Netflix’s Grace and Frankie is a great original program, but it wasn’t without its flaws this season. Especially when it came to how they handled Brianna, Mallory, Coyote, and Bud.
Related: Grace and Frankie season 4 review: Lots of laughs, less heart
I’ve been a big fan of Grace and Frankie since it was first introduced on Netflix. However, the latest season is the first one where I felt like there were some things that just weren’t working for the series. A few of the storylines that were included had me wanting to skip through scenes. What I really want to talk about though, is what I felt like the show missed out on including.
There’s no doubt that Grace and Frankie, played by Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, are the real stars of the show. They give the show life and are always a joy to watch on screen together. However, the series isn’t just about them. It’s also about their family, including their ex-husbands and children. Robert and Sol’s strained relationship took up a lot of screen time this season, but it definitely left something to be desired. I didn’t find their issues to be interesting, entertaining, or like a natural progression.
Instead of so much time of the season being devoted to their problems, I would have loved to see more of their children – Brianna, Mallory, Coyote, and Bud. Each one of these characters felt like they had very interesting storylines going on all of their own, but we only got bits and pieces of it.
Of all the children, it felt like Brianna had the most complete storyline this season. First, fans got to see her dealing with the reality of living with Barry and trying not to act like a crazy lady about her particular care for her dog. Also trying not to act like a crazy lady when Barry decides to go work for her nemesis. And interestingly, her scrambling to try and save the family company Say Grace from going bankrupt.
However, it still felt like we could have gotten more out of Brianna. She’s always particularly interesting to watch, because she’s just like Grace. It’s almost like getting a view into what Grace might have been like at that age which makes their interactions together all the better. Fans only got bits and pieces of Barry and Brianna together and there is still a big questions mark over what is going to happen with Say Grace.
Mallory’s storyline was definitely much more bare than her sister. She seems to be an after thought in many scenes, usually showing up for family events, driving Coyote around, and then taking an unpaid internship at Say Grace just to get out of the house.
Although fans get to hear her talking about her separation and living as a single mother, what they don’t get to see is any interactions with her ex Mitch or any of her four children. Instead of just hearing her talk about these things, it would have added so much more depth to actually see some of these scenes play out on screen.
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Coyote’s storyline was also very lacking, this season he was mainly worrying about supporting his girlfriend in her sobriety as well as interacting with the family and that was basically it. Coyote has felt like a one note character for a while, he’s usually left to be the irresponsible one of all the children. Therefore he doesn’t really have any serious storylines going on.
He’s quite close to Malloy and it really felt like the writers could have made these two way more interesting by building up on this, but they never did. Which is very, very disappointing. Towards the end of the season, Coyote reveals that he plans on moving away with his girlfriend but there was never really any discussion about it after he told Frankie.
Unlike this brother, Bud did have a bit more going on this season. He’s dealing with the upcoming arrival of his baby with his girlfriend Allison. They’re learning how to deal with their differences in personalities and how that’s going to play out in getting married and raising a child together.
While it was nice to see Bud get a good amount of storyline, I never really felt an interest in his relationship with Allison. But I did appreciate the grandparent storylines that were brought in as a result of his daughter being born. This does say something about how much more effort is put into Grace, Frankie, Robert, and Sol’s storylines versus the other adults in the series.
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I can definitely appreciate that the focus of the series is rightfully on Grace and Frankie. However, what I don’t want to see is the other characters ignored in such a way that it’s glaringly obvious that we’re missing out on so much of their lives. The show is only better when fans are allowed access to the characters and storylines that they’re drawn to. And it helps understand the whole family dynamic when viewers really know what is going on in Brianna, Mallory, Coyote, and Bud’s lives.
Despite the letdowns of Grace and Frankie season 4, I still have high hopes for what’s to come on the show. There is plenty more to explore with these characters, and I hope that the writers can find a way to make things more balanced for all of them.