Will & Grace Review: The Favourite (Season 11 Episode 14)
While it’s thrilling to see Will & Grace generate some authentic laughs, this strong installment only calls more attention to the fact that the season is wildly inconsistent and disjointed.
Will & Grace Season 11 Episode 14, “The Favourite” is one of the funniest episodes in recent memory, in no small part due to Demi Lovato and Molly Shannon’s returns and zippier writing than we’ve been afforded most of the season.
Research shows that comedian and former guest star Laura Kightlinger wrote this episode. Bless you, Laura for a strong episode and for writing a line where Karen gets to wistfully reminisce on the “first election she bought. Genius!
The events that unfurled in the last episode, Will & Grace Season 11 Episode 13 “Filthy Phil Part II,” aren’t mentioned at all. One one hand, the Phil storyline was dismal at best, but it is odd to see Karen having seemingly completely bounced back from his betrayal and nary a mention of Jack’s new bar, Queers.
Narratively, that’s not necessarily the best choice. Will & Grace has never been overly serialized but it has been better about tying its episodes together thematically in the past. It’s irksome that two big developments in Jack and Karen’s respective lives are treated as an afterthought, especially now that they’re reunited.
Karen’s really not going to mention her quickie marriage/dalliance with Phil to her best friend, especially after returning to her old husband’s home?
They aren’t going to swing by the bar that he just bought? What small business owner opens a business and then quickly isn’t there anymore? (At least on this last point, I can see an argument for how Jack might be this irresponsible, but I also don’t buy that Karen’s not going to quickly patronize the bar her best friend owns. I mean, at the very least, she’s got to get a deal on alcohol, and that would be appealing.)
That gap in logic aside, it is nice to see Jack and Karen go on another romp together. That’s felt far too infrequent this season and their misadventures are always a highlight. Plus, who doesn’t love an excuse for bad disguises and even worse fake accents?
Molly Shannon’s return as Val is also a lovely treat. Throughout the years, Val has sometimes been over-utilized. She’s not a character that works well in large doses and let’s be honest, Will & Grace has never been a show well known for its ability to pull back from excess.
This time though, she appears just the right amount. Shannon has enough time to do some of her shtick but then becomes mostly a figure around which action happens, rather than the driving force. In other cases, that may not have been a good thing, but with Val, it’s just the right calibration.
It’s also oddly appropriate that when we see her again, she’s taken up with Stan. Val somehow always worms her way into the Core Four’s lives, and Stan clearly has a penchant for off-kilter women with strong personalities (see: Karen and Minnie Driver’s Lorraine Finster), so naturally, Val would be his type.
Her reappearance makes a lot more sense than James’ (Matt Letscher) in Will & Grace Season 11 Episode 11 “Accidentally on Porpoise.”
In a similar vein, Demi Lovato’s return as Jenny, Will’s surrogate is a welcome delight. It’s a shame Lovato hasn’t appeared in more episodes. Her mere presence seems to inject a special energy into all of her scenes, even when she’s not the one driving them.
It’s still not fully clear to me why Will and Grace care so much about proving that they’re fun and can “[stand] after 8:30pm.”
Throughout the revival, neither has really seemed to care too much about being cool or what others think of them (besides school admissions reps). So, why try to hard to prove they’re cool?
The jokes here are a little more repetitive and unoriginal (gee golly, Grace has gas and older people like to turn their lights off with clappers and don’t like twerking!)
Fortunately though, you do get the impression that Messing, Lovato, and McCormack really enjoy playing off and trying to one-up one another with their respective deliveries, so they make it work.
Moving forward, it would be nice to see Jenny, her brother, and the gang all spending time at Queers. We can only hope.
What did you think of this episode of Will & Grace? How do you want the series to wrap up (this time)? 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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Cristina Iskander
Cristina is a Broadway enthusiast, book lover, and pop-culture fanatic living in New York City. She once won a Fantasy Bachelor contest (yes, like Fantasy Football, but for The Bachelor), and can banter about old school WB (Pacey + Joey FTW) just as well as Stranger Things and Pen15. She's still upset Benson and Stabler never got together and is worried Rollins and Carisi are headed down the same road, wants justice for Shangela, and hopes to one day walk-and-talk down a hallway with Aaron Sorkin.