Last night's Will & Grace saw not one, not two, but three different storylines squeezed into one 22-minute episode, each done a bit rapidly, but nevertheless ended with a bit of a cliffhanger that makes this particular writer excited to see what's next.
A lot of what W&G has done, in its revival, is catch its audience up on how the four of them (Jack and Karen included) are doing eleven years after the show went off the air. This of course includes bringing back beloved and memorable characters, which has been occurring pretty much every episode since its premiere back in September.
It's understood why this would happen, and seeing as the show is already renewed for a second season, the hope is that by that time everything will be completely caught up so you can really start to see some character development. For now, we have one half of a recurring couple and a global superstar back on the show for one episode, with one unintentionally giving Grace a major reality check.
So, let's just once again scratch that whole storyline in season 8 when Grace was pregnant with Leo's baby. I say this, because Grace is invited to Ellen's (Leigh-Allyn Baker) friend's baby shower, something that she is dreading for many reasons, one being she doesn't have a child of her own. It's bizarre how most of season 8 was spent on her having a baby, but this is something we are forced to overlook and pretend didn't happen.
To contain Grace's rage, Will suggests that she writes her feelings about the women at the baby shower down and keep it to herself. Meanwhile, he accidentally "liked" a photo of an old boyfriend named Michael on Instagram, which plays its course throughout the episode as Michael calls him back but doesn't know what it means. He then becomes reliant on two typical teenage girls to help him figure out what the call means, which wasn't necessarily funny but it does lead to Will calling Michael back, hence the cliffhanger. So… yay, character development there.
Grace spends her time at the baby shower writing a ton of horrible things about the other women there as she feels she's being judged for not having kids, but of course, keeps all the notes in her jacket. Those notes find its way into a big jar of positive and happy comments for Ellen's friend's baby, courtesy of another woman who found them on the couch. Ellen reads some of the terrible one's that Grace says, she freaks out, but then has an epiphany where each of them judging each other for their life choices really doesn't get anywhere at the end of the day.
Outside of Will & Grace, Jack and Karen are up to their old shenanigans again. Jack gets an acting job on the set of Shades of Blue, which stars Jennifer Lopez! Jennifer played herself back on season 6 of the show, where she winds up spending an entire summer with Jack after Karen gets married to Finster, only to find out years later that she changed her name, address, email address and more in order to block him out of her life. He's supposed to play a dead corpse, but keeps trying to talk to Jennifer during the scenes to see if she remembers him, which of course, she doesn't. This was funny-ish, I just wish they did more with the character.
Karen, on the other hand, is supposed to watch the students that Jack teaches and help them rehearse for their production of Annie, but doesn't exactly do that. Instead, she puts them to work sweat shop style and makes them stitch together some fabric due to an error she made when ordering it. They continue to do the work even during the "office" production of Annie, which doesn't even confuse the parents one bit. Oh, Karen.
A good episode all around, but it just felt very rushed. Very curious to see how the Will & Michael thing gets set up and see if he learns from the lessons that Vince taught him when he went to his wedding.
What are your thoughts on last night's episode?
Personally love Will & Grace
Personally love Will & Grace but thought last nights episode was completely disjointed like they couldn't come up with something so the even the zingers fell flat. And as far as JLo being in it, "what" was the point her on screen time and brief comments were to dialog as an add in. Very sad addition to me.