In today’s Washington Post, Hank Stuever — who, by the way, is cute, gay, and yet another one of those people I wish I had gone out with but who moved in my ex’s world so therefore never moved in mine — writes a farewell to Will and Grace.
His take, if I understand it clearly, is that Will and Grace, billed as a ground-breaking gay-oriented sitcom, had little social value. Much of what he claims is true, that the openly gay producers managed to squeeze it by touchy network standards and a ravenous right-wing by leaving Will a sex-less stereotype and leaving straight Grace to the mercy of a succession of boyfriends and bed scenes. (It has also always pissed me off that Will, an incredibly handsome, thin and fit lawyer with a gorgeous apartment in New York is always single. Then again, that makes me feel a bit better about my love life…)
I’ve always been annoyed that the boys on the show are rarely shown dating; but I think that the mere fact that this program has two gay men as it’s main characters is pretty damned good in an of itself; and that it has run for eight years would seem to be evidence that some kind of acceptance has settled in — of course, I’m a bit worried that this acceptance only comes with gay guys playing the clown for the amusement of the straight audience.
Still, over the last two weeks as I’ve watched, Will and Vince have shared numerous kisses. Two men kissing? At 8pm on Thursday? And no special press coverage of that event, no big debate in the media, no “every special episode” promos. Just a couple of boyfriends kissing, all very casual and appropriate and a non-event… think back a few years to the brouhaha caused when Ellen came out on her show, when Roseanne kissed a woman; look where we are now: Will and Vince kiss casually and like any sitcom couple, and no one seems to think it’s a big deal.
That’s where Will and Grace have taken us. No huge civil rights triumphs for this sitcom, just small realistic ones.
Actually I was just going to blog about this too. I still watch W&G every week, though more out of a sense of duty than anything else (and to see what new catty-witty thing Karen says; she has always been my favorite). But last week, Will and Vince kissed in the house where Vince asked Will to live with him. And it struck me then that yeah, we have made some progress. I remember not too long ago a show called Melrose Place that had a gay character, and he was the only member of the cast who did not have sex. Everyone else slept with every other member of the opposite sex, but Matt (was it Matt?) was basically celibate. And when he finally DID have a kissing scene, Fox cut it out at the last minute. Even the first kiss on W&G was played as a stunt/joke between Will and Jack in the NBC lobby as I recall.
Oh, and Will has never done anything for me — too high-strung and prissy and catty. I never really was attracted to Jack either — (except when Cher was guest-starring with him). But Bobby Cannavale, wooof!!!
I thought Will and Grace was edgy the first two years, but then it became very tepid. I really began to hate Karen and Consuela. For some reason the ethnic jokes just seemed mean, not funny.