ehalcomb: Wilfred || First Impressions

One type of show that I don't find myself watching very often is one that deals with psychology. Most television shows about this subject tend to be serious and down-to-earth but many of them don't try their hand at comedy like Wilfred does. My first impressions are only based on the first three episodes of a series, but I can tell that I will grow to love it.

Ryan (Elijah Wood) is depressed. So much so that the entire first episode is about him trying to take his own life by overdose. Wilfred (Jason Gann) is his neighbor's dog... kind of. To Ryan, a psychologically messed up bum, Wilfred is actually a fully-grown adult who just wears a dog costume. Confused yet? So was I for the fifteen minutes of the show. One day Ryan's neighbor asks him to take care of Wilfred while she's off running errands and so the friendship between the human and dog start.

One way I could describe the relationship between Ryan and Wilfred is bitter-sweet. These two are nothing alike but they get along very well. At least until Wilfred does something that Ryan has to fix by the end and learns a lesson from. These lessons are fairly straight forward and even predictable at times, at least so far. The main reason for this being that each episode is titled by the hump that the main character has to trek over. So far these have been 'Happiness', 'Trust', and 'Fear'. Maybe by the end of the show or even the season I can look back and see these as clever but right now it is kind of a spoiler for what's to come. I like to be surprised by a show but if I know exactly what the moral of the episode will be then it feels like I'm almost ahead of the plot at times.

The characters of Wilfred and Ryan are a great comedy duo. They constantly play off of each other in clever and interesting ways and, though I haven't died from laughter quite yet, they have gotten some good laughs from me. The only real problem I have with the two so far is the fact that Wilfred is always the one to incite trouble and Ryan is constantly the one to get them out of it. This, again, plays into the predictability that the show is having so far. There has only been a few stand-out moments of plot that have been instrumental in my motivation to keep watching.

Despite all that, I still want to keep watching. Why is that? The problems I have with the show would make me drop it like a hot rock with most others but why this one? Well, to put it simply, I want to see Ryan grow as a character. I love the fact that the series starts with Ryan at his lowest point. Though I can't necessarily put myself in his shoes I do want to see him get better and learn to be happy through his experiences with Wilfred. The comedy is great, the plot is only good, but what it could become is something that is yet to be seen.

I can't wait to watch more of Wilfred.