Wilfred - "Letting Go"/"Dignity"

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.

“Some of think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”

                                                                        -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?”