"It's the oldest story in the world, honey. Boy meets girl, boy meets new girl, boy dips girl, boy sleeps with boys. Wait a minute - maybe that's not the oldest story. Maybe that's the Sal Mineo story." - Megan Mullally as Karen Walker
Will & Grace: Season One DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In the fall of 1998, Will & Grace joined NBC's Monday night schedule as part of the network's stab at creating a female-centric "Must See" lineup. (The night also featured the abysmal Brooke Shields vehicle Suddenly Susan, the short-lived Conrad Bloom, and the bland Caroline in the City). Will & Grace, which featured a gay central character, was a somewhat unusual choice for the network, but NBC had so much confidence in the show's potential that by the end of the season it was moved to NBC's powerhouse Thursday night lineup.
Eric McCormack plays Will Truman, a thirtysomething lawyer who recently broke up with his long-term boyfriend. Will is horrified when he discovers that his best friend, interior designer Grace Adler (Debra Messing), becomes engaged to her loser boyfriend. Against his better judgment, Will expresses his misgivings, telling Grace that she can do better. At first Grace reacts poorly, but she breaks off the engagement when she realizes that Will is right. Soon she is moving in with Will to begin her new life (and to help him with the rent).
Will's best male friend is flighty, queeny Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes), an enormously egocentric actor - albeit an actor who possesses no acting talent and has never actually had an acting gig. Because of their polar opposite personalities, Will and Jack have a love/hate relationship, but they are immensely loyal to one another. Jack also becomes fast friends with Karen Walker (Megan Mullally), Grace's filthy rich, essentially unemployable assistant whose main skill is popping pills.
Some of the earlier episodes are realistic rather than funny. Sure, there are laughs in "Head Case," an episode that focuses on Grace's need for a bigger bathroom at the expense of Will's palatial one, but the episode is most interesting because it explores the nature of the roommates' personalities and relationship. Will's control-freak issues - and their negative effect on his relationship with his ex - give us greater insight into what makes him tick. "William, Tell," in which Grace becomes irrationally unhinged by what she views as Will's secret life, performs a similar function. That these episodes are not always laugh out loud funny is not bothersome because the process of getting to know the characters is so satisfying.
By the second half of the season, the balance between character development and comedy becomes stronger. A prime example is "Will Works Out." After Jack loses his gym membership, he cons Will into letting him tag along to Will's gym as his guest. Will reluctantly agrees, but soon becomes embarrassed by Jack's flamboyant behavior. Will realistically grapples with his feelings about his own sexuality, but the show remains bitingly funny throughout.
The writers also take a while to settle on consistent personalities for Karen and Jack, as if they did not realize the full comic potential of the characters. Jack starts off the series more grounded than he would end up. In the first few episodes, Mullally's Karen is far less helium-breathed than she would become, and the character is more of a ditsy princess than a venomous diva. By episode ten, "The Truth About Will and Dogs," the writers and actors have begun to find the characters' voices.
Another sign of the show's slow evolution is the presence of its fifth major character. No, not Shelley Morrison as Karen's maid, Rosario. She does not appear until the final episode of the season, the funny "Object of My Rejection" and does not become a regular until season three. In early episodes, Gary Grubbs appears as Harlan, seemingly Will's one client. A Texas billionaire who made his money selling Buffalo feed, Harlan is a walking cliché. Although often given amusing dialogue, one senses that the superfluous Harlan exists only to inject the show with a straight male presence. His character disappears before the midpoint of the season.
Later seasons of Will & Grace feature more guest stars than The Tonight Show, but season one is mercifully short on special appearances. In "Grace, Replaced," Saturday Night Live favorite Molly Shannon makes the first of almost annual visits to the show as Will's downstairs neighbor Val. Shannon is hysterical as the seemingly normal divorcee who slowly begins to take Grace's place in Will's life. Debbie Reynolds also makes her debut as Grace's mom in "The Unsinkable Mommy Adler."
It is alarming how much the first season of Will & Grace relies on pop culture references. Although the show is now only five years old, many of these jokes already feel stale and unfunny. This is a shame, because it will surely have an impact on how long a shelf life the series can have in the public consciousness.
After watching these episodes, it is difficult to understand why Debra Messing remains the only one of the four leads not to have won an acting Emmy for the show. While Mullally, Hayes and McCormack are good at what they do, Messing is easily the best comedic actor on the show. That the others could be honored while Messing's work goes ignored is truly a shame.
The twenty-two episodes that make up the first season are divided onto four discs. There is a play all option, but episodes can also be chosen individually. The episodes are not divided into chapter stops.
