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gayworths · 2 years

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grace and frankie s7 thoughts!

i have mostly moved on to using twitter to express my thoughts and just use tumblr in a similar way to how i imagine pinterest users use pinterest, but i have a lot of thoughts about the final season of grace and frankie and i think tumblr is better suited to longform content, so i'm putting them here. plus i met a lot of you through gaf so it feels fitting that i should post this here!

i was really happy with this season and how the show ended, for the most part! it was a pleasant surprise because 7a did not really click with me, and i was worried 7b would go the same way. but i was left extremely satisfied with how the grace/frankie dynamic played out.

but before getting into grace and frankie themselves, aka the stuff that i actually care about, here are some stray thoughts on the other storylines:

the coyote and jessica plot was cute. i've never been super invested in them but their relationship is sweet and i've always liked coyote pretty well compared to the other kids. i liked that they argued over the concept of soulmates vs. choosing to love someone, because i have had similar arguments in the past lol. i also thought the show handled coyote's potential relapse well.

i do wish they had spent more time on the coyote/frankie relationship, though. they threw in this big conflict that frankie doesn't trust coyote, which led to him spiraling out, but then their relationship was resolved offscreen. as much as i loved the coyote/grace scene (which i'll get into later), i would've liked to see a fuller resolution for coyote and frankie.

i've never cared about the say grace stuff, taneth is annoying (which pains me because i like casey wilson!), and mallory is boring. what i did find funny is that the show pretty much gave explicit meta commentary on how boring mallory is. it was clear that mallory wasn't a good fit for ceo so i guess it's good that she was fired, but i was kind of left feeling, what was the point of all of that? what i did like, though, was the exploration of the mallory/brianna dynamic. i find both characters the most interesting when the show is exploring their sibling relationship.

speaking of brianna, i loved that she ended the series single and childless. it was never really all that clear why she and barry were together since they seemed fundamentally compatible. there are so many series that force unconventional, prickly female characters into a "happy ending" where they end up with a husband and children (*cough* parks and rec *cough*), so i like that the series ended with brianna choosing to live her life the way she wants to. in a lot of ways i think brianna is living out the life that grace would have chosen for herself if the social pressures of the era hadn't made her feel obligated to marry and have kids. what i didn't like, though, is how they made brianna, like, actively awful towards the baby. you can not want or like kids without being a monster! also, i think she and barry should've broken up earlier, because doing it so late in the show left things sort of unresolved. but tbh i ultimately never cared that much about their relationship so whatever.

i did not care for bud's storyline. it makes sense why he would want to quit being a divorce lawyer, and it's consistent with his character as the Good Son that he was probably pushed into following in his father's footsteps without really considering whether that's what he wanted. but his pivot into comedy seemed out of left field and really just brought out the worst in both him and allison, and ultimately left me feeling like he's kind of a dick. and i hated that allison had to give him "permission" to quit his job.

this season was the most i ever cared about robert and sol. the storyline with robert's memory loss was so painful and hit way too close to home. martin sheen and sam waterston are both phenomenal actors and the show finally put their dramatic skills to good use. i actually can't talk about this part too much because like i said it hits too close to home and makes me emotional! but i appreciated how they handled it and that it ended on a note that was realistic but uplifting. the hotel scene was beautiful.

(i do have to say once again though that it is LAUGHABLE how little sexual/romantic chemistry martin and sam have, especially compared to jane and lily who are not supposed to be the canon gay couple. it took me out of their final moment a little when i noticed how clearly they framed the scene so that the elevator would close before they had to actually kiss.)

i still hate everything to do with robert's theatre troupe, though. peter is the WORST character on the entire show, and that plotline is boring and unfunny at best, and actively irritating at worst.

on the other hand, joan margaret is my fave side character, every time she was in a scene i was living.

there were so many characters that they brought back who i had zero memory of. like that guy who mediated the brianna/mallory conflict? was i supposed to know who that was? and i remembered michael mckean being on the show but i did not remember why he would be mad at frankie. i think that means i'm due for a rewatch.

but despite the novel that i wrote above, ultimately i never really cared about anything besides grace and frankie. so, on to the good stuff.

grace:

loveddd the stuff about her father. it's become pretty clear by now that there's a lot of jane fonda in grace, so when they revealed that her panic attacks and fear of the world root back to her father's death, i was like, of course. lol. but it provided a lot of new character insight! such as the fact that a lot the repression that she has continually blamed on her WASP upbringing is probably actually the result of her losing her sense of security when her father died. as evidenced by the fact that her brother, who was too young to remember his death, isn't as outwardly cold and repressed.

i wish they had dealt with her alcoholism more seriously. i loved the coyote/grace scene, as two addicts dealing with their addictions in different ways. and chainofclovers' post helped me to appreciate what they did this season more. but i still felt like it was frequently treated as a joke and i would've liked more closure. that closure doesn't have to be her quitting drinking and joining AA, because that's not realistic- lots of people don't overcome their addictions, and that's just life. but i wanted something more than what we got.

speaking of grace being a fictionalized jane fonda, i love that the show outright stated that grace becomes a different (subservient) person when she is in relationships with men, and that it's bad. it felt like a huge moment of character growth for her to realize this unhealthy dynamic in her relationships and reject it, and realize that even if nick isn't intentionally being controlling she can't be with him because of how she becomes when she's with men. personally i viewed it as her beginning to overcome her compulsory heterosexuality, which i know is not the only possible interpretation you could have, but it makes a lot of sense in this context.

i thought that the conversation between the hansons in "the horrible family" was so well done. everyone acknowledging how horrible they were but also acknowledging how much of it stemmed from trauma was just *chef's kiss*. i feel like it's been implied before but i like that they outright stated that one reason why grace struggled as a mother is because she was given zero blueprint from her own terrible mother (and once again i'm pretty positive that that plot point is taken directly from jane fonda's own autobiography lol)

frankie:

god, the stuff about her losing the ability to paint fucking gutted me. that's one of my greatest fears about getting older. her saying that she's less scared of dying than she is of all of the pain that leads up to it was so painful and real and i think relatable to a lot of people. (and i think this also comes from lily's life, since she's talked about her osteoarthritis affecting her hands, which just makes it even more painful)

other than exploring her feelings about death, which was big don't get me wrong, i feel like we didn't get all that much insight into her character this season. i wish we could've gotten a scene between the bergsteins like we got with the hansons in "the horrible family." but still, i was ultimately satisfied with her character arc this season and how she came to accept the struggles that will come with getting older.

also fucking loved her smuggling cheap drugs for senior citizens who can't afford them, although like i saw several others on here say, it is kind of weird how many Crime Plots grace and frankie were involved in this season.

grace/frankie:

fuck i love what they did with the grace/frankie/nick dynamic. i actually always enjoyed nick as a character outside of his relationship with grace, partly because peter gallagher is so charming, but i have been so sick of this man for several seasons now. i kept being like, why do they keep him around? but it turned out that his ultimate purpose was to highlight how important grace and frankie are to each other! and that no one else could ever be as important to them as they are to each other. grace saying she doesn't want to be married to nick because she wants to be with frankie? nick explicitly stating that their marriage was painful for him because he knew grace loved frankie more than she loved him?? HELLO??? as much as i did not enjoy seeing them have sex for one last time, even that scene highlighted the unequal relationship between the three of them. grace and nick are cuddling post-sex, frankie sits down next to grace, grace starts cuddling frankie instead, and nick knows that's his cue to leave. they really treated their dynamic as a love triangle in which not only did nick lose, but he was doomed to lose from the start. insanity.

grace having panic attacks at the thought of frankie dying because frankie is the only one besides her father who's ever made grace feel safe! my god these women love each other so much!!!

i love love love that a central thesis of the series is that these women's relationship makes them both better people

the scene where they go to heaven. holy shit. frankie rejected going to heaven so that she could be with grace. like. i honestly cannot fucking believe it. that's some shit out of greek mythology or something. and when they thought they were going to have to say goodbye, and put their foreheads together and said they loved each other? frankie saying she wishes they had more time together and that she knew grace as a little girl? grace saying she would be a completely different person (going back to the idea that they make each other better)? you can't tell me they're not deeply in love. you just can't.

(it's basically the castiel superhell ending but opposite lol)

THE FINAL SCENE HOLY SHIT. i have never seen anything more romantic than grace helping frankie to paint. my heart stuttered and i think i literally gasped out loud. no greater act of love!!!

the final scene is them walking off into the horizon while a song with the lyrics "i dedicate my life to you" is playing. i just. i can't.

these women are deeply, passionately in love with each other and in my headcanon they went back to the beach house after the last moments of the finale and admitted that their feelings aren't platonic, had sex, and got engaged. you can't tell me otherwise!

obviously my ideal scenario for the finale would have been for them to kiss and admit they're in gay love but realistically that was never gonna happen and i made peace with that a long time ago. i'm just so happy that the show ended with them committing to each other for the rest of their lives, in a way that i can easily interpret as being romantic/sexual. like, that's not just a headcanon, it's one possible reading that's completely consistent with the text. i know some people were disappointed but i was very emotionally satisfied with what we got. like i said on twitter, in some ways the ending we got felt gayer to me than if they had actually unequivocally made them gay. after all these years of loving this show but it putting me through agony because these women wouldn't admit their feelings to each other, this ending was better than i ever thought it would be.

i can't believe this show is over but i'm so grateful for what it's meant to me over these past 5 years or so, and for all the friends i made through the fandom. it really feels like the end of an era.

#this ended up being so long lmao #i have a lot of feelings #grace and frankie #grace and frankie spoilers

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cdyssey · 2 years

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Grace and Frankie 7B Thoughts:

Spoilers for the entire season, so if you’re not caught up yet, pls be aware!

Man, I did not realize how hard it would be to say goodbye to this show, but it was and is. It’s been in my life since I was fifteen, and now I’m 22. That’s kind of insane. I wept like a baby through those last two episodes, largely because of the beautiful emotional beats that were hit… and partially because I was dealing with the fact that this was the culmination of 7+ years of being in love with this show. Not only did I grow up with it, but it was important to my inner maturation as well. It was partially because I loved shipping Grace and Frankie sm that I eventually discovered that I’m biromantic, which I will always be appreciative of the show for.

While there were some parts of 7B that exasperated me—it wouldn’t be a G&F season if it didn’t, lmao—for the most part, I thought that this was an exceptionally strong closer to seven seasons of this exceptional show. Maybe I’ll kind of tackle individual character and relationship arcs to kick off this review, and then I can just go into random/episode observations?

Characters and Relationships:

Robert and Sol: My sincerest and absolute kudos to Sam and Martin for delivering their last arc with so much gravitas and pathos. It’s sometimes difficult for me to care what these two are up to, especially when they’re removed from Grace and Frankie, but Jesus H. Christ, the way I cried multiple times at their storyline. Oh, my God. The moment when Brianna and Mallory realized that their dad’s memory was slipping and Sol tearfully put his hands on their shoulders as they tried not to fall apart in front of their dad. When Sol was explaining Robert’s memory lapses to that reviewer and asked for a chance for Robert to end his acting career with dignity. When Robert clearly started describing Grace when he was supposed to be remembering his first meeting with Sol. And that last hotel scene—the way I fucking wept when the elevator doors closed upon their last kiss. I just. I’m still at a loss for words for how beautifully and painfully these two captured the specific horror that comes with memory loss.

Bud & Allison: God, Bud was so effing annoying in his final storyline sjwjwjsjsnansn, and Allison was actually really enjoyable in comparison as she played the straight woman to her husband’s midlife crisis antics. I appreciated that he had a complicated relationship with his job, but I’m not sure that stand-up comedian was the alternate route I would have gone for him. Even at the open mic night when he was supposedly doing well, I hated the jokes that he was telling about Allison. They were so mean-spirited!!! Also, all the lying he was doing! Jesus, just communicate, man! Also, KASKSJJSSJ, I know they probably didn’t have a baby actor for Faith around because of COVID guidelines, but it’s hilarious that the baby wasn’t seen once in the latter half of the season.

Coyote: Coyote’s storyline kind of hurt my heart. ;-; His family did him all kinds of dirty in multiple ways, especially at that brunch with Jessica’s parents. I really wish we could have gotten to see Frankie and Coyote reconciling onscreen after his talk with Grace because there was a lot to unpack there that wasn’t particularly closed off well. I also think they sort of skimmed over Coyote breaking his sobriety for the first time in several years. This being said, I super enjoyed that one-on-one he had with Grace. It’s one of the only times I think they’ve talked on an individual basis, and I love that they were both honest with each other about using substances to numb their pain.

The Hansons: One of my fave moments from the season was when the Hanson four got together and realized that they were horrible pieces of shits to their former housekeeper; it was realistic, and it allowed for all four of these emotionally repressed assholes to talk to each other on a real level about the traumas they inflicted upon each other as a family unit.

The Bergsteins: That being said, I don’t think we got as much closure as we could have gotten from the four Bergsteins... in a way, I they’ve always been the less developed family between the two. It was probably easier to mine the emotional turmoil that boils beneath the Hansons’ cold exteriors than the collectively more emotionally adjusted Bergsteins. However, I would have loved to see a similar scene to the one above where they hash out the different tensions between them: Sol and Frankie not trusting Coyote. Coyote having caused so much pain in his earlier years to breed that distrust, Bud’s hurt feelings over Frankie’s will, just little things like that!

Brianna and Mallory: While the Taneth storylines annoyed the hell out of me, lmaooooooo, I’m glad that the show ultimately remembered that their relationship is the most important that each other has. God, I loved Mallory trying to help smooth tensions between Brianna and Barry’s parents. And the scene where Brianna realized that she couldn’t work at Say Grace anymore in order to preserve her and Mal’s relationship. And I cried when Mallory finally realized that Brianna was deeply hurt over Barry, and she went over and let her sister cry in her arms. Scenes like those were lovely and so perfectly earned, and I’m glad that their arcs ended on the idea of forging a new path for themselves—together.

Brianna and Barry: Eh. I’ve always been kinda neutral on Brianna and Barry, mostly ‘cause they’ve seemed to have radically different ideas about life from the get-go, and that fact alone has led to them hurting to each other hundreds of times over seven seasons. I was ambivalent on whether they stayed together or broke up; it just surprised me that it took the better part of seven seasons for writers to conclude that they’d be better broken up dhsiofhsiohf.

Nick and Grace: Honestly, I’m really pleased with how they addressed and wrapped up the Nick and Grace plot. Grace was able to identify that she became more passive when she was Nick—even going as far as to act enfeebled for him at the expense of her own ambitions; and she respected her enough to end it without much emotional hesitation. Nick had some incredible (and much needed) growth as well. I loved what he said to Coyote and Jessica about how even though he and Grace had something magical, she ultimately did not choose him. Oh, gosh, and his last episode was great as well. It was here for one of the first times that I truly bought that he loved Grace and was hurt by the knowledge that she loved Frankie more than him! (THAT LINE!!!!!! THE FACT THAT WAS A REAL LINE! WOW!) And man, Grace and Nick apologizing each other for their failed marriage, that tender embrace in the kitchen... and when it came down to it, their final scene replicating what their entire relationship had been from the beginning. When Frankie needed Grace, Grace chose Frankie, and this time, Nick knew it was his time to bow out. When it comes down to it, I genuinely really like Nick, and he added so much to the G&F canon. Peter Gallagher did an excellent, excellent job with him.

Grace and Frankie: And now here we go. Here’s the big one—our beloved Grace and Frankie. I think I should start off with identifying what my expectations were for them this season. While I ship Grace and Frankie with my entire ass heart and think that the subtext for a romantic relationship for them is so palpable that it sometimes makes me want to vomit... I don’t think I went in thinking that we would get explicit confirmation of them being romantically involved. I wanted it. I sometimes thought that I was going to be proven wrong (ESPECIALLY IN THE HEAVEN SCENE JESUS GOD)... but my tempered expectations were thus: I was going to resolve to be happy if the end of Grace and Frankie was them affirming that their happily ever after was each other and no one else, that their love was prioritized over everything and all. And in my opinion, I think that this is exactly what happened. In so many dozens of times throughout this last half of the season—and in so many different ways—we were able to watch Grace and Frankie choose each other exactly in the way that Nick described to Coyote and Jessica. Oh, my God, there are almost too many times to count. When Grace said she was tired of catering to the men in her life, and Frankie knew that this meant that she wanted to be with her. When Frankie said that if she could, she wouldn’t go anywhere without Grace. When Grace said that Frankie was the only person she could feel secure with besides her beloved father. When Grace was literally having panic attacks at the thought of losing Frankie, and relatedly, when she was coping with this agonizing pain by trying to numb herself with substances. And when they confronted each other at Coyote’s fake wedding—my God, the raw pain in their voices as they spoke their truth. I ugly fucking sobbed!!!! Grace correctly identifying that Frankie was feeling relieved at the prospect of dying, and Frankie being brutally honest about the why. When she said she couldn’t paint anymore, and Grace’s eyes just widened in horror and complete understanding. When they were in Heaven and had some of the most painfully honest conversations we had ever seen of them; by the time they were trying to say goodbye to each other, I’d completely lost my shit!!!!!!! That fucking forehead touch! And by the time, Grace was helping Frankie paint—which was scored to a very romantic song by the way—I don’t think I could even see my screen!!!!!!!!!!! The last episode alone gave me everything I needed to happily believe that Grace and Frankie will never be apart from each other again in both a platonic and romantic capacity.

(This being said, I do think it is entirely valid to be angry and disappointed that the romance was not explicit, to feel as though the show has queerbaited this relationship for at least 4ish seasons, and if you feel this way, you’re right to do so—the subtext was there, and it was teased time and time again within the canon of the show. That was absolutely not made up.)

Stray Observations:

For just the odds and ends I didn’t cover above HSIOHSOIHOI. I’m still going to miss shit, though. Since I binged all these from, like, 2am to 8am, I might go back sometime later this week and watch them all over again and do a coherent roundup of things I missed.

Favorite 7B Episode: “The Beginning” — When I tell you I could wept through, like, 20 minutes of this episode’s runtime, I’m not even lying. I think Sol and Robert in the hotel being back to back with Grace helping Frankie with painting did me in—the parallel was so explicit. These partners will take care of each other until the day they die. Also, Dolly Parton!!!!! She was so fucking good!!!

Least Favorite 7B Episode: “The Wire” — Watching Grace and Frankie being painfully bad at being undercover was not fun, lmao, and then we got that horrible Sol/Robert accuse Peter’s boyfriend of stealing plot, and an unpleasant dosage of the Taneth storyline. HOWEVER, I do love the fact that Grace realized that she couldn’t let Nick betray his best friend because she’d betrayed her own and it was the worst thing she’d ever done. Amazing. Even the weird episodes always have their gems.

Some plot lines/choices that made me go what the fuck: (1) Okay, I understand what the show was trying to do with having no one remember stuff about Frankie apart from things she’d done with Grace, but that felt so wrong to me iodshoiahfiohfoi, especially coming from Sol and the Bergstein kids. Like, y’all assholes could not remember one thing about your ex-wife and mother of 40+ years. (2) Why on Earth did we have to endure two Grace-and-Frankie suck at doing crimes plots HSIOHSIOHSIOHSIOHS?

Some particularly good acting moments that nearly undid me: (1) Sol just collapsing in his chair when Frankie said that she couldn’t paint anymore. He knew exactly how much of a deep cut that was. (2) Frankie in her studio, trying and failing to pick up her brush. The way I cried, on God. Lily Tomlin does pathos so well. It’s always subtle and unfailingly raw. (3) Every time Grace tried to repress her panic over the possibility of Frankie dying. Jane’s body constricted language and wide, anxious eyes got me every time.

Overall, I loved this season, in both its glorious ups and its weird downs, and that ending shot of Grace and Frankie walking together on the beach—alive, together, and well—will stick with me for a long time.

And so will this show.

Forever and always.

Thank you, Grace and Frankie.

For everything.

#grace and frankie #grace x frankie #grace and frankie spoilers #gaf spoilers #s: grace and frankie #i am 100% going to write some loose end and retrospective fics for s7 #if you have any ideas #feel free to hit me up in my inbox #and i might incorporate some into fics i have planned #or take prompts

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