A few weeks ago I discovered that I have a Hulu account bundled
upwith my Spotify Premium for Students account. That’s right, for only five dollars a month, I have unlimited music with no commercials and some television show options with limited commercials. I’m living the high life.
I wasn’t sure what to do with my newfound Hulu privileges. Rick and Morty? The Handmaid’s Tale? I watched a few episodes of Faking It, a Freeform show about two high school girls who pretend to date each other to become more popular. Faking It is fun, but it’s not the queer representation I crave every waking moment of my life.
But then it happened. While scrolling through Twitter the morning of Thursday, September 21, I happened upon a Buzzfeed article with a fateful headline: “All Of Will & Grace Is Finally Available For Streaming And I’m Already Drunker Than Karen And More Hyper Than Jack.” That’s right, Will & Grace had arrived on Hulu that very morning.
I don’t have class on Thursdays, and I was going to spend the day doing my laundry and finishing a problem set due Friday. And I did do those things, peppered with several episodes of my new obsession.
If you only remember two things about me, let them be the following: first my total devotion to television and second my passion for queer culture. Some of my favorite shows lie in the intersection, including Orphan Black, Orange is the New Black and Sense8. And of course, rather unfortunately, I’ve seen The L Word.
There was always one show I felt had been missing from my queer repertoire, and that was Will & Grace. This sitcom featured not one but two gay characters in its main cast of four, and these two characters weren’t even in a relationship with one another. Two gay men — just friends. In 1998.
It was post-Ellen, but it was still remarkable that a show about a gay man (Will) and his straight best friend (Grace) not only saw commercial success but thrived for eight seasons. And it was loved enough for a revival 20 years after its debut.
So I put my laundry in the washer and snuggled up on the couch to watch my very first episode of the show that likely paved the way for so many of my favorites.
The cold open of the pilot episode begins with a fake-out. Will is on the phone with Grace and invites her over. She says no even though she wants to. Subtext reads: sexy times. We quickly discover that Will is gay and Grace is in bed with her boyfriend, and he was inviting her over to watch ER. Grace asks Will if he’s jealous of her boyfriend, and Will says, “Honey, I don’t need your man. I got George Clooney.”
Within two minutes, Will and Grace was everything I’ve ever wanted. Will isn’t a caricature or a stereotype. He isn’t devoid of sexuality or flamboyantly slathered in it. Will Truman is a person. He’s a lawyer and he’s a friend and he’s gay. He isn’t defined by his sexuality, but he can make fun of it.
When we meet Jack, just-a-friend Jack, it’s at a poker game with Will, Grace and two straight men who don’t reappear. Jack’s introduction comes along with quips about how he’s so obviously gay.
“Did you know I was gay when you first met me?” Jack asks.
“My dog knew you were gay,” Grace says.
Jack is flamboyant, and in some ways he is a stereotype, but he’s also a real person with the ability to laugh at himself.
That’s what I really love about this show, that the characters can make jokes at their own expenses. In contemporary shows, queer characters are written one of two ways: They’re either side characters whose sexuality is mentioned but is tiptoed around, or they’re stereotyped beyond belief. In other words, they’re aggressively boring or sparklingly homosexual.
While Jack leans fairly close to the latter, I have a good amount of faith that he’ll develop into something a little more nuanced. And Will falls into neither category. He’s a fully developed character who is gay and whose sexuality is neither brushed to the side nor played up for laughs.
I finished the pilot and watched five more episodes before I decided I should probably move my clothes to the dryer and get to work on my analysis homework.
I’m excited to watch the rest of the 186 episodes of the original series and then the brand new episodes of the revived series. Mostly, I’m excited to have another show with quality queer characters in my life, and I’m thrilled that the show is on Hulu to inspire and entertain a new generation of LGBTQ youth.
