Grace and Frankie is yet another Netflix original series that pushes the envelope. Plus, they put all of season 1 online at once so you can binge watch to your heart’s content.
An all-star cast of wonderful, time-tested actors comes together with a story that is funny at times, heartbreaking at others. Grace has been married to Robert for 40 years, and Frankie married to Sol for as long. They’re in their seventies, they have grown children, Grace and Robert have grandchildren. And in the first episode, their husbands come out as gay. They want a divorce so they can marry one another.
Grace and Frankie are a classic odd couple, which might be some of the basis for critical reviews claiming that this show uses cliched tropes. Personally, I think some tropes were for a reason. Plus, in this case, it gives you two very different perspectives on how two very different families deal with a life-altering situation. Frankie, who loves her husband very much, is heartbroken. Grace, who wasn’t as warm toward her husband, was more embarrassed than anything else (which isn’t to say she was fine with this).
This is a quick show to watch. The episodes are 25 minutes, which made them easy to turn to at the end of a long day.
Overall, I’d call this show very good — 4/5. Why not 5/5? Well, I did just watch Sense8 straight through twice — and skimmed it a third time. So maybe I’ve got really high standards right now. 🙂 But no, I think a lot of it was that as the series went on, I thought a couple of episodes were eh and I wanted to laugh a bit more. Plus, I’m in my thirties, so there might be a generation gap here. My mom was crazy about this show after just two episodes — it finally convinced her to buy Netflix streaming! (Come on, it’s only $7.99 a month!)
I definitely recommend.