Will & Grace Recap: “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying”

“How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,” is a relatively fun episode of the NBC sitcom that’s only purpose is to get Will and Grace to work together.

Is the revival really as good as people seem to think or is the nostalgia of the series convincing viewers to look at each episode with rose-colored glasses? This episode makes a bold case for both with plenty of flat jokes as well as multiple laugh-out-loud gags.

This week, Grace is having trouble landing a big designing project for her work and desperately needs Will’s help. Guest star, Max Greenfield, plays young CEO Eli who is in need of a full-time designer to manage the look of all of his hotels. Thankfully, to seal the deal he’s looking for a date and Grace has no qualms about pimping Will out. The jokes in this part of “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,” tend to fall a bit flat but it doesn’t seem to matter in this storyline. Will ends up agreeing to the date but has a breakdown before anything can happen when he realizes that he hates working as a corporate lawyer. When Grace lands the design project, she ends up convincing him to join her and Karen which he happily accepts. It’s a bit ridiculous to think that now she would need a lawyer but at the end of the day the writers want to have an excuse to get three out of the four characters together during the work day and there’s no fault in that.

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At Jack’s workplace, he finds himself in a feud with a colleague over money problems. Turns out, he bought said employee a lottery ticket which the guy won with. Therefore, Jack feels like he’s entitled to half of the two-thousand-dollar winnings and he ends up blowing the money before even receiving his share. The coworker instead pays him back for the lottery ticket and that’s it which leads to a standoff in his office. “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,” has the best gag of the night when it’s revealed that Jack already spent his half of the money buying a jean jacket with Karen’s face on the back. Long story short, neither end up keeping the cash and instead give it to a student whose family car broke down.

At this point in the series though, Karen has been the most consistent in laughs and “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying” continues that streak. Beverly Leslie returns, despite dying in the series finale, and is recovering from plastic surgery in Karen’s hotel room. A drugged up Beverly admits his homosexuality to her and begs her for help coming out of the closet, however after his nap he doesn’t remember any of it. Honestly, it’s unclear if the writers just happen to give Karen the best material to work with or if Megan Mullally is having so much fun in the role that the laughter is infectious but either way it’s fantastic.

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“How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,” is a fine but forgettable episode of Will & Grace. It’s meant to set up a season-long work storyline and it manages to do so with a few laughs involved. Hopefully, this new dynamic will be able to get the characters’ storylines to cross more because Jack and Karen do feel a bit separated from the group.