What I’m Watching: Will and Grace

Will and Grace: Season 9, Episode 9 “There’s Something About Larry” (B-)

This episode was entertaining if hardly as clever as some of the installments that came before it. It’s venturing back into formulaic territory, with broad plotlines that aren’t all that inventive assisted occasionally by some solid slapstick. This felt like a real episode of the old show, reintroducing two characters who I know used to appear but can’t remember the extent or relevance of their involvement. Tim Bagley, who plays Larry, is well-known for his appearances on “Monk,” and he’s an undeniably talented comedian who got to benefit from this show’s love of double entendre, which was put to tremendous use here when Will didn’t realize that he was in love with him and everything he was saying was so incredibly and inappropriately sexual given the extremely platonic nature of what he was intending to discuss. I liked seeing Molly Shannon as the certifiably crazy Val, who wanted to spend more time with Karen and therefore thought she needed to get hit by Jack during his very first run as a Lyft driver. Shannon and Sean Hayes did a tremendous job matching each other’s physical antics, and it’s good to see Shannon in a role like this that allows her to be so fully animated. I like that she mentioned after her questionable moaning that her pain and pleasure centers overlap to the point that she’s in a medical journal. I imagine we might see her again since this show does love bringing back old friends, but Karen and Jack seem to have no plans to encounter her again anytime soon.