Will & Grace Review: What a Dump (Season 11 Episode 7)

When Will & Grace show runners announced that the show would be ending at the conclusion of this season, they explained “We think of the Will & Grace reboot episodes the way Karen Walker thinks of martinis – 51 is not enough, 53 is too many.”

This entire season, I find myself questioning whether this is the best way to end the series. Are these storylines really how the series should wrap up and what, exactly is justifying their existence?

This final season has limped along, and I continue find myself confounded by the point of it all. After a brief spike courtesy of Demi Lovato on Will & Grace Season 11 Episode 6, “Performance Anxiety,” the show is back to its old devices.

These storylines are tired and they’re doing nothing to add to our understanding of any of the characters. Instead, it feels like endless vamping, or stalling.

Grace is having a late in life pregnancy. Will is beginning his surrogacy journey. Jack is settling in to married life. And Karen…well, I don’t know what Karen’s doing (which is part of the problem of the season) but certainly, there are better things to focus on than poop jokes and yet another story about how Will pays for a lot of things for Jack.

This episode brings back Matt Letscher, who some may remember from the original run of the series. Grace memorably slept with him as well as his father and son, realizing the connection between her conquests far too late. This was a memorable storyline — and a particularly mortifying one for Grace — but it’s not really clear why the character is brought back.

Revivals feed on nostalgia — this we all can agree on — and for the most part, Will & Grace has leveraged that wisely (think past appearances from Molly Shannon, Harry Connick Jr., and Minnie Driver).

However, James’ return seems…unnecessary? This storyline could have easily happened with an entirely new paramour. Their history really doesn’t add much to the proceedings and if a former boyfriend of Grace’s is going to return, I’d much rather it be Nathan (Woody Harrelson).

Furthermore, the story itself, wherein Grace panics after so violently clogging the toilet and ends up pretending her lover’s apartment has been burglarized, is one long extended poop joke. I appreciate a poop joke in its time and place, but this show should be beyond resorting to a whole A storyline centered around a poop joke.

Furthermore, it’s increasingly frustrating that Grace’s character seems to be stagnating. Grace developed and grew a lot over the course of the past season and with impending motherhood, seemed poised to grow even more. Instead, on the past episodes, she’s mostly only mentioned her pregnancy in passing and seems up to her old immature shenanigans.

To some extent, Grace will always be a little immature, shortsighted, and reactive. However, she’s shown herself to have more depth than the writing this season is serving. It would be far more interesting to watch her struggle with needing to grow up and live her life differently than continuing to watch her run around as though this pregnancy isn’t happening.

Pregnancy doesn’t have to be the one central thing she talks about, but it’s odd that on recent episodes, it’s so rarely a factor.

Jack and Will’s storyline isn’t much better. Giving all credit to Sean Hayes, who truly can sell almost anything this show throw at him, but this feels lie a retread. We’ve known for years that Jack has Peter Pan syndrome and that Will swoops in to look out for him.

McCormack and Hayes’ scenes are funny and heartwarming not because the storyline has much value, but because they have decades worth of honed chemistry. That’s a gift in and of itself but it’s also one of the reasons this story is so frustrating. Couldn’t they do something better with it?

What would it look like for Jack to struggle with the idea of Will having an actual child to take care of and not necessarily being there to look out for him as much? That could lean in either a comedic or dramatic direction but instead, we’re still talking about how Will supports Jack financially.

It also doesn’t help matters that Megan Mullally is missing from this episode. While this absence is expected as she’s sitting out for a few episodes, it only illuminates the fact that she hasn’t been given much to do this season.

Even when she is on an episode, her stories this season have been meh at best. Mullally has been the MVP of this reboot and to see her barely register this season has been bewildering. As with so many things related to this season, her character isn’t going out with a bang but with a whimper.

We’re almost halfway through the season but there is time to right this ship so I implore you, Will & Grace writers: more stories about aging, about parenthood, about rebuilding and reorienting your life. 

And less stories about poop.

Stray observations:

• Many things about this episode were subpar, but I am obsessed with the idea of Jumping Jacks, Jack’s defunct business focusing on adult bouncy houses. I feel like there’s an appetite for that these days! He may have been ahead of his time. 
• The line/line delivery of the night goes to Will, who spouts, “I brought you to a drag bar. I knew you’d make a scene and wanted you to fit in” when Jack accuses him of bringing him to a public place to tell him he’s cutting him off. An exasperated Eric McCormack is the best Eric McCormack.
• Best guest star of the episode goes to Tabitha Brown, who milks her line explaining that Grace took “a brutal dump in the john and the rest of this is her cover up.”

What did you think of this episode of Will & Grace? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Will & Grace airs Thursdays at 9:00/8:00c on NBC.

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