Seeing Stella Gibson and Grace Hanson seek pleasure unrepentantly and even prioritize it has done so much to help me push aside guilt and made me way more comfortable being a sexual being!!!!
Autostraddle’s got a March madness for best coming out — AND THEY INCLUDE GRACE HANSON?????
I love that summary ^^ even though I think Netflix /Kaufmann and co are a bunch of cowards probably don’t see it that way.
She’s a #15 seed up against a #2 — Erica Hahn from Grey’s Anatomy — so the odds don’t look great but seriously IT IS AN HONOR JUST TO BE NOMINATED even if we all know grace is a disaster lesbian not a bisexual
throwing them below the cut for spoilers. it’s ,, a lot, but replies are on and my inbox is (always) open if anyone wants to yell with me!!!!
okay so this is my first season of g&f where i’m watching it in real time, so i am both so ready and not ready for this fucking magic carpet ride of emotions. first of all, just so happy to see the two of them on screen again. it’s just so healing to get a nice two shot of them together, like this
!!!!! look at them !!! shocked in a del taco!!!! (a del shock-o) what’s not to love?????
anyway, things I liked about this episode:
1. GRACE EATS DEL TACO.
on the surface, obviously it’s fun but it’s huge to me because there’s something wonderfully political about women REALISTICALLY eating on screen. I think of The Fall -- also on netflix -- and when Gillian Anderson absolutely LAYS IN to this cheeseburger . (there’s a post that articulates this much better than I will here, but Stella eats! as if women need sustenance! and it’s not the main event! and it’s not conventionally pretty!!!!) so while grace’s disordered eating deserves its own post, it was so nice to see her and frankie 1- share something that frankie loves 2- get to Just Eat because it was a long fucking day and that’s what people do when they’re exhausted and hungry and have the ability to. also 3- seeing jane who has been so image conscious her whole life take a bite of the burrito -- and then dive back in for a second massive bite -- was a religious experience okay?
2. Reclaiming Agency/Control
The obvious example of this is the implementation of ‘the Fuck It Life’ by our leading ladies. but it was done so much more meaningfully than the previews led me to believe. maybe this has something to do with jane’s incredible prowess as an actress (acting is reacting, babes, and jane is the QUEEN). grace starts the del taco sequence fairly down and out. but you can truly see the moment it hits her that, wait a second, saying ‘fuck it’ is an option. we don’t have to go along with this, or any other bullshit we’re being presented with. obviously that’s not going to be enough to make her problems go away, but in parallel with jane -- and jane as grace!!!!-- leaning in to take a second massive bite of burrito, you can see grace eschewing propriety here, and deciding that they’re going after what they want-- and they’ll work out the consequences as they crop up. it seems (knock on wood) like a more meaningful-- perhaps more hard fought, better earned?-- version of the season 2 finale (fuck all y’all we’re making vibrators--> fuck all y’all we’re taking our lives back)
more specifically the reclaiming control comes in when grace and frankie reassert themselves as The Parents, as in, they are In Fucking Charge, not their kids. there’s a visual shift of power-- bud tries to physically move frankie and she refuses, and then they physically usher the kids out. it was like fresh fucking air.
also, I know he’s a Hot Topic in this fandom (aka not universally liked) but it was nice to see this theme held up for robert and sol too-- i think for the first time we saw robert Being The Parent, and i loved it. (i have a soft spot for robert and sol because i have a Theory about the presentation of their relationship, and because I am loving seeing the gay!JedBartlet that america (and leo) deserved.) Brianna wanted to stay and grill Roy, and kept hanging back to do so, until Robert pops back and uses, for the first time that I remember, his Dad Voice. so we’re making the kids, kids, again, and it’s about fucking time. respect your elders, even the ones who lack chemistry with their romantic scene partners.
speaking of chemistry:
3. grace and frankie make for a terrifying and brilliant unified front.
it’s obvious. this season they are the walking, talking, fuck slinging version of ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’ but adding to that? my GOD if you ever need an example of why a- opposites attract and b- make for an incredibly formidable pair of opponents, look at this fucking moment.
we’ve said it a million times, but it bears repeating: grace has grown so much. her popped collar lemon blouse propriety has met its match in our tuvan throat singing ball of pendants, and they are going to lovingly burn anyone who gets in their way to the fucking ground.
4. grace looking at frankie, frankie looking at grace:
[EDIT: 4b. it isn’t just good to see them together:
this episode was already stronger than last season because they have every scene together, which means the story -- and the dialogue. the fucking h u m o r -- is just so much stronger. they’re the heart of this show because we like watching them on screen together. bottom line. so lets hope this keeps up.]
5. the exit theme: “A Wall” by Downtown Boys
“How much is enough?/ And who makes that call?” oh my GOD i’m adding this to my regular playlist and also a mental g&f playlist i have in the making tbh.
But Kaufmann and co are finally writing *the show they thought they were writing all along!!!! (*kooky platonic gal pals, not tenderly pining queer women in love)
