has a lot of ripple effects -- and though the women have never gotten along so great, each is the only person who really knows what the other is going through, and an uneasy partnership is formed.

When Is It On?

Whenever you want! Netflix will drop all thirteen episodes of the show's first season at midnight on Friday, May 8.

Why Was It Made Now?

Streaming services are the new HBO in the sense of being the fanciest means for movie stars to make plays for TV awards (see: Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright of House Of Cards), so why not assemble a bunch of those who have aged out of headlining movies any risk-averse producer would consider financing?

What's Its Pedigree?

It's a pretty impressive assemblage. Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman created the show with Howard J. Morris, who came up on Home Improvement but since then has worked on less successful fare, like According To Jim and TBS's Sullivan & Son. But as heavy a hitter as Kauffman is, she's a nobody compared to her cast: Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin play the titular Grace and Frankie; their respective husbands, Robert and Sol, are played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. Filling out the cast are the couples' kids: Grace and Robert are parents to Brianna (June Diane Raphael) and Mallory (Brooklyn Decker); Sol and Frankie's sons Nwabudike -- who goes by Bud -- and Coyote are played by Baron Vaughn and Ethan Embry. Guest stars in the first six episodes include Enlisted's Geoff Stults as Mallory's husband; Joe Morton, Mary Kay Place, and Christine Lahti as Grace and Frankie's friends; and Corbin Bernsen as a prospective Grace love interest.

...And?

To be completely honest, the first episode did not fill me with hope. Partly, I think it's a function of the premise: this is rough stuff, emotionally speaking; if it were a half-hour crammed with laugh lines, no one would believe it. But the more troublesome issue is the characterization of the titular characters. It's essentially an odd-couple story -- straitlaced Grace, a successful though retired beauty entrepreneuse, has extremely rigid ideas about the proper way things should be done; free-spirited art teacher Frankie has apparently never met a Los Angeles "spiritual" practice she couldn't showily undertake. Though they each have their own Nancy Meyersishly well-appointed homes, years ago their husbands also bought a beach house for the families to take turns using, and now both women want it...but since neither wants to relinquish squatter's rights, they're cohabitating for the first time. What could possibly go right?!, amirite? It's just a lot of underlining the differences between the characters by taking them to absurd yet not especially funny extremes. (And yes, that first episode does feature Frankie going on a spiritual journey with some hallucinogenic brew Grace unknowingly drinks way too much of, because of course it does.)

The kids are also a mixed bag: Coyote, a recovering drug addict, hit rock bottom on Mallory's lawn before the events of the series began, professing his love even though she's married with a couple of kids. Decker does her best, but even with kind of a nothing role -- in these first few episodes, she has little to do but tell Coyote to quit trying to talk to her -- she's not great, which makes Embry's character unsatisfying too, since he's stuck having to be the one who thinks a bucket of oatmeal like her is irresistible.

And while the show is, as its title promises, mostly about the ex-wives, I wish we got to know more about Robert and Sol and how their relationship developed. I mean, we get to hear the story of how their physical relationship started, but we also see that they have their own gay couple friends who seem to have no connection to Frankie or Grace -- when and how did that happen when they were still closeted and married to women? Perhaps this is a gap that will be filled in later in the season, or perhaps it's not something anyone thought we needed to know.

...But?

But things level out pretty quickly once less effort is taken in telling us what Grace and Frankie are like in contrived, laboured ways, and instead showing us how they react in specific situations. The strongest episode of the ones I've seen is the fourth, "The Funeral," in which all four of the principals attend the eponymous event. Not only do we see how the news of the two imminent divorces has rippled through their extended network of friends -- and who will consider any of them socially tainted -- but it's also the first coming-out for Sol and Robert as a couple, which is awkward not just for those around them but for the two of them as well, as Robert remembers what it was like to attend functions like this with a wife like Grace, who always knew how to behave correctly. The most heartbreaking moment of the series to date comes toward the end of the episode, so I won't spoil it; it also gave me the biggest laugh line as Frankie notices a klatsch of people watching and whispering and stomps up to them to demand, "Do any of you bitches have some gum?" ...hee hee, still makes me laugh.

The next episode, "The Fall," also gets to be a showcase for June Diane Raphael's excellent Brianna, Grace's unmarried daughter, who's trying to be more supportive to her mostly brittle mother, but can't help sliding into her comfortable friendship with Frankie (and weed doesn't hurt). Brianna is the character who's most interested in shit-stirring the complicated and treacherous situation the two families are suddenly in because she can't resist the drama, and therefore is the character who most speaks for me.

...So?

The first few episodes are a little corny, like a CBS sitcom with swears. But stick with it: it doesn't take long to find its edge. In fact, get a box of white wine and have your mom over on Sunday to watch it with you; she'll definitely love it, and watching her love it might make you love it even more.