The British Take on W&G - As a new season (or series as those wacky Brits call it) of Will & Grace begins in the UK, the Guardian asks "How on earth did Will and Grace, a sitcom with such overtly gay characters, manage to win over middle America?" Hmm...how about by not being quite as overt as the question seems to portray them? I have a couple little nits to pick with the essay, starting with its assertion that the show is "as popular in Wyoming as it is in New York City." Now, that statement may be true, but I'd like to see proof of that. I searched online for local Nielsen ratings, but was unable to find any data. However, just because a show has a high share of the ratings nationally doesn't guarantee that it's watched in all parts of the country--especially when it's up against the powerhouse of CSI. This type of ratings analysis is kind of like looking at election results on a map: you see huge swaths of the country voting Republican, but this type of graphic depiction doesn't show the numbers of people voting for Democrats in the geographically smaller areas with tightly packed urban populations. Another miniscule error in the essay is that claim that "Matt Damon ([played] a gay character)" in his guest-starring role. Well, actually, he was playing a straight character who was pretending to be gay, but I guess that's a pretty subtle point. But really, the most interesting part of the artice for me is to hear that Will & Grace would also be considered a litmus test of attitudes toward gays in the UK. The British version of Queer As Folk appeared ages and ages ago and even their chat shows like V Graham Norton and other programming seems to be so much closer to the cutting edge than ours when it comes mainstream acceptance of homosexuality.