Just Finished Watching: Grace and Frankie

Posted by Rashika

Hi. Yes. I recently finished bingeing another show and it was a good time. Maybe this will become a regular feature with the amount of shows I’ve been binging? Not promises though because I don’t want to pressure myself into watching something. ANYWAY. SO. Grace and Frankie. It is a SHOW. I had no idea it was really a show until my friend mentioned it to me right before season 4 came out. She pitched it to me and I was vaguely intrigued and in need of a sitcom and whoops. Look what she made me do. BINGE A 4 SEASON SHOW in 8 days.

Did you ever watch the cult-favorite Golden Girls? Surely you’ve seen the 100 million gifs of it floating through the webosphere? Well anyway, I never watched it, but, from the episodes I’ve seen here and there, I think it serves as an apt comparison for Grace and Frankie except that Grace and Frankie is more explicit, more funny and perhaps more substantial? I mean take what I say with a grain of salt because I haven’t watched Golden Girls in its entirety.

Anyway. So. What is this show about? WHY DO YOU WANT TO WATCH IT? Well, Grace and Frankie aren’t really friends but their husbands are business partners so they bear each other. At the beginning of the show, they find out that their husbands are also more than just business partners. So at the age of 70, Grace and Frankie are newly singles trying to navigate a super ageist world where they are constantly overlooking and undermined.

This all sounds like kind of a bad joke that has the potential to be really harmful but I think even with the synopsis, the show handles the situation very well. Sol and Robert, their exes, are still main characters within the show and we get to see how the places this new chapter in their life takes them. They aren’t the butt of a joke, they are important characters within the larger narrative and they still remain very much a part of Grace and Frankie’s lives.

Frankie does have a tendency to appropriate other cultures for her own purposes which the show fails to address but I think it does start calling out some of her other problematic behavior in later seasons. Still, that isn’t entirely an excuse and just something to keep in mind in regards to the show.

My favorite thing about this show is that even though it is primarily Grace and Frankie’s story, it’s also the story of their larger family. It’s comedic, dramatic, heart-felt and extremely thoughtful. I think it is absolutely worth the watch and maybe you will too? ALSO IF YOU HAVE SEEN IT OR PLAN ON WATCHING IT, please tell me because I need to angst about the finale of season 4.

What shows have you been watching lately? Anything I should keep an eye out for?

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Rashika

Rashika has been tired since 2013. There are very few things that spark joy for her besides a nice cup of tea, warm, baked goods, good books and good TV shows. She is here to pile onto your giant TBRs and to-watch lists. Offer her a cookie and she might be nice to you.