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STUDIO: Lionsgate
MSRP: $33.99
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING TIME: 515 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Themed featurettes
- Outtakes
The Pitch
Two gay dudes, a neurotic redhead and a mean-spirited, alcoholic malcontent…and we’re not even talking about the Bush cabinet…
The Humans
Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes, Megan Mullaly.
"So Will…I’m sitting in your lap and you’re not feeling anything…you know, down there?"
"Other than you crushing my sack…no not really."
The Nutshell
Will Truman (McCormack) and Grace Adler (Messing) have been friends since college. Will is a gay man and Grace is a straight woman, and they’ve seen each other through the good times and the bad…the latter usually involving their two nutbag friends, Jack (Hayes) and Karen (Mullally).
The Lowdown
I’ve caught a few episodes here and there of Will & Grace, although its never really been Must See TV for yours truly. But it was a fairly well-written sitcom with a cast that seemed to click and spark to each other’s portrayals. The show broke ground by having two of the four main characters being gay (even if the actors portraying them weren’t), and it was one of the more watchable sitcoms of the last decade. McCormack and Messing were successful in their portrayal of two friends with different backgrounds who were always there for each other, especially relationship crises, which was virtually the cornerstone of the show.
"Yeah, I did this to Tom Cruise and he immediately sued me…"
But where Will and Grace were the emotional heart of the show, they were almost upstaged by the two supporting cast in the form of Jack and Karen, who are a flaming – make that incendiary – homosexual and a hard drinking, acid-tongued former socialite. Jack was usually the source of some of the more interesting situations as he drifted from guy to guy and job to job, while Karen would be in her own various situations and quick with the slicing quip for any occasion.
Season 7 found Grace recently separated from her husband, Leo (Harry Connick, Jr.) and Will is in an ill-fated relationship that doesn’t last very far into the season. Meanwhile, Jack finally gets some stability job-wise as he segues from being Jennifer Lopez’ backup dancer to getting a job at a gay TV network. Will eventually quits his job as a lawyer when he wants to do something more meaningful with his life and his unemployment doesn’t last long as he’s offered a job by guest star Alec Baldwin to work at a charitable organization that’s a front for something more nefarious.
"Don’t worry, honey, you’ll find the right guy someday…and I’ll confirm it by banging him…"
Will & Grace benefitted from uncharacteristically sharp writing, with the lion’s share of the really big laughs going to Jack and Karen, the latter of which could practically be counted on for a sharp comment a minute at least. This was the seventh of eight total seasons and the show didn’t seem to suffer from fatigue even to this point and managed to keep the level of its production solid throughout. It was instrumental in bringing gay characters to the forefront of the TV spectrum, but it wasn’t really about them being gay, more than that’s simply who they were, and comedy would ensue from the characters they were rather than the sexual orientation that they were. It was one of the better sitcoms to come along in a while.
The Package
There are two special features, a Themed Featurettes section composed of 16 vignettes of key moments from the season set to various themes that totals about 35 minutes. There’s also outtakes that run a little over seven minutes.
Messing’s reaction upon McCormack telling her that he wasn’t really gay…