'Grace and Frankie' Season 6 Review: Friendship wins over love as the pals stand up for what they believe in
This review contains spoilers for 'Grace and Frankie' Season 6
We cannot tell you how eagerly we have been waiting for the latest season of ‘Grace And Frankie’ to release. For five successful seasons, the show has given us hope, warmth, inspirations and ideas to look forward to in life, even if it means starting life at 70! It is perhaps one of the most aspirational shows out there today, standing out among the clutter of cutting-edge plots and ideas. Grace Hanson and Frankie Bergstein might be in their 70s but they are nothing like most women their age. And yet they are.
Until the last season, Grace and Frankie’s life after divorce was all about their new business - Vybrant. Turning a need into a big idea and making it their goal in life was not only commendable but gave hope to all women, irrespective of their age.
And then the inevitable happened. Neither of the two lead characters thought of being on their own, especially after the two had gone through so much in the last five years, together. But Grace fell in love with Nick. And one fine day, they eloped to Las Vegas and got married. Season 5 left off right here, where Grace tries to convince Frankie about what she did and why.
Knowing Frankie, it was harder than Grace ever imagined it would be. Frankie cannot live all by herself, which she herself has established over and over. And she should not. While it might have been a tad selfish for her to make herself dependent on Grace, they are at an age when people do tend to get dependent. But she fights her fears and fights it well. She rises up to her confidence of living alone until Grace reaches out to her. A small incident around Grace’s physical inability becomes the goal for their next business venture.
Season 6 might apparently seem all about their hydraulic toilet – Rise Up and there is an underlying message here. Every character of the story rises up to what they believe in and what they always wanted. Take Brianna and Barry for instance. They have a very one-sided relationship, where Brianna appears to be more dominating and imposing and Barry conforms as the submissive one. It’s not fair perhaps, but it has been working for them so far, until Barry could take it no more.
When Say Grace gets acquired by their competitor brand and Brianna accepts a lucrative job offer in San Francisco, Barry realizes how much he had been submitting to. He finally stands up for himself and breaks up with Brianna.
Elsewhere, Sol and Robert also had their instances where each rose up to what they wanted. Robert wanted to save the local theater and so he did, even if it meant selling his and Sol’s cherished burial plot. On knowing the truth, Sol rose up to his dream to buy a chopper motorcycle for himself. So far, Sol has been accommodating himself to what his husband wants, but he realizes that he has his own desires too!
Coyote also has his moments. His journey of sobriety made him adapt and adjust himself and his life to people around him, probably owing to his guilt. But he is in a much better place now and does not need validation for everything that he does for himself. So when he coincidentally falls for Bud’s ex-girlfriend, he is scared at first, but manages to face his brother and tell him the truth.
Finally, back to the besties! There is a saying that friendship always takes precedence over romance, especially if the friendship is older than the romance. Grace finally proves it to every word. She loves Nick with all her heart, but she cannot ignore the inexplicable bond she shares with Frankie.
Grace tries to ignore her friend and the friendship, fights her own gut feeling, but does not find happiness in doing so. Sacrificing her friendship for her marriage is a mistake that she had done before and she doesn’t want to repeat her mistakes. So she rises up to her primary emotions and sets her priorities straight with her husband.
And thus, like every season, the two women teach us the most valuable lessons of life. The ideas in the show's plot might be tried, tested and clichéd, but the approach these two women take every time is novel in its own right, proving that nothing stops life, if you truly want to live it.
