Reviews: Will & Grace (NBC-TV)
Leni Sarten, The Rainbow Screen
“Will & Grace” Survives the Ratings Wars
Having done honorable battle for the Monday evening viewers against the second half of “Ally McBeal” (that’s the half with more meat on it), the NBC sitcom “Will & Grace” moves to a more comfortable slot on Tuesday just after “Just Shoot Me.”
I welcomed “Will & Grace” because it had two gay characters, but had my reservations about the series’ staying power. Having lasted the dangerous first half season, it looks like it’s going to make it. Further kudus came with its winning the People’s Choice Award for favorite new comedy. The plots are still thin and I never get enough of Sean Hayes, but I’m willing to give “W & G” time to grow. Megan Mullally’s character Karen (Grace’s do-nothing assistant) has grown as she has developed a strange rapport with friend Jack (Sean Hayes). Their scenes are sassy and risque and contrast with the silly but safe repartee of Will and Grace. Karen and Jack are the show’s wild side. The title characters, though well played by Eric McCormack and Debra Messing, are thin in development. Neither seems to have much of a sex life, though in a recent episode the guy Jack was trying to impress became “too impressed” and expressed his attraction for someone more laid back, like Will. James Burrows, a director with a long and praiseworthy background in sitcoms, keeps the show moving at the right pace. And maybe Grace’s character will develop a bit more when this week Debbie Reynolds (the mom in “In & Out”) shows up playing her mother.
One thing that nags at me is that “Will & Grace” takes place on the Planet Sitcom, where there’s no real homophobia to mention, where coming out isn’t an issue, and of course where there’s no such thing as AIDS. This is traditional fare from the Planet Sitcom. When we were in the heat of battle in Vietnam and the country was torn apart on our participation in that war, shows from the Planet Sitcom had us worrying about Ellie May and the “cement pond” or about Sister Bertrille and the aerodynamic headgear of her convent. So I don’t totally fault “Will & Grace” for following tradition. But it does make me wonder how far the sitcom “Ellen” would have gone, had it been given another season. Ellen Degeneres did touch, lightly, upon issues of homophobia and coming out to friends and family. But look where it got her. In contrast, “Will & Grace” runs like a car with a governor engaged: you know it’s not going to get “too gay.”
My highest praise in this series goes to gay actor Sean Hayes. He makes being gay lots of fun. There’s some similarity between the flighty Jack McFarland (Will’s best friend) and Hayes’ title character in the film “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss.”
Dusty Saunders, DenverRocky Mountain News
Saucy “Will & Grace” deserves a following
Give the producers of Will & Grace credit.
They continue to successfully walk a thin comedic line—providing humor with a lot of overall appeal while dealing with homosexuality, a subject still pretty much taboo on network television.
Overall appeal? That’s more than a phrase from an NBC press release.
Will & Grace has gained a strong following (along with favorable reviews) even though NBC has hop-scotched the freshman series around the schedule.
Now give NBC a little credit. Last week the network moved Will & Grace to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, between Friends and Frasier, where it attracted its highest audience ratings of the season in all key demographic categories, including total viewers and the 18 to 49 age group.
You don’t need a degree in broadcasting from Hollywood High to know that Thursday is an ideal night for Will & Grace since its saucy comedy fits right into the Friends and Frasier mold—much more so than Jesse, with its predictable, big yawn humor.
To briefly recap, Will & Grace deals with two best friends, Will (gay while not stereotypically gay) and Grace (an attractive heterosexual female), who share a New York apartment.
The secret of any comedy show’s success is the chemistry between the lead characters. Eric McCormack and Debra Messing have that and timing. Meanwhile, writers have been able to make this relationship humorous and occasionally touching.
The gay issue?
In some ways there is no “issue.” Will & Grace is not a “gay show” in the traditional sense.
Yet, Will’s sexuality is a regular part of the comedy fabric without always being the overriding issue.
Credit producers Max Mutchnick and David Kohan for that.
A comparison is needed here between Will & Grace and Ellen.
While the former is gaining audience strength, Ellen DeGeneres’ ABC series, canceled last May, lost viewership when both DeGeneres and her TV character announced their gay lifestyle.
As a TV series, Ellen became too consciously gay. In its final weeks, nearly all major plotlines dealt with the character’s trials and tribulations (some funny, some not) of coming out of the closet.
The humor on Will & Grace encompasses a much broader range—so much so that Mutchnick and Kohan probably learned the do’s and don’ts of dealing with gay characters and issues while watching Ellen lose its comedic touch.
Perhaps this is why Will & Grace features Jack (Sean Hayes), a pal of Will, who is often outrageously gay. The predictable gay humor comes from Jack, not Will.
The character of Will is a cultural breakthrough—at least for network television comedy. He’s an attractive male, without the stereotypical style and mannerisms so many viewers associate with homosexual men. Will rarely is involved in cheap sex jokes, partially because the character, suffering from a bad romantic breakup, has chosen celibacy.
Here’s another comparison between Ellen and Will & Grace, which psychologists and sociologists can ponder:
Ellen DeGeneres is gay and so was her character. McCormack is a heterisexual portraying a gay man.
Does that make a difference in the minds of viewers?
Behind all these social issues is the fact that Will & Grace regularly features inventive story lines.
Last week’s show (an ideal Thursday-night debut), had the overworked interior designer Grace ignoring Will, who found a new non-romantic pal—a recently divorced female ( Saturday Night Live’s Molly Shannon).
Such a triangle made Grace jealous, leading to a cat-fight between the two women.
Think about that as a comedic premise: Two straight women haggling over a gay man. And there were no cheap homosexual jokes.
Will & Grace is succeeding as situation comedy because the situations are humorous, not preachy.
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