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Right away, it’s easy to see that Wilfred isn’t for everyone. It’s a comedy whose first season begins with a failed suicide and ends with the suggestion of insanity. Along the way, it detours to some other equally dark places, but it does so with humor and charm, bolstered by genuine chemistry between the leads. I imagine that the audience that connects with Wilfred isn’t a large one, but I would also guess that they’ll be around for a while.
Elijah Wood stars as Ryan, a former lawyer whose OCD-tinged suicide attempt opens the pilot. The next morning finds him still alive and suddenly watching his attractive next-door neighbor’s dog, Wilfred, who appears to Ryan as a 6-foot-tall man in a dog suit, who happens to have a penchant for manipulation, raunchy humor, and marijuana. Jason Gann, who co-created the original Australian short film and the TV series on which this one is based, reprises his role as the eponymous troublemaker. The season charts their developing friendship as Wilfred draws Ryan out of his depression, while simultaneously making his life a chaotic mess.
Of the two main engines driving the show, the broad comedy about a man in a dog suit fares the weakest. Gann’s got great timing, and there are a lot of genuinely funny moments, but you can see a lot of them coming. Wilfred’s particular brand of humor also tends to rely on a combination of slapstick and raunch that doesn’t always land quite right, and the result is that it’s just not as laugh-out-loud funny as it wants to be.
At the same time, there’s a lot going on under the surface. Wood is a perfect fit for the neurotic Ryan, alternating between being a voice of reason in the midst of the madness and a deeply disturbed and possibly delusional lost soul. He and Gann play off each other well, and they do their best to sell the surrealism of this particular odd couple, but the show really takes off in the episodes that hinge on Wilfred’s dual nature and Ryan’s possible delusions. The season’s two best episodes include an appearance by Dwight Yoakum as the only other person who sees Wilfred the way that Ryan does and a turn by Mary Steenburgen as Ryan’s institutionalized free-spirit mother.
Wilfred could still use a little fine-tuning—but, for those who enjoy an odd story with a bit of heart and, yes, even a man in a dog suit smoking a bong, it settles in nicely.
DVD Review:
The DVD set of Wilfred’s first season includes just a handful of extra features. There are a couple of interviews that provide a little background on how the show came about, but otherwise, it’s a pretty bare set. I suppose that’s fitting, though, since knowing too much about what’s going on would diminish much of the show’s weird charm.
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