"Meats-and-cheeses, you are rockin' my clock, Mary!" - Megan Mullally as Karen Walker to an ear-nuzzling Jack while shooting a sexual harassment video
Will & Grace: Season Two DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
At the end of Will & Grace's first season, straight gal Grace (Debra Messing) and her gay pal Will (Eric McCormack) came to the conclusion that the closeness of their friendship prevents them from finding romantic relationships. Will's flamboyant friend Jack (Sean Hayes) entered into a sham marriage with Rosario (Shelley Morrison), the illegal alien housekeeper to pickled millionaire cum incompetent secretary Karen (Megan Mullally).
As 1999's season two begins, the series picks up where the first left off. Grace takes a big step toward declaring her independence from Will by moving out of his apartment.and into the cat pee-soaked studio across the hall. Jack moves into the servants' quarters with Rosario so as to give their marriage legitimacy with Immigration officials. And Karen? Well, make hers a double!
Other changes are afoot this season. Grace finds herself a boyfriend, the nebbishy Josh (Corey Parker). In season one, southern fried Harlin Polk (Gary Grubbs) was the main client of Will's self-run law firm. Grubbs' character stopped appearing halfway through the season as the producers decided to take the show in a different direction, but the character was never officially written out. In season two's "Polk Defeats Truman," Harlin returns to the series just long enough to fire Will. This leads to a mini story arc in which Will is forced to shut down his practice, takes odd jobs to support himself (including a stint as a cater-waiter with Jack in "To Serve and Disinfect") and is eventually hired into a huge law firm by shark-like attorney Ben Doucette (the late Gregory Hines).
Will & Grace's second season contains two of the series' funniest episodes. The first is "Das Boob," a slapstick masterpiece written by Supervising Producer Jhoni Marchinko. When an article about Grace is featured on the front page of the Arts and Leisure section of the newspaper, the photo that accompanies the story turns out to be a little too flattering - thanks to an odd camera angle, Grace's chest is instantly inflated from Twiggy to Dolly Parton. The photo prompts a phone call from a studly high school classmate who never showed interest in her before. Convinced that the boob is only interested in her boobs, Grace buys a water-filled "Hydra-Bra." When the bra springs a leak at an art gallery, Messing delivers an outrageously funny performance that easily brings to mind the queen of slapstick, Lucille Ball. This episode should not be missed.
"Girls, Interrupted" is also a classic. In this episode, SNL's Molly Shannon returns as Val, the slightly unhinged neighbor who brawled with Grace in season one. Grace befriends the seemingly changed Val only to suspect that she has stolen her Bat Mitzvah commemorative music box. Meanwhile, Jack has the hots for guest (and former Doogie Howser, MD star) Neil Patrick Harris. Harris plays the leader of "Welcome Home," a group of "reformed" gay men and women who have now converted to heterosexuality. Always up for a challenge, Jack recruits Karen to play his ex-lesbian girlfriend and joins the club. Shannon's delightfully manic performance is the perfect complement to Messing's wild yet restrained style. Their performances combined with clever writing make this episode consistently funny.
Another worthy entry is "Homo for the Holidays," the season's Thanksgiving episode. Veronica Cartwright guests as Judith McFarland, Jack's mother. When Jack reacts badly after Will invites his mother to spend Thanksgiving with them, the gang comes to realize that outspoken Jack has never told his mother that he is gay. They are further shocked to learn that Ms. McFarland is under the mistaken impression that Grace is Jack's girlfriend. A jealous Karen "fights" with Grace over their "boyfriend" while Will tries to convince Jack to be honest with his mother. Cartwright at first seems to be an odd casting choice, but it soon becomes apparent that she is perfectly cast. This episode manages to strike a nice balance between funny and thoughtful dialogue.
Continuing the trend started in season one, the second season features stunt casting of famous guest stars. In addition to the stars mentioned above, Debbie Reynolds (as Grace's mother), Sydney Pollack (as Will's father), Riptide's Perry King, NBC weatherman Al Roker, Orson Bean, Twin Peak's Piper Laurie, and Dynasty's Joan Collins all make appearances.
In subsequent seasons, the series would employ stunt casting on an almost weekly basis. While this undoubtedly garners publicity for the series and gives individual episodes another selling point to attract casual viewers, the series' unknown guests and costars are quite often its most memorable. In "I Never Promised You an Olive Garden," and other episodes, Tom Gallop and Leigh-Allyn Baker often steal scenes as the desperately unhip Rob and Ellen, college friends of Will and Grace. "Seeds of Discontent" uncomfortably foreshadows the series' wretched "Will & Grace try to have a baby" story arc in season four, but Laura Kightlinger's deadpan turn as Nurse Sheila shows how much a great comedian can do with just a few lines. The amusing "The Hospital Show" is buoyed by a hysterics inducing performance by Jennifer Elise Cox at the marble-mouthed nurse trainee who is charged with drawing blood from a needle-phobic Grace. If that episode was produced today, Cox' role would probably be filled by J. Lo or someone equally ridiculous, and it would be nowhere near as amusing.
Season two is much more consistently funny than the series' first season. The writers begin to discover the show's tones and rhythms, as well as the characters' voices. The show provides many laughs, but even so, something is missing. Too often, the series simply relies on good (and not-so-good) one liners and put-downs at the expense of characterization and plots. On Friends, the individual characters and their personalities are so well-drawn that the show's humor easily springs from our knowledge of who the characters are. A joke or comedic bit aimed at or done by Monica, for example, would not work if redirected at Phoebe because the characters are so distinct. On Will & Grace, the put-downs and insults are interchangeable - all of the characters use humor in the same way. Seinfeld was often able to generate laughs via its intricately detailed plotlines. Will & Grace's plotlines seem almost secondary. Still, even though the series stops short of being a classic, it does provide laughs and mindless fun.
The twenty-four episodes that make up season two are divided onto four discs. When the shows originally ran on NBC, the final episode of the season was broadcast as a special hour long expanded episode. Here the episode has been divided into two shorter episodes. The episodes are also presented out of broadcast order. With a sitcom, this is not necessarily a problem, but in Will & Grace's case, the two-part cliffhanger season ender is presented first on disc four. Episodes can be watched individually, but there is also a "play all" option. There are no chapter stops.
