As Season Four of Will & Grace gets under way, we find interior designer Grace Adler still living with her oafish boyfriend Nathan (Will Harrelson), but before long she has gravitated back (platonically, of course) to her former roommate, gay lawyer Will Truman (
Eric McCormack). Eventually, Nathan proposes to Grace, but she turns him down--and lives to regret it. As for Will's flamboyantly gay buddy Jack (
Sean Hayes), he is basking in the joys of new-found parenthood as he bonds with Elliott (
Michael Angarano), the teenaged son that resulted from one of Jack's sperm-bank donations. This story arc leads to a nasty confrontation with Elliott's biological mother, a vitriolic lesbian named Bonnie (
Rosie O'Donnell). Meanwhile, Grace's wealthy socialite business partner Karen (Megan Mullaly) blithely continues living the high life even though her husband Stan has been thrown in jail for income tax evasion. Guest stars this season include
Blythe Danner as Will's nails-on-the-blackboard mother Marilyn;
Suzanne Pleshette) as snooty Karen's trailer-trash mom Lois;
Matt Damon as a straight man posing as a homosexual in order to take a free trip to Europe with a gay men's chorus;
Parker Posey as Darlene, Jack's coworker at Barney's Department Store;
Eileen Brennan as Jack's whisky-voiced acting coach Zandra; and
Glenn Close as an eccentric celebrity photographer named Fannie Lieber (sound vaguely familiar)? In the season's cliffhanger finale, Will and Grace respond to their mutually ticking biological clocks by deciding to have a baby together (though just HOW they plan to do this remains up in the air!); and Karen toys with cheating on her incarcerated husband with courtly Lionel Banks (
Rip Torn). Will & Grace enjoyed its best-ever ratings during its fourth season, attaining the coveted Number Nine slot. Also, the series picked two more of its sixteen Emmy awards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide