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Does Will & Grace need all of these call backs and guest stars so soon?

By Reed Gaudens

Photo Credit: Will & Grace/NBC, Acquired Form NBCUniversal Media Village
Photo Credit: Will & Grace/NBC, Acquired Form NBCUniversal Media Village /
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Photo Credit: Will & Grace/NBC, Acquired From NBCUniversal Media Village
Photo Credit: Will & Grace/NBC, Acquired From NBCUniversal Media Village /

Even though we love reliving the glory days of Will & Grace and watching top-notch guest stars pop up, the heart of the sitcom will always be its four lead performers.

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When a beloved series returns for a reunion, reboot, or revival, there’s always the promise of fan service. All fans want to watch their favorite series progress with a fresh take while still honoring the original material. Being so, it’s not a shock that when Will & Grace earned back its Must See TV timeslot on NBC, its fans would have lengthy wishlists of self-referential jokes and classic bit characters that simply needed a victory lap.

But as the ninth season of Will & Grace barrels through episodes so pitch perfect it’s as if the series never wrapped in 2006, the Emmy-winner finds itself overbooked with guest stars new and old. Just this week, Will & Grace welcomed back Molly Shannon as the gang’s wild neighbor Val, and the previous week found Will and Grace flirting with Megan Mullally’s husband Nick Offerman. Past episodes have featured Tony-winner Ben Platt, Jane Lynch, Andrew Rannells, Minnie Driver, and Harry Connick Jr. In the past two days, NBC announced that Saturday Night Live’s Vanessa Bayer and American Horror Story’s Cheyenne Jackson will guest star in upcoming episodes, and Jennifer Lopez will return in a dual role. Should the series rely on the draw of stunt casting? Better yet, does it need to?

Now, I’m by no means complaining about Will & Grace’s impressive roster of talent lending their comedy chops to each episode. Little gets lost with the addition of outside star power, and a ton of laughs are gained, often for the sake of nostalgia (but mostly thanks to razor sharp writing and the best core cast on television). It’s an embarrassment of riches, because not just any sitcom can snag high-profile guest stars for multiple episodes that don’t arise during sweeps weeks.

However, the small slice of the series that does get lost amid the hustle and bustle of guest stars happens to be the whole heart of it: The core four. When Will & Grace opens its doors to recurring or guest cast members, our four faves frequently divide and conquer in pairs, taking away the group dynamic that made us fall in love with the sitcom in the first place. By being a bit heavy handed with guests and call backs to the original series (hello, Val!), we’re sacrificing prime time basking in the electric chemistry of its Emmy-winning cast.

Next: Will & Grace recap: The 5 best burns in season 9, episode 8

In the most recent episode of Will & Grace, Molly Shannon guest starred as Val, who throws herself onto Jack and Karen’s car on the first day of Jack’s job as a Lyft driver. Val winds up duping Karen into being her friend, and while the twist and turns — including Jack’s literal turns into Val’s packing tape trap — brought the laughs we can’t get enough of, the episode kept Jack and Karen separate from Will and Grace once again. In all fairness, those two were busy dealing with Larry’s late-in-life crush on Will.

With a shorter season order than its original run, Will & Grace will surely pack as much of a punch as it can into its 16 episodes of Season 9 and 13 episodes of Season 10. Much like its early days on air, it’ll take some time to find the right balance. This time, that balance will be between guest stars and call backs to the past sure to stir the studio audience into a tizzy and making the revival its own hilarious entity. Thankfully, Will & Grace has already proven 20 years since its premiere and 11 years after its conclusion that smart and funny will never go out of style.

What did you think of the latest episode? Let us know in the comments!

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

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