Season 2, Episodes 2-3
It now becomes pretty clear why the episode of Wilfred that aired two weeks ago was hidden,
promoted only as a “special preview episode”, while last week’s episode was
labeled as the season premiere. (At least that’s what my cable box guide
referred to it as.) Even though the show originally premiered to some of FX’s
highest numbers, it quickly lost a large portion of its audience, perhaps the
result of being too weird. “Progress” was too weird to bring back any viewers
who had left the show in season one, and it certainly wouldn’t appeal to any
first-timers. Yet while it might be tempting to see the show as selling out or
chasing the broader audience (especially in light of the audience boost theshow got last week thanks to the premiere of Anger Management), it’s important to note the subtle changes that
exist in the second and third episodes of the season, and how they point a way
forward for the show.
-Herman
Hesse
“Letting Go” at first seems like a giant step
backwards for the show, once again placing Wilfred as the devil on Ryan’s
shoulder, pushing him to do outrageous thing in the name of bettering himself
(but really just for the benefit of Wilfred). The episode even quickly catches
up with the status quo (that Jenna and Drew are still getting married), and
only briefly plays with the idea of Wilfred still being mad at Ryan, thus
effectively blowing past the important plot developments of the season one
finale and the season two premiere.
However, what differed here is that the Lesson of
the Week actually served a real narrative purpose beyond just providing fuel
for one half-hour of the show. Usually the show uses Wilfred’s lessons just to
get Ryan into one form of trouble or another and then have us laugh as he
struggles (often against Wilfred’s attempts) to get out of the situation. However,
in “Letting Go”, the titular lesson, which applied to both Wilfred and Ryan
(more on this in a bit), served to eject Ryan out of his pining after Jenna and
push him towards going out on a date with co-worker Amanda (Allison Mack).
The season premiere had readied us for
serialization with all the deep, bat-shit crazy ideas it seemed intent on
exploring. However, when the beginning of “Letting Go” seemed to completely
turn away from those long-term ideas, it seemed to say “no serialization here”.
It turns out however that the two episodes working in tandem point to how this
season is going to work. Wilfred
probably isn’t the kind of show that could handle tackling Lost-sizes mysteries, but relationship drama it can handle just
fine.
“Let not a man guard his dignity, but let
his dignity guard him.”
-Ralph
Waldo Emerson
“Dignity” by contrast, seems to break the show out
of its normal formula by having an episode that’s wider in scope. While in
season one we were lucky to have an episode that featured a third prominent
character to go along with Ryan’s shenanigans. Sure, there were other
characters in the show’s universe that would pop up every once in a while and
help with the show’s world-building, but they rarely were central to the main
plot. I wouldn’t say that “Dignity” many any of the office drones central to
the plot, but Amanda and Stephen Webber’s Jeremy were prominently featured. The
upshot of this is that it saved the episode from another repetitive bout of antagonism
between Ryan and Wilfred.
Instead, the whole episode worked more as a dark
work-place comedy, with a strong emphasis on the “comedy”. It’s been a while
since the show’s done a more straightforwardly comedic half-hour, and this was
perhaps the funniest one that the show has ever produced. While Ryan struggling
to reclaim some respect at the office garnered a few laughs, the real winner
here was Wilfred’s B-story, a anti-comedy bit concerning Wilfred’s need to
please the people of Ryan’s office with the most ubiquitous of dog gags.
That these two stories come together thanks to the
presence of Ricky the janitor was a nice bit of plotting, but it also points to
how the show is changing the narrative role of Wilfred. In the first season, Wilfred’s
antagonism was more pointed, with him specifically egging Ryan on in order to
achieve his own goals. However, it seems
as if the show is walking back from that approach, and instead creating
parallels between the two as they go on separate journeys but arrive at the
same conclusion. Yes, Wilfred still pushes Ryan towards things, such as getting
him steroids or helping him come up with a new act, but it’s less about learning
a lesson to become more like Wilfred, and more of just helping Wilfred satiate
base desires.
And given how difficult it’s been for the show to
define what part of Ryan’s brain Wilfred is supposed to represent, maybe it’s
better this way. Perhaps it just makes more sense for Wilfred to represent
basic wants and urges, or even subconscious ideas that Ryan fights against,
instead of representing a schizophrenic brain that’s become antagonist against
itself.
Quotes, Etc.:
“I’m not Dr. Phil, okay? I’m Dr. Wilfred, and I
only call myself that when I’m DJ-ing.”
“It goes both ways, Ry-ry-ry-ry-ry-sharona.”
“Oh, you think you’re better than me, you
beautiful, golden-haired prick?”
“I got super-tired, stopped running, and started
dry-heaving. I have to not do that.”
“This is how it goes Ryan: I scratch your back,
you scratch the area directly above my penis until my leg goes apeshit.”
“Looooong hug. I want it to be tender, like we’re
sisters at a funeral.”
“We get it, Beans. You have tasty balls, we all
know it. Is there no limit to this guy’s arrogance?”
“You see that? ‘Participant’. You think they give
that to every dog who take part in the competition?”
“She even let me put it in the armrest a few
times.”
************
“One man’s trash is another man’s feng shui.
That’s why I left that pool of yellow water by the southeast door.”
“Sounds like somebody wants to see my balls.”
“Is nobody else concerned that there’s a stale,
half-eaten Wheat Thin under this desk?”
“It is my job to entertain and amuse, and if I
can’t do, they bring in some foosball table who can.”
“And I swear if those clowns come up with a cure
for lung cancer, it will be a sad, sad day.”
“Bear, can you pick up a plunger before our next
date?”
“Oh, your ass just got jinxed. Nice one, Bear. You
owe him a Coke, by the way.”
“Shouldn’t you be out terrifying white-water
rafters with your banjo music?”
No comments:
Post a Comment