Actually, the show premiered on September 21, but I didn't see this Insta post until this morning. TV Guide gave Will & Grace a good review 19 years ago, designating it a "Fall Preview Favorite" and calling it a buddy comedy with a post-Ellen twist: "This looks to be the best of NBC's new comedies, with appealing stars, snappy writing and polished direction from the masterful James Burrows. Yet there's a strange double standard at work here. While it's refreshing to see a gay character like Will who doesn't wear his sexuality as a banner, his good friend (Hayes) is a flamboyant queen who makes entrances with a birdcage and a hatbox, seeming to reinforce the stereotype that Will quietly shatters. Still, Hayes is screamingly funny and so is Mullally as a scatterbrained socialite who works with Grace."
Will the reboot, premiering September 28, work? It gets a "Matt's Pick" in the 2017 TV Guide Fall Preview issue, with a quote from co-creator/producer Max Mutchnick: "We are doing our best to bring back the characters that work for our stories."
Will it work? Call me skeptical. Eric McCormack is now 54, Debra Messing is 49. Sean Hayes is 47 and Megan Mullally turns 59 in November. That alone makes me think the silliness may not work this time around, not to mention the fact that things have changed a lot in 19 years. A show with gay characters is much less revolutionary in 2017. For what it's worth, The Daily Beast media critic Kevin Fallon, who's gay himself, says the show is "more political than expected, gayer than expected and just as funny and nostalgic as we hoped it would be." (Read it here.)
Will & Grace 2.0, Thursday, 8 p.m. central time. I'll be watching.
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