Remember the days when we had to go searching far and wide for any kind of queer content on television? Now, all you have to do is catch a commercial for women’s deodorant to see trans women. So how will the Will & Grace reboot fare, now that they’re no longer the only gay game in town?
Here’s what we know of the rumor so far: they reunited for a little webisode a few weeks ago to remind people that voting is important if you live in a swing state. (And if you don’t live in a swing state, you can still have a say in the election as long as you can donate tens of thousands of dollars.)
That little video did well enough that now NBC is thinking about bringing everyone back for a something new — but what? We don’t know. From the sound of things, it would be a little Will & Grace miniseries. Not a full network sitcom, but something short and fun and limited.
At the time, both Debra Messing and Eric McCormack said that they’d be interested in talking about bringing the show back.
But, yeesh, let’s take a minute and think here. When you watch an episode of the show, it really does not feel contemporary, and not just because it’s shot at 1.33:1. You forget how far this country has come until you see the issues queers were dealing with in 1999. Coming out was a huge deal, discrimination was just expected, gay marriage was hahaha yeah right. The show created a happy gay fantasy bubble where the real world seldom intruded, but it had to do so because the real world was so unpleasant at the time.
Now, things are considerably better, the current GOP nominee notwithstanding. We don’t need as much of a fantasy bubble. Will those characters feel as daring and fresh as they did to an America that had never seen so much queerness on TV? Or will they just seem as boring and predictable as urban gays considered them when they first appeared?
