Wilfred: The Complete Season 2

Released by: 20th Century Fox
Released on: 6/18/2013
Director: Randall Einhorn
Cast: Elijah Wood, Jason Gann, Fiona Gubelmann, Chris Kline, Dorian Brown
Year: 2012
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The Movie:

FX Network's Americanized version of an Australian television show, also called “Wilfred” (see review here), continues with it's second season now available on home media. Elijah Wood stars as Ryan Newman, a depressed man who finds friendship and counsel with the neighbor's dog Wilfred (Jason Gann). Too everyone else Wilfred is simply a dog, but to Ryan he's a cigarette-smoking, beer guzzling pot-head in a dog suit. Wilfred's owner, Jenna Mueller (Fiona Gubelmann), lives next door and is the object of Ryan's affection, but her fiancé Drew (Chris Kline) holds her affections. This only frustrates Ryan and adds to the struggle to get his life back on track after his fall from grace as a predator-type lawyer, and to climb out of his pit of depression. In his own way, Wilfred teaches Ryan some lessons about himself and encourages Ryan to act on his impulses, which usually doesn't end well. On top of dealing with Wilfred, Ryan tries to juggle patching up his relationship with his pregnant sister Kristen (Dorian Brown) and maintaining a romantic relationship with his co-worker Amanda (Allison Mack).

Darkly humorous and violent at times to boot, the show pushes the envelope as far as it probably can go to keep it within U.S. television standards. It's nowhere near as crass as its Australian inspiration but it still manages to get in some really good stuff. In the prior season, Jenna accidentally eats a piece of marijuana candy before going on the air for her big television break. She ends up fondling herself and marveling at her “squishy tits”, which remains a source of a long-lasting running joke throughout the second season. Wilfred has giant stuffed toy, “Bear”, whom he mounts and has sex with on a regular basis, and Ryan even catches a doggie jizz blast to the face at some point. There's a clever use of a name in one episode that nearly allows the word “cunt” to be used a number of times in a row, a word regularly used in the Aussie version, and no doubt thrown in there for fans of the original. And of course to push the envelope.

Performances are great across the board, and a number of familiar faces pop in and out for small recurring roles. In the AU version, guest stars appeared as other animals who interacted with Wilfred and Adam (that version's Ryan), but in the US version that gimmick isn't utilized. Pulling all the weight in the lead roles, Wood plays a great straight man to Gann's narcissistic antics and the two make a very likeable team. Fiona Gubelmann is sweet and sexy and has some pretty good scenes and Dorian Brown plays a believable domineering older sister (she's got her own problems). And not surprisingly Chris Kline pulls off the All-American golden boy image well, but he's such a loser in this (other than scoring Jenna, the literal girl-next-door) as an out-of-his-depth fiancé that he's effectively funny. But the show is all Jason Gann's, just like in the AU version. He created the show along with his friend Adam Zwar, who continues on the US show as a writer, and he's the main focus of the show, even though it's Ryan's story. With respect to Elijah Wood, who again is great in his role, anyone could step in at anytime to play the human who can see Wilfred as the disgusting man in the dog suit. But without Gann there would be no show. No one else could play Wilfred. He simply owns it for all eternity. His blending of human and animal behavior is clever and it never gets old.

One big difference between the two versions is the way the burning question is handled: just what IS Wilfred? In the AU version they elude to a tragedy the human suffered and it seems to be that Wilfred is a part of his id, but then they seem to steer away from that. The US version clearly is running on the notion that Wilfred is a part of Ryan's psychosis. The thought raised in the review for the Australian version DVD set (again, here) is once they (Gann and Zwar) got the offer for developing it for US consumption, they changed the course of the AU version. Rather than tell the same tale twice they took the opportunity for a larger audience to let them really work at the psychological bend of the story and not reveal it all in the then-current version. If that's the case then it works because both countries' outputs are thoroughly enjoyable.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The Blu-ray's picture is as nice as you would expect from a mid-budget television show. The colors are bright and pleasing, but not knock-your-socks-off amazing. Detail is good and things are clear depending on the location. Many scenes take place in a relatively dark, pot smoked-filled basement man-cave, so things are a bit murky (no doubt symbolic) but the scenes outside of the basement look nice. Black levels are solid enough. The overall image is more than acceptable, just not impressive. The sound is on par with the video. The 5.1 DTS-HD track has a good balance, but this isn't a show that really calls for a lot of surround activity so it never really stands out.

Bloopers, deleted scenes, and some dumb stuff not worth bothering take up about 10 minutes in grand total in the extras department, but a couple of things are worth looking at. As mentioned above, Jenna has a major issue at her place of employment and as a result of that mishap, a video of her fondling herself went viral. You can watch that if you like. And then there is a four-minute short where Wilfred relationship with Bear has an eerie similarity to that of Ryan and Wilfred. It's the only extra really worth watching. One other thing they offer is to play the show in “season” mode, so you can't watch them out of sequence. Put in Disc Two by accident and you're in season mode and haven't finished disc one, you hit a stop screen (that can easily be by-passed). Pretty swank.

The Final Word:

An original concept with clever writing and an intricate story line that plays with your head, dark humor, awesome dog jokes…if your drummer marches to a different tune and uses a cowbell, you should give Wilfred a try. Fox's BD for Season 2 may not dazzle you with its picture quality and extras, but the show is highly entertaining and 100 percent recommended.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!