Grace and Frankie S1:E3 "The Dinner"

Anne Marie here, taking over recap duties for an episode! In Episode 2, physical possessions were divvied up for the divorce (for now), so Episode 3 is when we focus on feelings and family. Grace and Frankie, suddenly devoid of social obligations and artistic inspiration, decide to combat their own sense of irrelevence by getting jobs. Grace returns to the beauty company she founded, now run by her daughter Brianna, only to discover that Brianna has steered the company in a new direction. 

Elsewhere, Frankie attempts to interview at an old folks home, but is mistaken for a potential client. For most of this epiosde, Grace & Frankie's storylines felt a bit too much like a B plot from Sutton Foster's age-and-cliche-obsessed show Younger on TVLand (is anybody else watching Younger?). But on the other hand, the episode does culminate in Grace having a meltdown in a supermarket and Frankie stealing a pack of cigarettes like a middle-aged Thelma & Louise.

Meanwhile, on our favorite Law & Order/The West Wing crossover fanfiction, Jed Bartlett & Jack McCoy Robert & Sol are enjoying the honeymoon phase of their incipient relationship...

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Grace and Frankie S1:E2 "The Credit Cards"

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...

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Grace and Frankie: "The End" (Which is the Beginning)

Another week, another Netflix series debut. It seems like there are loads of them every month, yes? But this one, Grace and Frankie  is right up The Film Experience's alley.

It stars two beloved actresses: double Oscar winner Jane Fonda (Grace) and Oscar nominee Lily Tomlin (Frankie) reuniting 35 years after their comedy blockbuster Nine to Five. What's more Grace and Frankie uses, at least as its launching pad, our favorite genre Women Who Lie To Themselves™ and mixes it with LGBT subject matter and comes from the creator of Friends Marta Kauffman. That's a lot of pluses in its column even before you get to its delightfully sweet opening titles sequence involving a multi-tiered wedding cake.

Don't believe whatever early buzz that had people shrugging. It's a lot of fun and it's damn beautiful to see these two actresses working together again. After the jump a quick recap of the first episode with best lines and MVP moments and such.

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Nine to Five: "Best Shot" Visual Index

For this week's episode of Hit Me With Your Best Shot: the classic comedy Nine to Five (1980). We chose it to coincide with the forthcoming premiere of Grace & Frankie which will reunite Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin at last. Pity that Dolly Parton doesn't figure in! 

Nine To Five was a smash hit when it premiered in December 1980, finishing that year as the top grossing movie without light sabers. Awards bodies weren't as kind as the public. Though the title song won two Grammys for Dolly Parton, she didn't win her Oscar category (the film's only nomination) and even more bizarrely, the movie wasn't nominated for Best Comedy at the Golden Globes. The film has endured quite well in pop culture so it doesn't need resuscitation but we thought it would be interesting to think about the way it's shot. Comedies are rarely considered in that regard. The film was directed by Colin Higgins who only made three films (all of them comedy hits) due to an early death at only 47. It was shot by cinematographer Reynaldo Villabolos who is, more happily, still with us and still working in film and television.

Best Shots from Nine To Five (1980)
10 shots from 12 participating blogs

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Mad Men @ the Movies: "Forecast"

Lynn Lee, here again to discuss this week’s Mad Men

Glen is off to Vietnam but wants a proper goodbye from Betty

Maybe Don Draper should have been a movie director.  His best ads have a film-like narrative and emotional pull, and going to the movies (something we, perhaps tellingly, haven’t seen him do in a while) seems to recharge his creative batteries.  Even now, as he appears increasingly disaffected with the business of selling either his work or his home, he yearns for the kind of high concept that sounds better suited to the big screen, whether it involves the World’s Fair or a fantasy about the inventor of the Frisbee making a million and moving to France.  After all, he’s managed to rewrite his own life story – the public version, at least – like the brashest of screenwriters: from poverty to the penthouse.

[Jane Fonda, Vietnam and more after the jump]

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