What I’m Watching: Grace and Frankie

Grace and Frankie: Season 2, Episode 5 “The Test” (B+)

This was a particularly good episode, forgetting all about Robert and Sol and only involving supporting players as far as Frankie’s sons to make her doubt whether she actually might be losing her mind. Frankie’s expired license provided a great premise for Grace to realize that she needed to start seeing other people and for Frankie to think about how her dependency on Grace made her feel helpless. It makes perfect sense that Grace’s friends would be vain and more obsessed with looking and seeming nice than actually having good intentions. To be fair, Swoosie Kurtz’s Janet was the vilest of them all, and the other two seemed relatively harmless if a bit too materially obsessed. Janet’s multiple references to Grace as a pariah who was right to shy away from society when she started having personal problems that became public were especially harsh, and kudos to Grace for taking a stand and not going back to that lifestyle, not to mention standing up for Frankie in the process. I’m all for Wii, but traditional bowling is considerably more fun. Frankie deciding that she needed to be high in order to pass the driver’s test was funny, and I’m glad that she still failed more than enough of the exam to sufficiently limit her driving abilities and ensure that the world remains safe from her vehicular influence, a fact that will surely satisfy Bud and Coyote, who were rightfully worried that their eternally kooky mother shouldn’t really be on the road.