In a brand new Netflix original series, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin team up as a comedic duo that on paper looks like perfection. They were brilliant in Eighties comedy 9 to 5 and now they're reunited for the first time since. Their respective characters Grace and Frankie spent a time happily married as a pair of frenemies, but when their lives are permanently connected and turned upside down because of the actions of their husbands - played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston - they're forced together by something that neither of them saw coming.
Executive producers Marta Kaufmann and Howard Morris present a series that is fearless from the get-go. A lavish meal out with their respective husbands turns into the biggest confession ever as both their partners reveal that they are in love with somebody else - each other - and now that they can legally get married, they're ready to take the step into the next stage of their lives and tie the knot.
Despite the heavy subject matter there's humour right from the start as Grace flings food at her husband and Frankie begins to have an asthma attack. Though we do get a couple of giggles, from that moment on it's an opener to a show billed as a comedy that should really first be labelled a drama. The women deal with the news in very different ways yet both follow similar narratives. Emotional miscommunication forces viewers to find relatability in both situations even though each is highly unlikely, and it's through this that fans will be drawn.
Frankie is an eccentric to say the very least. Tomlin plays the role perfectly, and likewise Fonda steps into Grace's shoes with ease, playing the part of a bossy and conniving housewife struggling to deal with the ramifications her husband's decision to leave her will have. Apart they do well but it's when they're together that they're on their best form, delivering some brilliant to-and-fros and one of the strangest beach scenes in comedy for some time.
The laughs in the first episode of Grace and Frankie are almost rare to the point that this could be billed as something entirely different. The cast is built of stellar choices and so perhaps the blame for this lies within the writing. It constricts the talent but not enough for an audience to be entirely bored. With future episodes we hope the leash isn't as tight and boundaries are pushed even further. Grace and Frankie is for now a good show, but has the potential to be something much more.
Grace's funniest line: "If anyone's gonna sit on Ryan Gosling's face it's gonna be me."
Frankie's funniest line: "In the whole time they were doing blowjobs... you know... I'm assuming..."
Grace and Frankie season one is available now in its entirety on Netflix.