For the last couple of weeks, I have been falling in love with FX's new show, "Wilfred". Now, you don't have to be a "dog person" to enjoy this show, but I'm sure it would help.
Ryan, played by Elijah Wood, is down on life and is going through drafts of his suicide note when we first meet him. In a kind of "Fight Club" meets "Benji" twist, Ryan sees his neighbor's dog, Wilfred, as a man in a dog costume, and Wilfred is determined to bring Ryan out of the doldrums and get him to appreciate life.
The show is ultimately about friendship and how much either of them is willing to be put through to be friends with each other. Whether they're getting high or going to a no-dogs-allowed beach, the duo puts into perspective what it means to be friends.
But, like I said earlier, there is a "Fight Club" twist. Wilfred is also trying to get Ryan into trouble in a backwards way to make him live life. Instead of burning down Ryan's house though, he convinces him to rob one of his neighbors of pot plants and then defecate in his shoes.
Elijah Wood is really quite great in this role as he already has a kind of meager, weakling style about him (I mean that in the nicest way possible). However, the best part of the show is easily the man in the suit, Jason Gann who starred-in and adapted the UK version of the show.
Gann seems to be more canine than human himself. He fully encompasses all the quirks and mannerisms of dogs from going crazy for a laser pointer dot or shoveling holes in Ryan's back yard because he's "anxious".
As a dog owner, I find myself cracking up about all of the dog wisdom Wilfred imparts upon Ryan, like telling him to sexually dominate his neighbor if confronted about the burglary. Wilfred is full of those little tidbits where he thinks the dog world easily crosses over into the human world.
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