What I’m Watching: Will and Grace

Will and Grace: Season 9, Episode 11 “Staten Island Fairy” (C+)

I think the cleverest part of this episode was its title, sticking to this show’s old-school tradition of puns delivered effortlessly by any member of its cast. Jack pretending to be straight with Officer Drew and liking the secret nature of it was no surprise, and it was fodder for some humorous moments like his quick answer that the Jets were playing the Sharks, complete with mention of key characters’ name from the immortal musical. I’m not fond of these flashback memory sequences that the show is doing now after the relatively dumb immigrant-experience episode, and Karen remembering just how horrible – and influential – her mother was served as nothing more than a convenient way to get her to expose Jack’s lies for what they were and subject him to a potential relationship with the now-out cop that he didn’t really want to spend nearly that much time with anymore. Karen taking her fake headphones off at the start of the episode to avoid hearing instructions from her bosses was much funnier than her unprompted smacking across the face of Jack. Regarding our title characters, I guess we’re supposed to think it’s funny that they seem more like a married couple than anyone else, allowed to sit on the bed and assume that they weren’t on TV while their products were flying off the shelves? Everything about that QVC show was uncomfortable, with Will defending himself and men in general to the one woman who seemed to hate everything about him as the more amusing part of a generally lackluster plotline.