Will & Grace: Season Five

By Will & Grace's star-studded 2002-03 fifth season, three-quarters of the show's central quartet had earned Emmys: this year it's Debra Messing's turn. Within the first 10 of the 24 episodes compiled here, straight Grace's (Messing) plans to have a baby with gay Will (Eric McCormack) are complicated by her kismet encounter with Jewish doctor Leo (Harry Connick Jr.). In fact, she and Will have a bitter falling-out and emotional reconciliation; and she will marry Leo and make the uneasy transition to the role of wife. These life changes result in some of the series' very best episodes, from the dramatic "Humongous Growth" to the comedic "Sex, Losers & Videotape," in which the graceless Grace attempts to make a sexy video for the absent Leo. It's also an eventful year for Megan Mullally's amoral socialite, the unsinkable Karen Walker, who faces displacement, divorce, and a close death. Another fifth season story arc gives Will a love-him-and-lose-him relationship with Barry (Dan Futterman), Karen's freshly outed cousin, who is in need of an extreme makeover. As for Jack (Sean Hayes), one of his best half hours finds him installed as Kevin Bacon's personal assistant in "Bacon and Eggs," which climaxes with a rollicking pas de deux to “Footloose.” This season really goes overboard with guest stars, most of whom acquit themselves memorably: Gene Wilder earned an Emmy for his role as Will's emotionally unstable new boss in "Boardroom and a Parked Place," Madonna livens up "Dolls and Dolls" as Karen's new and very high maintenance roommate, Demi Moore appears as Jack's former babysitter in "Women and Children First," and Macaulay Culkin is a very young but perhaps not quite so innocent lawyer in "May Divorce Be with You." Speaking of overboard, the shipboard season finale offers several tantalizing cliffhangers that make one eager to dive into season six. DVD extras include over a dozen short themed featurettes and an outtakes reel. Recommended. (D. Liebenson)