How coincidental that the second season of Frankie & Grace coincided with the series ending of The Good Wife. Thirty years difference in age, they all represent in different ways “The Good Wife.”
Which begs the question, what is a Good Wife anyway?
Hillary Clinton and Millennials have a cold relationship. Millennials reject her Tammy Wynette stand-by-your-man approach to her marriage and life. They want to know why she didn’t just divorce him. On The Good Wife, Alicia stood next to her man through cocaine, prostitutes, prison, affairs, and alleged illegal goings-on while in office.
In Frankie & Grace, while they don’t literally stand by their men as the men announce their gay relationship love, and marriage intentions, they might have if the men hadn’t rejected them. They do figuratively stand by their men. Frankie actually marries them and Grace facilitates the wedding.
One series begins and another series ends. They both have strong women as lead characters. But are they good wives? Which really begs a bigger question: what is a good any one at any position?
Are you a good wife if you stand by a drug addicted spouse or are you a bad wife. Substitute the word employee for wife. Are you a good boss if you stand by a drug addicted employee or an enabler?
Are you a good wife if you stand with a husband who hid an affair for 30 years? Whether it was a straight or gay affair is beside the point. Does that make you a saint or a bad example? On Frankie & Grace, while the spouses may accept it, they find out their adult children have problems with the inherent integrity issues. Stand by, good or bad?
Substitute CEO for spouse. Are you a good Board Member if you hid a CEO’s affair or a bad Board Member?
At the series end of The Good Wife, SPOILER ALERT, Alicia gets a smack heard round the world. Maybe we all need that to a degree to figure out what is “good” anyway.
