Netflix left a Grace and Frankie surprise on Friday’s doorstep.
The Jane Fonda– and Lily Tomlin-starring comedy has released the first four episodes of its seventh and final season. The drop came overnight, with an announcement direct from the pair of iconic actresses.
Stepping into their beloved onscreen schtick, the co-stars and executive producers said they decided to offer the early peek to reward fans as they continue working on season seven, which isn’t due out in full until 2022.
“Don’t worry, there’s plenty more to come. We just wanted to give you something special until we finish the rest of the season,” Fonda says in a video posted to social media. Her explanation is followed by Tomlin, in classic Frankie fashion, adding, “It was between this and the Del Taco gift cards. I wanted to go with the gift cards.”
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When Fonda quickly notes, “We were never giving them that.” Tomlin closes by saying, “I tried, people.”
Grace and Frankie was renewed for a supersized final season back in the fall of 2019. Picked up for 16 final episodes (three more than the usual 13), the comedy is set to go out with a record 94 episodes, making it the longest-running show on Netflix. The sixth season aired in January 2020.
While Netflix has in the past pulled off surprise releases, those drops typically came a day early and with full seasons. But Grace and Frankie was filming its fifth episode when Hollywood productions shut down in March 2020 due to the pandemic, making these four episodes that were filmed before the shutdown now ready to go. Twelve episodes remain.
Alongside Tomlin and Fonda, Sam Waterston, Martin Sheen, June Diane Raphael, Brooklyn Decker, Baron Vaughn and Ethan Embry all return for the Skydance-produced comedy’s final season, along with showrunners Marta Kauffman and Howard J. Morris.
Grace and Frankie fans, we have something special for you — four new episodes from Season 7 are now streaming!
And more episodes are on the way! pic.twitter.com/XYPZuvyI9A
— Netflix (@netflix) August 13, 2021
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