After a decade-long hiatus, Will & Grace returned to television last week to completely embarrass itself by putting a political agenda ahead of decent writing. When it comes to the follow-up, the October 10 episode "Who's Your Daddy," all I can say is that it's not as bad.
Only one of the two key storylines was contrived to opine on the issues of the day (as opposed to the entire episode last week), and there was some actual humor to the writing, unfortunately, that doesn't mean it was good. After all, "better than last week" is a very low bar.
In one of the storylines this week, a much younger man, Blake, is interested in Will. When Will has him over for dinner, he finds that they have very little in common. His date doesn't like Madonna, and his coming out wasn't nearly as difficult as Will's. In fact, he came out at age EIGHT and his divorced parents threw him coming-out parties!
Will: Well, for me, my coming-out was pretty typical. My mom cried, my dad drank, and my grandmother got rabies. Unrelated, but just a rough weekend all around.
Blake: That's brutal.
Will: Yeah. How was it for you?
Blake: Oh, um... I told my parents I was gay when I was eight. They were divorced. They both threw me a coming-out party on the same weekend. That was hard.
Will: That's not a coming-out story. How's James Franco supposed to win the Oscar playing that? God, is that the new gay? You guys grow up in a big happiness bubble?
Blake: Isn't that good?
Will: No. It's so nice, it's practically abuse. I mean, how's it supposed to get better if it was always fine?
Blake: Are you mad at me because I'm happy?
Will: Yes. No, I... Probably. Doesn't matter.
I can understand why Will might be jealous that Blake's coming out was so much smoother than his own, but he seems genuinely irritated as the episode progresses that it's been an easier road for younger gay people. Shouldn't that be what any social justice warrior wants - to make it better for those to come? After all, the slogan to gay teens is "It Gets Better."
However, the larger issue here is the fact that Blake as a third-grader was contemplating ideas of sexual orientation, and that his parents were celebrating a young child's sexuality. Then again, kids are coming out as transgendered in kindergarten now, so maybe Blake was a late bloomer by today's standards.
Later, it reaches a boiling point when Will decides to give a lecture on the history of gay rights instead of continuing their date.
Will: Like, it's great that you have no shame. I mean, you missed the joy of signing up for football to fool your parents. But you guys can never forget the struggle that came before you, the people that fought and loved and--and died, so that you could walk down the street in skinny jeans with rights you never even knew you never had. The minute we forget what we went through to get here is the minute it could all be taken away.
It's strange that the left can't extrapolate to apply this to Constitutional rights, and that includes people involved with this very show. Any of our rights could disappear if we take them for granted, if we do not remain vigilant, and if we forget that people fought and died for them. Why is it that they won't apply this same thinking to the very rights enshrined in our Constitution? Religious freedom, free speech and gun rights, which are the cornerstone of our republic, should certainly be given at least the same amount of consideration as a new "right" to gay marriage that the Supreme Court made up only 2 years ago, shouldn't they?
