DVD Review: Will & Grace (Season 1, Episodes 1-8)
Written by: Kage Alan

Film Rating: A
DVD Special Features: B-

Only in a faraway land can an American sitcom see the light of day on DVD.  
It wasn't until recently that "Friends" found a domestic release and here we
are now with another one we can't get in North America.  My other half and I
weren't sure Will & Grace would last beyond its first season (this is before
we even saw a single episode) because of the content.  Gay friendly sitcoms
don't have a tendency to last long here, so we decided to record them all
just in case it did go off the air and was never seen again.  Well, not the
case.  The show is still going strong and we now have the first installment
of episodes on disc from its debut season.

Will Truman (Eric McCormack, "Free Enterprise") is a private New York lawyer who just got out of a messy 7 year relationship with his boyfriend.  His best friend is Grace Adler (Debra Messing, "The Mothman Prophesies"), a designer he's known since college who has fairly bad luck with men herself.  When Grace dumps the man who wants to marry her, she moves in with Will and the two act as a crutch for each other through all sorts of situations that come their way.  Rounding out the regular cast of characters in Season 1 is Karen Walker (Megan Mullally, "Once Bitten") as Grace's filthy rich, loud, obnoxious, alcohol drinking and pill popping assistant and Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes, "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss") as Will's overly flamboyant gay friend.

The episodes included on the disc are as follows: "Love and Marriage," "A New Lease on Life," "Head Case," "Between a Rock and Harlin's Place," "Will on Ice," "William Tell," "Boo! Humbug" and "Where There's a Will, There's No Way." Aside from the premier that introduces the characters, highlights include the introduction of the famous "Just Jack" one man show, a Halloween gone to hell, back taxes, apartment searching, spying on each other and redesigning the bathroom.

What makes the show work is the writing of the rapid fire insults, double
meanings, suggestive situations and, of course, the chemistry between the
cast members.  There are always rumors that crop up about a successful show
regarding internal feuds between actors and Will & Grace isn't exempt from
this, only they maintain a high degree of professionalism if there really is
because one never sees it on the screen.  Will and Grace are pretty much the
straight (no pun intended) ones whereas Jack and Karen provide a majority of
the more outrageous comedy.  There were even some concerns that the
characters were becoming too popular and overshadowing the leads.  Don't
worry, though, because there's plenty of laughs from them all.

Medusa Pictures has given us an extremely solid Full Frame picture with an
equally decent audio track.  They certainly look better than they do on the
VHS copies I made from the television.  Extras (yes, there really are
extras!) include a 9 minute behind-the-scenes featurette with cast interviews
and series clips, some decent and extensive cast/crew biographies and a photo
gallery.

All in all, this is a great introduction to the show if you've never seen it
before.  There are just enough episodes to get a solid grasp of what we're in
for later and just enough extras to make you wonder what they're going to put
on the next batch of discs in the series.  Executive producers/creators David
Kohan and Max Mutchnick have come up with a hit and there's definitely a
reason the series has lasted as long as it has.  It doesn't deal with
extremely deep issues as much as one might hope, but it definitely tickles
the funny bone and offers a crossover show for gay and straight audiences
alike.  For anyone interested in ordering a copy, the disc is available for
sale in Region 2 at www.blackstar.co.uk


Kage holds degrees in Creative Writing, as well as Film & Video. He has been featured in a Life Journey Tele-Course, published poems in several national anthologies, been a contributor to The Third Coast Magazine and written several novels. kage@modamag.com

COMMENTS
Date/Time of Posting:  Dec 18 2002 / 11:20:24
IP Address:  66.233.51.42
name = salpal
where = sepbball40
comments = i think pheobe(from friends) should appear on Will & Grace, and meet karen