Ranking Will & Grace Seasons

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Ranking Will & Grace Seasons

246 episodes of Will & Grace have aired over the years with 11 seasons overall. This sitcom spanned three decades and it was revived in the 2010s. Throughout its course, it actually remained pretty good with a very solid streak overall, though diminishing near the end of its run. Still, most seasons are strong and every single one has its great highlights. I will rank them all based on humor, character moments and storytelling.

11. Season 11

The last season ended up being the worst one for obvious reasons – it was concerned with the pregnancy storyline way too much, resulting in an overly Will and Grace-centric season. Jack and Karen still got their moments to shine, but more humor was definitely needed to balance its dramatic elements. Still, it was a solid conclusion to the show and it had some very well executed episodes for sure.

Best Moment – Probably the funniest scene in the entire season is the one where Grace basically destroyed an entire species, thus ruling her chance with one very poor man once again. It was also very funny when she’d destroyed his apartment with poop previously.

10. Season 10

While I found McCoy a boring boyfriend for Will, this tenth season was otherwise pretty solid. It introduced a fine boyfriend for Grace, a solid wedding arc for Jack and an interesting examination of Karen’s sexual orientation, which all ended very realistically. For being this late in the game, this was a surprisingly solid season with some clearly great comedic moments interspersed throughout.

Best Moment – Beverly Leslie got one hilarious scene here, but the comedic highlight has to be the scene where Jack insulted Will for being “fat” in one gloriously executed comedic scene. As for the dramatic stuff, Will saying he’s had it with homophobic people as he’s tired of arguing with them was unexpectedly poignant.

9. Season 1

Yes, this placement may be controversial to some, but I actually did not care that much for the first season. It was a good introduction to all of the characters for sure and it has its great episodes undoubtedly, but it’s also way too dramatic instead of comedic for my personal liking, thus being far less entertaining than many other seasons of the show.

Best Moment – The scene where Karen gets mistaken for a drag queen is absolutely hilarious. It remains one of the funniest moments from the first couple of seasons as well as a great early moment for Karen who has been the funniest character from the get-go.

8. Season 9

The ninth season deserves more love as it almost seamlessly continued the show after so many years when it initially ended. All the characters behaved as we’d come to expect them to act while the actors themselves have all aged like fine wine. This season has some very strong arcs with Jack even getting a new cop boyfriend interestingly enough.

Best Moment – Karen got the best comedic and dramatic moment in this season. The former has her deal with Beverly Leslie as he finally comes out to her in a hilariously serious fashion while the latter has her deliver a wonderful speech to Rosario beside her coffin. That episode was so heartbreaking.

7. Season 4

The fourth season is a lot of fun in some episodes, and it’s especially notable for featuring many celebrity cameos and even longer roles, including Rosie O’Donnell and Michael Douglas who was a great arc for Will for sure. Overall though, this particular season is more forgettable in the bigger scope of things.

Best Moment – Karen trapping Grace in an elevator was absolutely hysterical. That entire elevator routine was a great gag that never felt overplayed despite its long runtime as it was so well executed through and through.

6. Season 3

This season introduces Will to Matthew who is a closeted gay man, leading to the show dealing so honestly with the problematic nature of dating a closeted man and how hurtful and restraining that can be for the other person. I have to say that I also loved seeing Woody Harrelson in this season as he’s such a great actor and was ultimately a good fit for this show. It was truly a star-studded season.

Best Moment – Rosario is a priceless supporting character, essential for this show. So, Karen and her arguing and separating created a lot of drama. But that was all resolved in that wonderful, very memorable reunion scene between the two.

5. Season 2

Will got some very interesting dating episodes throughout this second season while Jack marrying Rosario was the funniest, sweetest arc of this particular season. This is where the show reached its footing after being overly dramatic in the previous season. This is where the humor became so great.

Best Moment – Karen helping a poor woman with money was an instantly iconic, beautiful moment that forever cemented her as having a good heart and acting kindly when it matters most. On the more comedic spectrum of things, how can you top learning that Karen was once a porn star in dominatrix videos? That was hilarious while still being true to her character.

4. Season 5

This is a very good season which benefits the most from a couple of killer guest starring performances and some memorable new characters. The highlights are Gene Wilder and Elton John who were both very funny here. This season introduced Leo as Grace’s long boyfriend whom I unfortunately never really liked.

Best Moment – Elton John proving that gay mafia really exists was hilarious, but probably the best episode was the one where Karen and Leslie spared against each other through many very funny lines of dialogue.

3. Season 8

I loved Malcolm so much. He was a perfect partner for Karen, and it’s unfortunate that the show never realized that. This season is great for focusing on Will and Jack’s great friendship through many wonderful episodes. Though ending rather problematically, most of this season was actually stupendous and one of my favorite, funniest seasons. It’s very underrated for sure.

Best Moment – That scene where all three fought over Karen was ingenious. This show is quite great when it comes to slapstick humor and this is one of the best examples of that. It built up to a crescendo and only got funnier and funnier as it progressed further and further.

2. Season 6

Stuart is introduced in this season as one of Jack’s longest boyfriends, but this is the point where the show addressed Will’s desperation and loneliness so poignantly. Still, Will ended up dating Vince the policeman during this season, and he most definitely remains his best partner in the entire show’s run, and it’s such a shame that they ended things off later on.

Best Moment – The comedic highlight has to be the episode with the lesbians. This show is hilarious when it makes fun of lesbians, but in a more playful than hateful manner. Here, that episode was highly amusing from start to finish.

1. Season 7

In the seventh season, Grace broke things off with Leo finally, Jack got a new job, Karen caring for Rosario and Will breaking up with Vince… Yes, a lot of things happened here, which is the biggest reason why it’s the best season of Will & Grace. The final twist with Stan was also quite fun. The entire season is very dramatic and important in terms of storylines, but it never forgets to be funny as it has many hilarious episodes to boot.

Best Moment – Grace destroying a figurine of Will’s crazy mother and trying to blame it on others. That was by far the finest moment of this entire season. I like when Grace gets into crazy shenanigans and some of the best situational comedy episodes surround her character.

You can get the seventh season of Will & Grace on Amazon.