Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Will & Grace’, The Revival of the Classic NBC Sitcom That Arrives at the Perfect Time

Let’s be honest: When we heard that Will & Grace was coming back after an 11-year hiatus, we thought “Will that show work in 2017?” But the “get out the vote” video that inspired the reunion showed that the old chemistry was there, so we were cautiously optimistic. Read on to find out if Will, Grace, Jack and Karen are as funny as they were in the early-’00s.

A Guide to Our Rating System

Opening Shot: The opening of a pilot can set a mood for the entire show (think Six Feet Under); thus, we examine the first shot of each pilot.
The Gist: The “who, what, where, when, why?” of the pilot.
Our Take: What did we think? Are we desperate for more or desperate to get that hour back?
Sex and Skin: That’s all you care about anyway, right? We let you know how quickly the show gets down and dirty.
Parting Shot: Where does the pilot leave us? Hanging off a cliff, or running for the hills?
Sleeper Star: Basically, someone in the Will And Grace cast who is not the top-billed star who shows great promise.
Most Pilot-y Line: Pilots have a lot of work to do: world building, character establishing, and stakes raising. Sometimes that results in some pretty clunky dialogue.
Our Call: We’ll let you know if you should, ahem, Stream It or Skip It.

WILL & GRACE

Opening Shot: Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) are kicking ass at Heads Up, the 2010s version of the Pyramid game they kicked ass at in the late ’90s, including a clever clue about Caitlyn Jenner (“We want to love her but she makes it impossible!”). Jack (Sean Hayes) and Karen (Megan Mullally) are on the other team, and Jack has to snap Karen out of a lord-knows-what-she-took stupor. Karen then talks about everything that happened in the 2006 series finale — Will and Grace with adult kids who marry each other — as if it was an opioid-and-gin-induced hallucination.

The Gist: Not much to introduce here, since we already know everyone’s deal. Grace is staying with Will temporarily after they both got out of their long term relationships. Grace Adler Design is bigger than ever, and Karen, who is friends with the Trumps, talks about a call she got from Melania after the First Lady had “one of her night terrors.” Karen got Grace the gig to redo the Oval Office, and of course Grace is conflicted.

Meanwhile, Will is flirting with a congressman who he doesn’t agree with politically — “I am writing a congressman about issues that matter… in my pants!” — and Jack gets the two of them an invite to a speech the congressman is making in the Rose Garden (let’s just say he knows a lot of Secret Service guys). Of course, wackiness ensues as Will and Grace run into each other compromising their ideals.

Our Take: We really weren’t sure how W&G would translate these days, especially some of the “swishy” dialogue coming from Jack that was revolutionary in 1998 but seems outdated now. And the first episode back was heavy on the anti-Trump jokes, and jokes that screamed “We’re in 2017 now!” including references to Grindr, Scandal, and more.

But, dammit, the episode made us laugh out loud a number of times, something very few comedies do these days, especially ones that are of the “old fashioned” multi-cam variety. One other concern, that Will and Grace would seem pathetic being single and living with each other as they push (or push beyond) 50 seemed to dissolve as we noticed the crackling chemistry among the four main characters come back as if it never left. In fact, the show is better than it was in its final seasons of its first iteration, when it was guest-star heavy, the jokes were tired, and it seemed that Jack and Karen took over the show.

One other thing: You’ll never hear “Just Jack!” again, as we find out when one of Jack’s Secret Service “friends” (Kyle Bornheimer) starts to say the catchphrase and Jack stops it with a yell. He’s moved on, as have we.

Sex and Skin: Creators David Kohan and Mitch Mutchnick have been great at the art not-so-double entendre, and the first episode back is dripping with those lines (see the “in my pants” line above, for instance).

Parting Shot: Grace decides to move back in with Will long-term, and Karen is upset that Grace blew her chance at decorating the Oval Office. Grace mentions that she left one piece behind — and we zoom in to a red hat on the desk chair with the phrase “Make America Gay Again.” We get it… there will be lots of Trump jokes this season.

Sleeper Star: Um, the show’s going into its ninth season. We could make a joke along the lines of “Megan Mullally shows a lot of promise,” but why bother?

Most Pilot-y Line: That final shot, described above, was a corny clarion call for what we might expect to see this season, and likely next (the show was renewed for a 10th season already), as long as Trump’s still president.

Our Call: Stream It. We got a look at episodes two and three, and it feels like the old gang is back, but also addressing some issues that they didn’t have to deal with the first time around. Episode 2 has great physical comedy from Messing and Mullally paying homage to a classic Lucille Ball/Vivian Vance scene from The Lucy Show, and Will and Jack being “daddies”, parlance in the gay community for old guys. The second ep also has a good guest appearance from Ben Platt from Dear Evan Hansen. Episode 3, where Harry Connick, Jr. returns as Grace’s ex-husband Leo, isn’t as good, but still has enough funny lines that show that W&G can work in 2017. It looks like they’ve arrived just in time to give America a good laugh.

(Click to see all of Decider’s complete Stream It or Skip It reviews)

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.