We'll take the next episode of Grace and Frankie quickly both because it's shorter and it's not as jam-packed with discussables as the premiere. We begin with the women still devastated while "the boys" -- I love that their wives call them that -- are already much more lighthearted, having finally pulled the trigger on coming out. Sol (Sam Waterston), is way more excited about having come out than the more reserved Robert (Martin Sheen). More...
Martin: Just because we're out now, doesn't mean we're going to be gay with a vengeance.
They cancel their wives credit cards and divorce battles begin. It looks like everyone will get the home that they want, since between the four of them they own three. Is this all working out too neatly?
Best Jane Fonda moment
Best Lily moment
I reject your presence here. you are invisible to me.
This could still go either way...
Nwabudike: Hey man, how's it going?
Coyote: I spent half the day wearing a post-it note that said "all my dreams are dead"
Nwabudike: Well, it's nice they got to know you.
Frankie's sons, so perfectly named (!), are also an odd couple. Nwabudike (Baron Vaughn) is a successful lawyer (that's the implication, I think) while Coyote (Ethan Embry) is just out of rehab and a substitute teacher. They grew up knowing Grace's daughters, bitchy oft-quipping Brianna (June Diane Raphael) and super mom Mallory (Brooklyn Decker), and there is apparently some kind of history that leads to a funny non-exchange between Coyote and Mallory's husband.
I'm undecided. That "gaymaggedon? armagaydon?" moment is kind of endearing, as is the brotherly teasing quoted here, but every time the camera is on anyone but Grace and Frankie it's like... can we go back to them?
Most Quotable:
I'll journal my disappointment later"
Episode MVP: Lily Tomlin is fine throughout (When is the Emmy eligibility cutoff this season?) a master of the eyeroll at everything that exasperates her. But she has two superb moments, one is where she tries to explain her feelings to her friends (Scandal's Joe Morton & the always welcome Mary Kay Place - yay!) and keeps jumping away from her sentences midstream until she settles on "exhausted" and then there's a hilarious hostile moment where she explodes on her iPhone "Fuck you, Sol," before slamming it down. Only to realize that doesn't actually hang phones up. Saul only hears the collision of table and phone "what happened are you OK?," and Frankie's anger immediately deflates into girlish embarrassment "Nothing, bye." She's so nimble with quicksilver moodshifts that manage to be both hilarious and touching.
Grade: B. ... If only the show were as quick-fire! I'm noticing a tendency for the editing and direction to leave spaces for us to get the jokes (that towel head-wrapped joke screencapped up top for example, leaves way too much space to make sure you're laughing with Sol) but Lily has usually already moved on to her next comic beat. Keep up!