Grace and Frankie

I watched the first episode of the Netflix series Grace and Frankie last night starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin and found it very cute. It's the story of two older women whose husbands (who are also business partners) announce they're gay, that they've been having a relationship for twenty years behind their wives' back, and that they're planning to marry, now that it's legal. What's refreshing about the show is that the main cast is filled entirely with older people (Fonda, Tomlin, Martin Sheen, and Sam Waterston. That's not something you see a lot these days. The writing is tight, the acting is great, and the storyline is interesting. I'd read about the show in the NY Times and now that I have streaming service, I was actually able to sit down and watch it. I read a comment online somewhere that the bulk of good writing these days is on TV because TV writers don't have to be concerned about overseas appeal the way movie writers do. Shows like True Detective (the first season--I haven't seen the second yet though I heard it sucks), Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and others probably wouldn't translate well overseas because they deal with largely American themes and issues, but that's okay. Everything can't appeal to everyone nor should it have to. Good writing is being churned out for a lot of small screen shows and these shows seem to be finding an audience, which is great.