came a few years back on Australian television, its American counterpart arrived last week in the form of the revived series’ first episode starring Elijah Wood and the show’s co-creator Jason Gann. While the second episode of the series airs tonight on FX, the introductory program did well to pack in as much story line as possible into its half-hour time slot.
Desperately longing for a sense of happiness, the show opens with Ryan (Wood) doing his best (maybe not the best that could be done, but his best) to end his life: downing NyQuil and a health-conscious smoothie packed full of what he believes to be prescription pills. Unable to sleep he continues to revise his suicide letter before realizing that the night had come and gone without taking his life with it. Looking like the death he so longed for, Ryan then answers the door to find his beautiful neighbor Jenna (played by Fiona Gubelmann), who needs a place to drop her dog (Gann) off for the day.
The base of the show is then found in Ryan’s realization that he was far from killing himself (his sister explaining that she’d only given him sugar pills, and not a potent medication) and that his ability to view and talk to Wilfred as though he was a human isn’t a hallucination (everyone else sees and hears him as just a dog). Later the two go for a walk where they grab a drink and nachos before Wilfred later impresses upon Ryan the idea to break into a neighbor’s house and steal a pair of weed plants that were growing (not only does the dog have a great sense of smell, but Wilfred has a heightened sense of taste for getting high). The two bond, and Ryan blows off the office job that he was set to begin that day. There are far too many details to touch on every single intricacy of the entire episode here, but you get the idea: a lot went down.
While showcasing a rather unusual contrast between Ryan’s awkward inability to get a handle on the situation — which is only compounded further by Wilfred’s complex insights into the world — a thought slowly evolves as the show gains its bearings: What exactly can Wilfred become?
Woods, the perennial movie star and Lord of the Rings icon, has always been a bit of an awkward character. At least on screen. And not unlike him, at least in my eyes (and having obviously never met either), is Jason Schwartzman. Though the latter has yet to take on such a monumental project as that of the Rings trilogy (and forthcoming prequel), with more than a decade of continual roles on the big screen he’s amassed a rather distinct niche for himself, continually extracting a sense of deep awkwardness and discomfort through his roles in Rushmore , The Darjeeling Limited and even Slackers . Yet his brilliant role alongside Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson on HBO’s Bored To Death has allowed him to harness his eccentricities and develop a full-bodied character. One that’s not only interesting, but able to carry a series.
With Wilfred , Wood has the chance to develop something for himself that could change the direction of his entire career. Though 30 now, it’s still difficult to look at the former child actor in the role of an adult with adult issues and adult responsibilities. But if he’s able to to funnel the concepts and ideas that were introduced in the first episode of his new show into something more fleshed out, his place as Ryan in Wilfred might yet become the most fulfilling (and best!) role of his career.
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