Why 'Grace and Frankie' Is the Best Comedy Show Out There at the Moment

As someone from Britain with a very British sense of humour (and yes that's humour with a U) I have always preferred British comedy to American comedy. Whilst I have enjoyed American comedies, I've found over the years that they are severely lacking something fresh and distinctly funny. Shows like The Big Bang Theory just aren't cutting it anymore. Enter Grace and Frankie, the Netflix comedy. Discovered through complete boredom, it may be the best TV decision I ever made. Starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie is the story of two women in their '70s whose husbands come out as gay and have fallen in love with each other. We follow Grace and Frankie, who move in together, and see their personalities clash but also get a glimpse into the lives of the two ex-husbands Robert and Sol and all their children.

The reason Grace and Frankie is so funny is because the creators aren't scared to try anything including seeing how many times they can use the word "vagina" in one episode. Frankie is a character who will say exactly what she's thinking without caring who's around to hear it. She's a liberal woman who keeps in constant touch with her feelings and thinks everyone else should too. Grace, on the other hand, is very conservative and has many walls that only intensify when her husband leaves her. The two women shouldn't work as friends and often they don't which is what makes the show funny. The creators use the fact that these are women in their '70s to create humorous situations and even better, they don't paint Jane Fonda's character as average-looking for her age, because let's be honest, she looks fantastic.

What makes the show so hilarious is how frank and honest it is about so many issues, but more specifically ageing as a woman. It's portrayed in a way that shows that it is a crisis that women go through but also that at 70, people are still full of life and ambitions and that leads people to have a connection with these characters.

Grace and Frankie also has a brilliant supporting cast with really interesting characters. Robert and Sol have to figure out how to navigate life as a married gay couple at 70. Grace and Robert's two daughters offer a funny dynamic that isn't unlike me and my own sister. Malory is a married mother of four and Brianna is now the CEO of her mother's company, both successful in their own right but still very much competing against one another. The sibling relationship whilst complex is very much a loving one. Frankie and Sol's two adopted sons have a similar loving relationship with Bud as a successful lawyer and Coyote an ex-drug addict in recovery. The humour usually ensues when all four are together, with Brianna clearly the alpha in the pack, making sassy comments usually directed at Bud. The four adult children are also the go-betweens for Grace and Frankie when the two are arguing, which is usually all the time and offer some great comedic moments.

Grace and Frankie is restoring my hope for the future of comedy and I can only hope that Netflix is going to continue releasing more comedies along the same lines. If you have already seen Grace and Frankie and are looking for another Netflix comedy to tide you over until the release of season four in mid-January, then I would recommend One Day at a Time. It's another brilliant Netflix comedy that celebrates diversity whilst commenting on society's outlook on the Latina community and very much worth the watch.