Sam Waterston, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Martin Sheen in the Netflix Original Series “Grace and Frankie”. Photo by Melissa Moseley for Netflix.Ê
from Netflix (available May 8) isn’t funny enough to be a comedy, not serious enough to be a drama. It falls somewhere in a Neil Simon-lite zone that doesn’t work.
Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda star as the wives of two septagenarians, played by Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen, who declare their love for each other: the men, longtime law partners, now want to be legally married life partners. From there it turns into a distaff “Odd Couple” as aging hippie Frankie (Tomlin) clashes with uptight matron Grace (Fonda). Will they manage to bond over their peyote/vodka, respectively?
The story is much less about the men coming out as homosexuals in their 70s than it is about women aging, women experiencing an unexpected turn late in a marriage, women learning to see past themselves late in life. The cast is fun to watch; the material less meaningful than it could have been.
