Official Synopsis:
Will & Grace: The Complete Series –

A must-have for Will & Grace fans! Includes all 8 seasons of the much-loved comedy along with an exclusive episode booklet and bonus disc with brand new extra features including newly recorded commentaries with cast and crew on the pilot episode and personal favorite episodes, a photo gallery, themed Featurettes, a Will & Grace quiz and much more! Featuring collectable packaging in a fun cube-shaped display box, the collection features 33 discs with almost 70 hours of programming, a perfect gift for any fan!

Will & Grace: Season Eight –

The eighth and final season of Will & Grace on DVD, including all new themed Featurettes, a Season 8 Outtake Reel and newly recorded audio commentaries.

  
Our Take:
Will & Grace was six seasons of a really great television comedy. Yes, I know it ran for eight seasons, but it was only really great for six seasons. Still, in this day and age of homogenized family sitcoms, for a show to be as edgy and funny as Will & Grace was for six years is a major accomplishment.

Sure, it took several seasons before the show would see Will actually get a serious boyfriend, and the much touted “first homosexual male kiss on TV” was kind of a let down, but Will & Grace definitely broke some barriers. It was one of the first shows on TV to actively feature multiple homosexual characters, not just in supporting roles, but as lead characters. At the same time, it generally did a great job of not preaching; it just let Will and Jack be Will and Jack, and that was that. The show was about these characters and their lives, not just their lifestyle, and it never felt forced or hammy. On top of that, you had great (and sometimes Emmy-winning) performances from a truly terrific ensemble cast: Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes, and Megan Mullaly. It’s rare to find a foursome of characters that interacts that effortlessly together, but this cast pulled it off and made it look easy.

Lionsgate is concurrently releasing both Will & Grace: Season Eight and Will & Grace: The Complete Series, which collects all eight season box sets that the studio has released. Even though the last two seasons suffered (the characters’ quirky stereotypes and offensive behavior devolved from funny and charming to mean-spirited and dour), I have to say that Will & Grace: The Complete Series is a terrific purchase. Not only do you get over a hundred episodes of Will, Grace, Jack, and Karen (the latter two being the real stars of the show), but there are some pretty great extra features as well.

Will & Grace: The Complete Series comes packaged in a huge, nicely designed box that includes a photo booklet and a bonus disc of exclusive extra features. The individual season sets were never particularly thrilling in the extra features department, so this is a big plus for fans of the show. Season Eight also comes with a few more extra features than usual. Here’s the full breakdown:

Season Eight –

* Season Finale Audio Commentary - With creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, director James Burrows and actor Eric McCormack

* The Final Bow – A feature focusing on the end of the series.

* The Last Words: Interviews with the Cast – Pretty much what it sounds like.

* Blooper Reel.

The Complete Series –

* Previous Extras - All extra features from the individual season collections are included, which mostly includes bloopers and “themed featurettes.”

* Pilot Episode Audio Commentaries – Two different commentary tracks for the first episode. One with David Kohan, Max Mutchnick and James Burrows, and one with Debra Messing  and Eric McCormack.

* Favorite Episodes Commentaries – Audio commentary with Debra Messing and Eric McCormack on their  favorite episodes through the years.

* Photo Gallery.

* Themed Featurettes – These are kind of funny, and kind of a gyp at the same time. They’re basically a series of themed clip compilations from the season. The upside is that you get a lot of quick, funny moments in one spot. The downside is that it’s nothing you can’t get from watching the episodes themselves.

For a while during its run, Will & Grace was consistently one of the funnier sitcoms on television. At the end of its tenure, however, the show devolved into a mean-spirited throwaway with barely likable characters. The caricatures that the main characters had always been became so broad and over-the-top that the show became completely unhinged. However, looking at the series as a whole, I have to say that I really enjoyed it and I got a lot of laughs out of it over the years. It’s great to see a show that can actively portray a minority lifestyle in a positive way and hopefully spread some tolerance, and it’s a shame there aren’t any sitcoms on today that are as edgy and funny as Will & Grace was during it’s heyday.

RECOMMENDED!

Overall Picture:
Show: B+
DVD set: A-

- Mike Spring

Editor