Will and Grace. Great series until the end?..

A sitcom where half the characters are gay? We have them! Meet one of the best sitcoms of the 90s that you probably haven’t heard of. Ladies and gentlemen – Will and Grace!

After watching a lot of different TV series, you start looking for something new. Sometimes this “new” is a well-forgotten old. And is it forgotten? Because today we will talk about a series that is popular in America next to Friends. We will talk about a sitcom called “Will & Grace”.

Characters

He is a successful lawyer. She is a designer with her own agency. And you could say that they are the perfect couple. Except for the fact that Will is gay. This is a story about friendship that has gone through life, and people who, despite the fact that their relationship did not develop into love at one time, remain close and understanding, good friends for each other. Among the other main characters, you can also meet Karen – Grace’s friend and employee, who works as a secretary at her agency, and Jack – also gay, who is trying to find himself in life and lives, for the most part, at the expense of Will, but does not have a romantic relationship with him (although his attitude towards Will says the opposite).

Story

The plot has its own sequence, the characters enter into new relationships, find their love. But as in any other sitcom, you should be prepared that most of the events occur on the basis of some situational moments, on which both the story itself and the humor in the series are based. Consistently telling the story of the characters, examples of both same-sex and heterosexual relationships are given, in which the characters encounter different moments. There is also betrayal of a loved one, unwillingness to stop at one relationship for life, fear of marriage and age, the desire to have a child and the difficulties on this path. But due to the fact that the stories of four separate characters are considered – accordingly, the examples can be seen differently.

Will here acts as a successful man who, in fact, provides for Jack and Grace, but comes to understand that one should invest not only in a career, but also in something useful for others. Jack cannot sit still and tries to be an actor, a medical student, and a TV presenter at the same time, but cannot find himself in this world. Karen has a wealthy husband and works for Grace not for the money, but sees an outlet in alcohol and pills, but they cannot close the emptiness that is inside her. Grace is simply trying to be a successful businesswoman, but she does not always manage to successfully realize herself as a designer, and on the personal front too, not always what she would like. All these moments show that the series is not a typical example where everything is based only on humour, but demonstrates that the characters are alive. Moreover, from time to time, certain characters may die, and they don’t just “disappear from the screen,” but you see how the main characters miss them, experience the loss. How their world changes.

What is it that bothers you?

Perhaps the main question that arose after so much dry text is…what is it that appeals to you and why should you watch it? I will say this. I like how the emotions of the characters are conveyed in this series. Their humour, interaction. You feel that these are not just actors playing their roles, but full interaction as between real friends. That is, you completely trust the chemistry that you see on the screen, and you are sincerely interested in what will happen next.

It is also appropriate to say that each character is like a separate type of ice cream. This means that each of them has something of their own. In the manner of humour, gestures, behavior. And although there is the “off-screen humour” popular in sitcoms, this is the same series where you don’t need to hear it to sincerely laugh at subtle jokes. The jokes here are more sarcastic, in places there is humour about racism and attitudes towards various segments of the population, but not without a dose of self-irony. As an example, there is a moment when (in the continuation of the series, which was released in 2017-20) the characters spoke partly for the Republican Party and partly for the Democratic Party. Karen, who “sponsored” the construction of the wall, saw that her housekeeper was also a refugee from Mexico, and refused to repair part of the wall, which she herself built.

Is the series political? Well…when Karen ordered a “Trump cake,” and the girl wouldn’t take the order. The result was something like this:

And in my opinion, it is in this frame that the attitude of the authors of the series to politics and humour in general is visible. There are many references to different people, but due to the fact that the main plot of the series fell on 1998-2006, not all references can be understood, especially for our viewer. And this is the interest of the continuation of the series.

Continuation

As is usually the case, the sequel to the series can be either the same or worse than the previous seasons. Here the sequel came out 11 years later. That is, since the beginning of the series, a new generation has already grown up, which saw the sequel and… I will tell you that surprisingly – the sequel is no worse, and in some places even brighter than the first seasons. There is a feeling that the authors of the series had new ideas, plus they often made fun of moments that happened directly in the present, so the references become clearer to you. The cast has also not changed, so you don’t have to guess who, where and who falls into what, as was the case with the sequel to Kingdom . And although we still haven’t watched 1.5 seasons to the end, I could only recommend this series for viewing.

Cultural influence and perception

The level of cultural influence can be gauged from the response to this series by former American President Joseph Biden. In 2012, he stated, “ I think Will and Grace has done more to educate the American public than almost anyone else. People are afraid of what is different. Now they are starting to understand .”

It is interesting that, most likely, due to the context that was in the series (demonstration of same-sex relationships), this series was not released in Ukrainian. At the same time, all seasons can be found in Russian translation, and this is the same example when there are things that in the realities of Ukraine you can either watch in the original language or not watch at all. Although in my opinion, the series is worth watching for everyone to, at least partially, change their attitude towards same-sex relationships and try to understand that there are different people in this world and everyone has the right to their own love. This is not about imposition, because there is none here, and as I said at the beginning of this post – more often it is shown here that everyone chooses who to love, but this does not mean that everything is always smooth in same-sex relationships. And the problems that people face when trying to find their “half” are very similar for everyone.

As people who are good at LGBTQ+ topics, we really liked the series, the humour was understandable and pleasant, and the characters will definitely remain in our memory <3.

I give this series a 6 tentacles out of 6 in absentia. I recommend watching it. Nothing has gone wrong in 9.5 seasons and hopefully it will continue to be so! 🙂

Author: Sa Crea

Hellmin