“Happiness” is the premiere of the US adaptation of Wilfred, an Australian show, brought to us and both starring Jason Gann as title character Wilfred the dog, or whatever the fuck. Wilfred also stars Elijah Wood, yes, the well known hobbit who brought the one ring to Mordor, and someone who really could live off the rest of his life with his Lord of the Rings money but has decided to at least keep himself busy with a television show. This doesn’t stop Wood from bringing out a great personality in the character Ryan, a former lawyer who in the beginning of the episode just wants to off himself. In its first episode Wilfred sets the stage for what could be a hilarious show as long as FX lets this one live freely and without the fear of cancellation like its most recent kills, Terriers, a great show that I highly recommend starring Donal Louge, & Lights Out, a show I never watched.
We open the episode with a quote from Mark Twain, “Sanity & happiness are an impossible combination,” and are brought to Ryan on his computer printing out the third revision of his suicide note. As soon as he is done he begins mixing up a nice little banana smoothie with a full bottle of what seem to be anxiety pills and puts on his suit ready for the big sleep. Then the problems begin starting with a noisy neighbor with a motorcycle and the fact that the pill overdose is just not working. This starts to drive Ryan a bit crazy so he decides to Wiki’s overdosing, revises his suicide note for a fourth time and head to his medicine cabinet and start chugging some off-brand NyQuil. As he takes a breath there is a knock on the door and he realizes that he has spent all night trying to overdose. Its his neighbor who is shocked by the state Ryan is in but still asks him if he could watch over her dog Wilfred. As soon we me meet Wilfred, Ryan is shocked but not in the way one would think its a joke but that he believes he is losing it.
Jason Gann as Wilfred moves around like anyone would in a dog suit for the most part but he takes the time to add little niches to remind you that he is actually a dog. As soon as he walks into Ryan’s house he walks to the couch and before sitting down does a little double spin like any pet getting ready to sit. As Ryan tries to deal with the situation at hand, talking dog and all, he gets a call from his sister who beings bitching him out about how he needs to show up for the job she just got him at her hospital. Ryan gives in to her demands promising to show up and gets off the phone so he can deal with Wilfred who has busted out a bong. After some back and forth about how Wilfred can smell the rotting milk in Ryan’s fridge and the slight smell of shit in the fibers of his underwear Ryan takes a hit of the bong, which is fashioned out of a gatorade bottle, and soon passes out.
Ryan wakes up noticing that he has missed his first day and after another bitching out from his sister for missing his first day walks to the kitchen. Outside the window he sees a dog and decides that he just lost it for a bit and gets the milk from the fridge and takes a swig. Immediately he makes a face at the sour milk in his mouth and after he spits it out there is Wilfred. Ryan follows Wilfred outside and sees that his lawn has been torn up by Wilfred with a shovel. Jason Gann gives a great explenation as Wilfred saying that he is worried that his master has been gone for a while and that he gets anxious and digs. Ryan calms Wilfred down and promises to take him on a walk. On their walk they end up at a restaurant where Wilfred does his usual dog thing but in a much perverse way since its just Jason Gann in a dog suit by sticking his head between a waitress’ tits after she starts playing with him and then starts humping her. After another little tiff on their walk back Ryan knocks Wilfred’s ball in the the asshole motorcyclists back yard causing Wilfred to promise revenge.
Later that night Ryan finds Wilfred smoking a cigarette in his back yard and as he confronts him he find out why the ball was so important to Wilfred. How it helped him control his chewing habit and subsequently help him get adopted. After more back and forth they end up in the assholes back yard, said asshole being played by Ethan Suplee, and break into his house which he is running a grow operation out of in one room. Wilfred and Ryan steal to full grown plants and then both proceed to shit in assholes boots because not one really checks before putting them on. Ryan & Wilfred return to his back yard where he finally stands up to his sister and tells her boss to screw off with his job offer. The episode ends with Wilfred putting Ryan’s wallet near the broken window of asshole setting us up for another altercation.
“Happiness” is an all around great pilot which makes me excited for where this season will go and what type of whacky adventures will happen with Wilfred & Ryan. Outside of some general clunkiness that all pilots have in their story we get some great framing and camera work out of the crew. One of my favourite scenes is during the beginning of Ryan & Wilfred’s walk we get a great close of scene of both with some amazing use of bokah style framing around the two. Wood and Gann work well together and its great to see Wood back on the screen even if it isn’t in a movie theater. I just hope FX doesn’t pull the rug out from underneath us at the end like it has this been doing lately and we get some more crazy episodes.
Grade: B
“So long girl next door. Hope they find my body before the smell becomes a problem for you.”
“Can I get you some orange juice? Medical attention?”
“Thats from Dune. How do you know that?”
“I’m not an animal” “Then be a man!”
