Nick Offerman helps Will & Grace get its groove back in season 9’s first perfect episode
If I’ve seemed hard on this new round of Will & Grace, it’s probably because I love too much. I was a big fan of the original, and was disappointed that this new version seemed like a mere shadow of what came before it. The first episode really rubbed me the wrong way, as did several that followed.
“Friends And Lover” is the episode I’ve been waiting for. I not only just liked it, I LOL’ed so many times. I was so impressed I had to check and see if it was written by a (fairly) new W&G writer, and it was: Suzanne Martin (who co-wrote “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Crying,” so far my least favorite episode), a sitcom vet who has written for shows from Ellen to Frasier. This episode is so full of so many zingy one-liners, that adhere so closely to these beloved characters (perfect example: Jack thinking the ice-bucket challenge was to aid the ACLU) that the episode was just a whirlwind. Twenty-two minutes went by like a blink.
But even these many great lines were aided in no small way by the add of Nick Offerman as Jackson Boudreaux. I was pretty much sold as soon as Will announced that the name of Jackson’s show was Extreme Bread (perfect). Offerman (Megan Mullally’s real-life husband, as I’m sure every A.V. Clubber already knows) completely committed to playing the sexually charged celebrity chef and had wonderful chemistry with both Eric McCormack and Debra Messing. Honestly, he was so heated up, he probably would have had amazing chemistry with a hat-rack. His delivery was wonderfully magnetic, as were his seemingly personal but overwhelmingly vague pickup lines: “You are so you, aren’t you.”
A major milestone that tells us this Will & Grace is different from Will & Grace V.1: As the titular pair themselves put it, this is a first. Will and Grace have never slept with the same guy before. As Grace puts it, sexuality is more fluid now, with fewer hard and fast lines—so the fact that the two hooked up with the same person unknowingly is hilarious, but fortunately makes much less of a ripple than it would have in 1998. This particular relationship complication also nicely ties into the two’s lame Netflix evening that kicks off the episode: The pair tried to go out and be adventurous, and were quickly met with their own limits for adventure. Not that they shouldn’t get off of the couch more, but we can all rest assured that a Will and Grace threeway will never happen.