A Man. And His Blog.

I’m still not getting warm with this show. No story, no character development, and I’m starting to care less about the characters. I don’t even know if I’m making it through the season, since WILFRED has become one of the TV shows, whose first season was weaker than its pilot. The plot with the human dog is good, but it shows it doesn’t work much as a TV show. I wonder if I would say the same about the Australian original?

The competition between Ryan (Elijah Wood) and Drew (Chris Klein) was alright. Nice that the writers brought back the story of Ryan having a crush on Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann), and nice that Wilfred (Jason Gann) is helping Ryan in getting rid of Drew, so that the two can have Jenna for themselves. And even though the story of how Ryan and Wilfred try to destroy Drew was alright, I just didn’t care. Furthermore I thought it was a bit over the top from Jenna to break up with Drew after the ping-pong game. Who would break up with his boyfriend after an intense ping-pong game? That was purely for the story, less believable, and it didn’t make me like Ryan’s effort of sorting the things out and repairing the mess. I think this should have been the main story of the episode, rather than breaking up Drew and Jenna.

At least the conflict between Ryan and Wilfred was somewhat nice. The one thing I loved was Wilfred poisoning Ryan, even though it was just chocolate at the end, but the rest didn’t bring anything for me. Instead Wilfred fucks Bear again, which was not funny this time, and Ryan just sits there, waiting for Jenna to call. Some seconds were clearly wasted for something better, and I don’t know if there will ever be something in WILFRED I actually really like, not just single scenes. And it’s not helping, when Ryan and Wilfred are having a bong, or getting drunk, or Wilfred calling Ryan (how can Jenna and Drew not have noticed Ryan talking through the computer?). It was funny the first time, I was smiling the second time, but now it’s just getting old for me.

At the end, WILFRED is not my show at all. Which is why I’m putting it on hiatus for now. Maybe I’ll go back to it, before the second season premiers (if it will premiere), maybe I won’t and I will forget this show for ever. Maybe I’ll go back to it, when the critics are going into the preferred direction I want them to have… 6/10

Something is awkward here...

Ryan and Wilfred are knocked out after the biggest bong they've hit

Well, the episode was alright. Finally I’m getting used to the series being over the top, and finally I’m kinda getting the humor the writers are always playing on. The only thing is that WILFRED isn’t really funny like during the pilot.

I actually liked the story this time, though the episode could have played a bit more with Ryan (Elijah Wood) in the need of getting some attention. But that story seemed to be over after three minutes, when he arrived at the hospice with Wilfred (Jason Gann). And with it, Ryan’s search for attention and respect got lost during the first half, when Wilfred turned out to be the “star” of the hospital. That made the whole introduction of the plot during the first act pretty much forgotten and unimportant. But at least I liked how the series continues to bring Ryan to interact with other people. This time he even worked, though disguised as volunteering, and he dealt with more than just one character besides Wilfred. If the characters were just a little bit more interesting, the episode would have been better.

In the end, Lisa (Rashida Jones) was just a female, who shows up in Ryan’s life, and has not much of a purpose in his life; and even Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann) seemed to have lost the place in Ryan’s life – is he still trying to get into her pants, or was she demoted to being Wilfred’s owner, who, by accident, is Ryan’s neighbor? And the story in the hospice was a bit lame as well. Somehow I have the feeling the writers play on something bigger, when I hear Wilfred talking he is God, and seeing him kill people (even though he only said he killed that woman). With it, the plot around Ruby (Ellia English) could have been more explained. I wasn’t caring about anything involving the plot in the hospital, even after Ruby jumped from the roof. Instead I had the feeling it was just all about disrupting the friendship between Ryan and Wilfred, and let Ryan see the dog in another light. But there are eight episodes left this season, and I really don’t believed the writers have just started a sub plot with Ryan not trusting Wilfred anymore. Maybe even thinking the dog is completely crazy. It would be a nice plot, but even after five episodes, there’s nothing of an ongoing story arc here…

I’m kinda intrigued of how a series can develop after five episodes: The pilot was great, the following episodes not so, and now I don’t really care about anything in the show anymore. 6/10

Rashida almost looks like a geek

It's a rainy night

Well, it was a better episode than the last one. Ryan (Elijah Wood) is interacting with more characters, is actually helping Wilfred (Jason Gann) for once, and the story was better. Unfortunately, the series is still not near perfect, and somehow I believed here that the writers haven’t enough material for a complete 21-minute episode. Otherwise I can’t understand what the last two minutes were about, which bored me totally.

I kinda like the development of Wilfred being “just a dog” in this episode. Instead of kidding Ryan all the time and bringing him in curious situations, I believed for the first time that Ryan cared about Wilfred, and that Wilfred is nothing but a mutt, who can’t think straight, when it comes to peanut butter, and who isn’t intelligent at all. The play on their friendship was better done in this episode, so I hope the next episodes will rely on that. Other than that, the story with Darryl (Ed Helms), peanut butter, “having a ball”, and finally Ryan’s sister Kristen (Dorian Brown) was okay. A bit over the top, which is already normal for this show, absolutely not dramatic, and at least a bit funny at some points. I was able to smile every now and then.

The story with Darryl was okay. Thankfully it wasn’t that creepy and the whole thing with the peanut butter was only bearable, because Ed Helms could play the creepy dog sitter. But there could have been a bigger meaning behind this story, and not just Ryan’s showing of how much Wilfred means to him as a friend, or that even a guy-dog like Wilfred can have some issues to deal with. In addition, there could have been happening more with Bear, or something. I don’t know, but maybe Ryan could have seen Bear as a guy in a bear costume (but maybe since it was just a stuffed animal and therefore not living, it wasn’t possible), or maybe the friendship between Wilfred and Bear could have been played out better. Because I couldn’t buy int Wilfred’s mission to save Bear at all. Maybe because that wasn’t one of the funny bits in the episode. On the other hand, the episode missed out on a really big thing: Wilfred suggested that Darryl  ”raped” the bear as well – I would have seen that, instead of him cumming while sticking his fingers in the jar and pulling down his pants. THAT would have been a creepy sequence.

At the end, I didn’t care much about Kristen. She did some stuff, Ryan never cared, bot have a difficult relationship, bla bla. She needs some character work done, and he needs to care more about his family. Then both characters would be more likable. Finally I have one question: What is up with Jenna, and why is she leaving Wilfred with Ryan all the time? We have arrived at a stage, where I am almost about to believe that Wilfred is Ryan’s dog… 6.5/10

Creepy Ed Helms is creepy

Sisters can be annoying, thinks Ryan

Okay, now the show has gotten to a level, from where it can only be boring from now on. It’s the third episode of the show, and this is the third episode, where there was nothing else to see but the already typical Ryan/Wilfred comedy, which seems to be getting forced too. I wasn’t laughing one single time. WILFRED hereby one the title of the “Series which is getting old in record-time”. I still have some hope for the show left though, but I don’t know if I’m patient enough to wait for the whole season

The whole problem of WILFRED lies in the fact that the writers don’t know how to include the other characters. Instead they rely on the crazy arc with Wilfred (Jason Gann) and hope that the audience will continue to laugh about it throughout the whole season. Here is me hoping that the writers realized that exact fact while writing the season, and will soon integrate the other characters. Even though Spencer (Ethan Suplee) was in the focus of the episode, I really don’t think that WILFRED is serving a fucked-up friendship between him and Ryan (Elijah Wood) now, especially since Spencer learned the truth about the break-in. Even though I would wish that the writers include Spencer more after this episode.

Here I’m sitting and I don’t even know what to write anymore. The pilot was great, the second episode was a bit blah, the third episode disappointed. I wonder if the Australian original was the same, and I wonder if the rest of the season is the same. Furthermore I wonder if WILFRED is always so damn over-the-top and unfunny. I wanted to laugh, when Ryan was affected by the weed, saw his baby feet and lost his teeth, and I wanted to laugh, when Wilfred was dancing in the tittie bar at the pole. But I couldn’t, because all the time I was thinking that it might be too over the top for my taste. Basically I just realized that WILFRED is not a series for me and that there is another FX show, which hasn’t wowed me. To tell the truth, only TERRIERS was able to do that – FX is now on the same list with HBO, which has unsatisfying TV shows for me as well.

Well, somehow the episode looked like as if it wanted to start a storyline without either Ryan or Wilfred. Proof is there with Jesse (Damon Herriman) and how Spencer took away his girl. The only thing is: It didn’t serve anything. Neither an interesting arc for Spencer, nor any humor. But hey, it’s at least something, right? If it only would have been one or two minutes longer to consider this tiny little sub plot as a major arc of a supporting character…

What I would wish and what I want to see from the show: Ryan’s women in his life getting more screentime; seeing more scenes about how the people reacting with Wilfred in their lives (I still love the scene from the pilot, where Wilfred put his head between the tits of the waitress); a bit of an ongoing storyline about Ryan’s psychotic behavior (is he getting crazy or not?). And definitely more humor. So I’m waiting for that… 4.5/10

Who's getting tired of porn?

A black eye for stolen weed and shit in a boot

Hm, I don’t know. I loved the pilot. But now it seems the show is getting old already. There’s too much play on the friendship between Ryan (Elijah Wood) and Wilfred (Jason Gann), but not without neglecting all the other characters in the show. At the moment I don’t really care about what’s happening with Ryan and how he feels, and for now I even don’t care about the little messages given with the stories. Especially when the writers somehow found a way out of those morals of the episode, with Wilfred playing a prank on Ryan, or even hating him. Or with the writers not developing some kind of ongoing story. Like the ending of the pilot, or like the cop-out of Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann) having a boyfriend. Really lame.

At least I liked how Wilfred and Ryan spent the day together, and how the dog is learning more and more about Ryan. Beginning with Ryan’s ex-girlfriend, and why he broke up with her (only Wilfred can’t put his finger “in it” – LOL), ending with the little question of trust between the two new friends. Furthermore, I liked Wilfred’s prank as well. Letting Ryan think that Jenna has a dick was funny at some points, even though I was wishing for the story to be more awkward. But I still don’t know why I didn’t really like the episode. maybe because they were two storylines in those 22 minutes, and no story got the utmost attention. Maybe because Jenna pissing “in the upright position” could have been more funnier, but actually wasn’t. Or maybe just because the episode didn’t have a bigger outcome.

Which is why I think the writers either rely on the Australian original (anybody know if the US writers adapted the Aussie episodes?) or they don’t really know how to connect Ryan with more characters than just Wilfred. Despite it being the main focus of the show, it really wouldn’t hurt to have Ryan interact with other people too. He made a good start with telling Jenna that he’s awkward, but as long as the series continues to play on the Ryan/Wilfred plot, it is going to be boring real soon. The writers could start with bringing Ethan Suplee back to the show, or have some rivalry going on between Ryan and Drew (Chris Klein). There are two characters in the background, and I don’t feel the writers know what to do with them. 6/10

Look, a pelican!

Look, a couple!

What a crazy, fucked-up piece of awesome. I didn’t want to expect much from this show, because its story sounds absurd, and the Australian original didn’t live for more than two short episodes (and I’ve never seen it, never even heard of it before). I wanted to like it, because all the time I’m reading about writers in the need of an original idea, and this definitely is an original idea (yes, I know it’s a remake of an Australian series, but who cares now?). And boy, did the pilot deliver. Yes, it was crazy. Yes, it was unique. Yes, it was totally missing the point of making it awkward for the main character. Yes, it heavily relied on being funny, because the human dog has a foul mouth and thinks of doping and fucking all the time. Yes, the pilot missed character depth. But fuck it all, because I was laughing all the way, couldn’t believe what I saw, commented every scene with Ryan (Elijah Wood) and Wilfred (Jason Gann) with my beloved “What the fuck?”, always with a smile on my face, which is why my roommates wondered what the hell I was watching there…

On the other hand, In really want to give the pilot the full treatment, but in this case I can’t. In this case, I would have wished for more ingenuity, to go for the full hour, to not make it a comedy only. Ryan is the perfect character to bring the show into a surreal state, to bring some craziness into it, which actually forks into a dramatic storyline, or maybe even abandon the buddy relationship between the suicidal human and the human dog. I don’t know if the writers are going to get to this one in the later stage of the season, but the pilot didn’t look like as if it’s going into a dramatic storyline in the future. Instead it crushed its purpose of being dramatic, just to push the series into the surreal comedy. It already begins with Ryan’s suicide attempt and his suicide note, the third revised. With it, Ryan looked “too happy” to kill himself and I couldn’t get to his character during the scene.

Anything after that was great though, despite some missing story potential of Ryan wondering what is up with him, and if he’s going crazy. Figuring that Ryan might have been crazy from the beginning, and it might be a character flaw of him, I understand why he didn’t ask himself what a human dog is doing in  his house, and why everybody was seeing him as a normal dog. There’s just the unaddressed issue about Ryan’s character and what he really “is”. Crazy? Dead? Dreaming? Or is there really a guy in this world, who wants to be a dog, and everybody plays that game except Ryan? Again, this could be a story device in the whole season, but then again I don’t really believe the series is going to tell a strong serialized storyline, despite Ryan’s wallet lying in front of Spencer’s house (Ethan Suplee) telling something different.

The cast is great. I didn’t expect it, but Elijah Wood makes a good appearance, while Jason Gann is already experienced enough to play a dog.I just hope he is not going to turn out as the annoying one, since all the comedy in the series seems to rely on “the dog” – which is why I hope the writers are going into the show with different approaches on storylines. The two women in the cast didn’t get as much attention as I wanted to, but their characters could be worth my time, if the writing is great. Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann) doesn’t work for me as a love interest yet, but Kristen (Dorian Brown) could be the character, who proves to be more crazy than her brother. And it definitely wouldn’t hurt to let all the characters interact with each other and not let WILFRED become the show about a human dog and his suicidal best friend.

All in all, I really liked the pilot, but it was too short to deliver everything a pilot should deliver. No wonder I’m asking myself now, if the show focuses on more than just the surrealism, or if there’s something at stake for all the characters here. The next couple of episodes will show, until then I hope the scenes with Wilfred and all his women are going to be as awesome as in this episode. 8.5/10

Drugs and suicide attempts make the eyes go dark

Dogs are always filthy and sexist