When we first learned about FX’s Americanized version of SBS comedy Wilfred, we immediately thought of NBC’s failed Kath and Kim reboot starring Selma Blair and Molly Shannon. Will our perverse sense of humour ever prevail in America? Judging from the warm critical response to pilot episode “Happiness”, the answer is maybe. The premise is weird to begin with of course, an anthropomorphic dog who smokes weed and humps humans (Jason Gann) befriends a suicidal Elijah Wood and acts as both enabler, companion and foil. Most critics cited the humour and sincerity generated from this relationship as well as the surreal premise as reasons to stay with the series. Here is what our most trusted television reviewers had to say…
Slate: [Wilfred] is a stoner comedy that somehow behaves as if it’s goofy on pills. Whereas the original had a homey shaggy charm and a coherent internal logic, the remake is crisper and weirder and queasily dystopian and slightly Apatowized. FX likes comedies with a dark streak, and this one certainly qualifies. It’s a fondly nihilistic portrait of the relationship between an effete depressive (Elijah Wood) and the man’s-best-friend-next-door.
The AV Club: At the same time, though, the casting is so rock solid and the writing is so different from anything else on TV that Wilfred is well worth a watch, just to see if it can ever pull off this elaborate mixture of tones and influences…Right now, it isn’t, not quite, but it’s also like absolutely nothing else on TV (Wilfred is certainly nothing like Family Guy’s Brian), which earns it some points…The more the show fleshes out its world, the more it creates something unique and interesting, the more it still all comes down to two guys sitting on a couch and making each other (and us) laugh.
Vulture: Wilfred works to the extent that it can make this, a man’s right to be boorish, seem a reasonable goal, which, surprisingly, it does most of the time. The chemistry between Wood and Gann is aces, and whatever the caliber of Wilfred’s advice, it’s clear Ryan desperately needs it. The seriousness of his predicament – that of a miserable loner unable to figure out how to live an adult life in a fulfilling way – is built into the premise of the show.
So, is the series any good? Find out for yourself when Wilfred airs on Channel 10’s Eleven next Tuesday.
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