We are not 80-year-old Sicilian women from Brooklyn.
On the surface, that might make us seem like an unlikely pair to tell the story of Golden Groves. But the truth is, the heart of this series has very little to do with age, geography, or even retirement. It’s about something we all understand: finding your people and figuring out who you are when the life you knew is no longer defining you.
Anyone who has ever moved to a new town, started a new job, gone away to college, or simply found themselves in a new chapter of life knows what it feels like to be the new person in the room. When Eric moved back to Colorado and started a new job, his daughter would ask him every day, “Did you make any new friends today?” Kids understand something adults often forget: how important it is to find your people.
That is Josette’s journey.
For the first time in her life, Josette gets to discover who she is—and who her people are—without someone else deciding for her. After a lifetime of being a daughter, a wife, and a mother, she is finally just Josette. She is going to make mistakes. She is going to make friends. She is going to embarrass herself. She is going to surprise herself. And, hopefully, she is going to have the time of her life figuring it all out.
For Marteene, this story is also deeply personal. The woman who inspired Golden Groves was her grandmother, Josette. Josette wasn’t simply an inspiration for the series—she lived the spirit of it. She taught Marteene two lessons that have stayed with her: first, be a good Catholic girl; and second, go out into the world and be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do.
As her gayest granddaughter, Marteene is absolutely crushing it on both fronts.
Golden Groves is our way of honoring her, while giving women like her the kind of story we rarely get to see: funny, messy, complicated, sexual, independent, ridiculous, loving, and unapologetically alive.
As the series continues, we want to explore self-discovery, acceptance, friendship, family, and the complicated, often hilarious reality of aging. Because getting older is inevitable. But acting your age? Absolutely optional.
And maybe that’s the real reason we’re telling this story. Because Golden Groves isn’t really about what happens when you get old. It’s about what happens when you finally realize you still have a whole lot of living left to do.