The ‘Will & Grace’ Reboot Found Strength This Season By Staying Its Course

In a pop culture landscape overrun with revivals, Will & Grace was perhaps not the biggest contender for its own reboot. Sure, it was one of the funniest and most successful sitcoms of the late ’90s and early aughts and is considered one of the best written TV series of all time, but its approach to comedy was very much of its time and, at first glance, was by no means guaranteed to be a surefire success with the woke generation.

The setting still translates well enough—Will (Eric McCormack), an openly gay high-powered lawyer, and his eccentric interior designer best friend Grace (Debra Messing) live as roommates in a fancy NYC apartment while getting some extra comic relief in the form of Will’s flamboyant actor friend Jack (Sean Hayes) and Grace’s brassy assistant Karen (Megan Mullally)—canned laughter and slapstick humor are seen as somewhat heavy-handed these days, and there was a risk that bringing these characters back to primetime just wouldn’t work. Some would argue that it hasn’t, but frankly, they’re missing the bigger picture.

While no longer groundbreaking, Will & Grace succeeded by maintaining its charm. Refreshingly, showrunners David Kohan and Max Mutchnick have refused to alter the series’ approach to comedy, which is heavy on puns, observational humor, and wisecracks about the current state of politics, culture, and the world at large. The characters haven’t aged along with the actors and are exactly as we remember them, a delightful mix of campy and somewhat corny that works because everyone’s in on the joke. It remains effortless simply because it actually is; there’s no desperation to keep seem “edgy” or ahead of an invisible small screen curve. Instead, it’s comfortable and happy just where it is, and so is the audience.

Between the Trump slams and the quips on Grace’s notoriously bad fashion sense (at least in Karen’s opinion) are peppered some really heartfelt moments that fit perfectly with the series’ historical ability to pack an emotional punch when it counts. For example, in the fifth episode of the series, “Grandpa Jack,” Jack learns he has a grandson named Skip who just so happens to be gay. The problem is that his son Elliot and his wife have turned into Bible-thumping homophobes who think it’s a good idea to send Skip to a gay conversion camp. This storyline wouldn’t have been out of place in Will & Grace‘s original run, but it’s still particularly fitting given the current climate. By the end of the episode, Jack and Elliot have made peace both with one another and with Skip’s flamboyant identity, and you’d have to be a robot not to feel a little warm and fuzzy inside.

That’s just one example of Will & Grace‘s continued dedication to the cause—the cause being not just tolerance and acceptance of the LGBTQ community, but the normalization of it. While there’s thankfully more representation on television these days than there was during the show’s first eight series, it still kinda sucks, so having a show and its characters be so unapologetically themselves isn’t just a welcome sight on primetime TV, it’s vital. While admittedly somewhat exuberant in its approach, it relishes in being exactly that: over-the-top and in your face without remorse. It’s exactly what makes this show such a joy to watch.

Of course, I’d be remiss in not mentioning the nostalgia factor, the motivating element which has brought back many of our most beloved series with varying degrees of success. While many revivals have floundered in an updated television landscape, Will & Grace‘s strength lies in staying its original course. The ability to do so is obviously helped by the fact that none of its stars seem to have aged much over the past decade, which affords them the unique ability to pick up where they left off, in a sense. The show acknowledges that time’s passed, but that mostly seems like an inconsequential detail rather than something that actually affects the storytelling.

Bringing the show back to our TV screens certainly wasn’t something everyone welcomed with open arms. Many (including Decider) thought it was a bad idea before the first new episode even aired, while others saw their high hopes dashed once it was back on our screens. The ratings reflect viewers’ ambivalence to let Will & Grace back into their lives, a fact that has little bearing on its quality but will likely determine whether another season is in the cards. Whatever happens, it’s been pretty nice to have Will, Grace, Jack and Karen—not to mention the delightful Beverley Leslie (Leslie Jordan)—back on our screens again, even if only for a little while.

Jennifer Still is a writer and editor from New York who cares too way much about fictional characters and spends her time writing about them.

Watch Will & Grace on Hulu