Grace and Frankie

If I can, I am sooooo watching this! Whether I’ll be able to or not is another thing, but if the Netflix Gods allow, I’ll be there.

Grace and Frankie is an original comedy starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda “as two women who form an unlikely bond after their husbands reveal they are gay and leave them for each other.” Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston play their husbands.

The show, from the co-creator of Friends, looks to be well-written and, unsurprisingly, well acted. Well, assuming the teaser is accurate, and it probably is. The only criticism I’ve seen so far isn’t about this show, per se, but more general, that too many gay-themed stories are about coming out and its affect on straight people. That’s true, but kind of beside the point.

The larger point here is that the lead characters are all in their mid-to-late 70s (Fonda is the oldest), and how often do we see TV shows in which that’s the case? We also never see any stories dealing with gay senior citizens at all. So, by those measures, the show promises to be kind of revolutionary. That’s on top of looking like fun.

Netflix launched in New Zealand and Australia last month, but due to licensing/rights restrictions, we currently get only about 12% or so of what the USA does, and about a quarter of what Canada gets (which gets about half what the USA does). Netflix says it eventually wants to be a global channel offering the same programming worldwide (which, they say, would be a good deal for content creators, too, since they wouldn’t have to deal with selling regional rights over and over and over again).

So, since we don’t get everything that Netflix carries in other countries, it’s possible we won’t get this, either. However, since it’s a Netflix programme, I’m guessing we probably will. Well, I hope we do.

Grace and Frankie premiers May 8.

Tip o’ the Hat to Joe.My.God.