Weekend Watch: Shining Girls, Grace & Frankie
Serial killers and octogenarian laugh-grabbers...
Image Credit: Apple TV+
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Elisabeth Moss is tracking a killer while switching realities, and the Jane Fonda/Lily Tomlin sitcom takes its final bow. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
With series including Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale and Top Of The Lake, plus the big screen likes of The Invisible Man on her CV, Elisabeth Moss would be forgiven for seeking out something just a little cheerier. Instead, she remains driven to find darker, moodier material that allows her to deliver one excellent turn after another.
On the quality level alone, Shining Girls certainly continues that line. It’s clearly something that Apple TV+ believes in and has stumped up a solid budget for. Silka Luisa, a veteran of series including Strange Angel and the Paramount+ Halo adaptation, is the executive producer here, working from Lauren Beukes’ 2013 novel. And, possibly even more exciting on the creative front, the main director is Michelle MacLaren, who proved herself on series such as Breaking Bad, working alongside Moss herself (who is another executive producer) and Daina Reid.
Moss, naturally, is the focus, playing Kirby Mazrachi, the survivor of a traumatic attack that has left her scarred and shaken and, just as unsettlingly, shifting between realities that are either subtly or vastly different each time. It can be as small as where her desk is at work (she labours in the research department at the Chicago Sun-Times), or as big as being married to a colleague (Chris Chalk’s Marcus) and living in a completely different apartment.
Yet Kirby has learned to deal with that every-changing situation because her focus is on tracking the man she believes is responsible for attacking her and for other murders. Kirby teams up with careworn reporter Dan Velazquez (Wagner Moura) to dig into the latest slaying.
And then there’s the mysterious man (Jamie Bell) who keeps cropping up in the lives of various victims and is most definitely involved (I’ll not reveal more).
Moss is, as always, excellent, world-weary but watchable. Moura makes Dan a troubled mess of a man who nevertheless steps up to help Kirby when she throws herself into the investigation. And Bell? Well, as mentioned, the less said about him the better, but he’s chilling in places.
In keeping with all of Apple’s recent shows, it looks sumptuous (and in this case, with serious shades of David Fincher), bringing the central 1990s time period to life, hinting at reality shifts with an evolving colour palette with painstaking detail and fascinating needle drops. Shining Girls is by no means an easy watch, but it does grip you, even as the story starts as a serious slow burn. This is a show that rewards patience.
The first three episodes of Shining Girls are on Apple TV+ now. A new episode will drop every Friday for the next five weeks.
Image Credit: Netflix
Winding down and wrapping up is always a tricky subject to broach for a sitcom, and certainly when your leads’ combined age is 169. But with advanced knowledge that they wanted to end the show on their terms, the Grace And Frankie creative team has found an effective, moving, and, in keeping with the series, gently funny way to bring down the curtain.
While Grace And Frankie might not be as hilarious as it once was, it remains a resolutely entertaining series that allows two supremely talented women a chance to shine. You likely know the story at this point – standoffish businesswoman Grace (Jane Fonda) and hippy-dippy lovebug Frankie (Lily Tomlin) are shocked when their husbands (Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston respectively) drop a bombshell: they’re in love. With each other. And they’re going to go off together.
That forces Grace and Frankie – who’ve never truly seen each other as friends to figure out their own lives going forward. Around them are their various adult kids, love interests and wacky friends who flit in and out.
And yes, the core of the series is a lot of familiar jokes about age and the lead characters’ clashing personalities, their various foibles, and the scrapes they find themselves in. Yet, in the hands of a writers’ room led by Marta Kauffman (Friends) and Howard J. Morris (Home Improvement), there is plenty of mirth to be mined.
Grace and Frankie themselves have also evolved and realised they have more in common than not, and the chemistry of former 9 To 5 co-stars and real-life friends Fonda and Tomlin shines through on-screen.
This final season doesn’t shy away from the idea of ending, and, with the help of a big guest star, they confront it directly while still drawing laughs. The powerhouse central duo, with a superb ensemble around them, have built the various story strands into a welcome and comfy level of comedy, that I’m unafraid to enjoy as a pleasure without any guilt. So long, G&F… I’ll miss hanging out with you.
Grace And Frankie Season 7: The Final Episodes is on Netflix now.