Dammit, FX…Now I Have to Watch Wilfred, Too?

A few months ago, while watching FX‘s Archer, I saw a preview for Wilfred, the network’s new show about a depressed man who, along with the viewer, sees his neighbor’s dog Wilfred as a vice-laden human in a dog suit. One could assume that the majority of the show’s humor would arise from the differences in what a dog and a man can get away with, such as, “Oh, if a dog were humping a woman’s leg, it’d be funny, but a man in a dog suit doing it is an inspired felon,” as well as Wilfred urinating and defecating in every public place imaginable.

“What a contrived piece of shit. It looks like it’s trying to win viewers via a gag premise and shock value,” I thought to myself, the irony of me saying the same thing about Archer as I saw previews for it during episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia entirely lost upon me. I even resisted recording the first episode to nurse my aching spite hardon, though my DVR was set to capture Louie, the show that aired immediately after it. The problem was, the day after Wilfred premiered, several people asked me what I thought of the show, assuming that any vulgar comedy would be given viewing for me. (More often than not, they’d be right, as much as I hate to admit it.) So I bit the bullet, watched the show’s second episode, and came away thoroughly impressed. FX has added yet another potent arrow to their quiver.

Wilfred works not because not because each scene contains gag after gag about Wilfred sticking his dong into an actual female dog, (okay, honestly, that’d be pretty funny), but because it focuses upon the small, fearful world that Elijah Wood inhabits and Wilfred’s skillful manipulations to bring him out of it, even as he kicks and screams in protest. As a tremendously reclusive social retard, the thought of a new friend appearing in my life who wants to drag me out of my shell and get me into crazy situations sounds awesome, though I’d work a different angle: Instead of a dog, my friend would be an incredibly attractive woman, and, instead of me being the only one to see her as a person, I’d be the only one who saw she was naked the entire time. See, you don’t have to be Jewish to come up with good ideas in entertainment: Being short and hairy with a big nose is what’s actually responsible for the magic, and the tribesmen don’t have a stranglehold on that by a long shot.

So give Wilfred a chance tonight because I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. C’mon. It’s not like I’m trying to get you to eat nutritiously, exercise, or in any way better yourself. I’m suggesting you watch a television show. Which is the opposite of what Wilfred himself would encourage you to do, but that’s why we love TV to begin with: It does all the living for us. Enjoy.

Tagged as: FX Network, Wilfred.