The more things change the more they stay the same
The Show: Will & Grace, Season 9, Episode 1 The Moment: The elephant (and the donkey) in the room “Whatever happened to the children you two had who grew up and married each other?” socialite Karen (Megan Mullally) asks attorney Will (Eric McCormack) and interior designer Grace (Debra Messing), referring to the episode 11 years ago that was then the series finale. “That never happened,” Will says. “What a relief,” Karen says. “Nobody wants to see you two have kids.”
Later, Will asks Grace to move in permanently.
“It’ll be different this time,” he says. “All the other times, we thought it would be different. But this time we know it’s gonna be exactly the same.”
Are you reassured yet? The band is back together, led by director James Burrows and show creators David Ko- han and Max Mutchnick, and they’re telling us exactly what to expect from this reboot.
Time has moved on — but don’t worry, it’s also standing still. Meaning, the references will be contemporary, but nothing has changed.
That’s why they got rid of the kids: kids are such annoying reminders of the passage of time and their stories are so darn real. As Karen said, nobody wants to see that.
We’re going to challenge you, but just a little. That is, we’ll joke about politics and social issues (Will and Grace are democrats; Karen is Trump’s bestie). But we’ll talk so fast that you can overlook it and in a second we’ll be onto something else.
The title of this episode should be, “Don’t Worry!” The chips are multigrain now, but we’re still nachos, the cheesy comfort food you love. Will & Grace airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Global and NBC. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.