Quick Take: Wilfred, "Anger"
"Anger is like herpes, you're not meant to keep it to yourself." - Wilfred
Review: Wilfred, "Anger"
(S0108) Just about every week my Wilfred reviews turn into discussions about genre and experimentation. I didn't plan for this platform to become an ongoing analysis of this particular aspect of the show -- there are certainly many other aspects worthy of discussion -- it's just that I continue to be surprised and impressed by Wilfred's willingness to take each episode to new and unexpected places. Louie, the show immediately following Wilfred on FX's programming line-up, has all of the critics fawning over it (deservedly so) for being so innovative, but I think Wilfred deserves some credit for eschewing convention as well.
Most of Wilfred's experiments in genre-bending take place within the realm of comedy. But "Anger" goes in a different direction entirely, trying the horror genre on for size. This certainly makes sense, as many horror movies double as comedies and include sizable doses of humor to provide a bit of levity and comic relief. By no means is Wilfred breaking any new ground here, there have been plenty of "horror comedies" in the past, but most (if not all) have been movies. It was interesting to see this translated to the small screen.
"Anger" provides us with a clue about why Ryan (Elijah Wood) has become so attached to his furry, foul-mouthed companion. As a child, he had a Jack Russell named Sneakers. Tragically, Sneakers escaped his designated "safe zone" and drowned in the family's backyard pool. Everyone blamed Ryan because they assumed he left the gate open and he has been haunted by guilt ever since.
Wilfred (Jason Gann) discovers Sneakers' collar, which Ryan has been holding on to all these years, in the basement and puts it around his neck. Suddenly something strange happens: his behavior changes (he starts sleeping in Ryan's bed, licking his ears), he starts talking in a strange, high-pitch voice. It's actually really freakin' spooky at times.
Wilfred claims he's possessed by the spirit of Sneakers and initially Ryan assumes it's just Wilfred being his normal a-hole self. Then strange coincidences begin to happen that make Ryan wonder if Sneakers really is reaching out to him from beyond the grave. Through Wilfred, Sneakers says that it wasn't Ryan's fault he drowned, it was actually Kristen's (Dorian Brown). She was the one that left the gate open and Sneakers wants revenge. Specifically, he wants to "punch her tits off."
As the episode progresses, things get crazier. Wilfred/Sneakers terrorizes a garden party Kristen is throwing for her boss. At one point he literally attempts to murder her by throwing her in a pool and tossing a bundle of electrical lighting in after her. All the while, he's trying to convince Ryan to stand up to his sister, to stop taking all the guilt and blame and let her have it, once and for all.
Of course, Ryan finally does sack-up and go off on Kristen, who promptly breaks down and admits to being responsible for Sneakers' death. She offers to let him off the hook for the loan she gave him to pay for Beth's car repairs if he will agree to forgive her. Ryan is a softy at heart, so of course he agrees. The fact that he's broke certainly makes the decision to forgive her a little easier as well.
Lingering thoughts on "Anger":
This wasn't my favorite ep of Wilfred but totally agree that it has shown an impressive ability to show off different styles and genres and still work for the most part.
Interestingly, Louie has gotten less experimental in its second season (stories are much more linear now over each 30 mins) but has managed to improve at same time over a very strong first season in my view.
Don't you feel as though this episode delved (deeper than it's ever gone thus far) further into Ryan's mental state? Cause after all, Ryan isn't seeing a dog, he's seeing a fully grown and bearded Aussie man. That's f***ed up, right?
That said, I felt like "Anger" got the viewer to examine more closely what we can, at this point, clearly call Ryan's mental illness. Two things:
At the start of the episode, Ryan is seen waking up from a dream, and we see that the night before he was presumably watching (or reading?) The Exorcist (which is a book, too? Who knew.). The rest of the episode deals with, as you know, possession. I just think that it was interesting how what Ryan was dealing with in "real" life was very similar to what he had been ingesting the night before. It makes you kind of be like, "oh yeah, that's right, Ryan's kind of crazy." Ohhh right, his psychosis. Maybe it's worse than we thought?
Second. The end of the episode: what the hell! I don't know if this is just because I have dead pets too, but that was a really kind of, unusually emotional scene. It was the first time that we see Ryan really interacting with a dog-dog, not a dog-man. Then immediately following that scene, we see Ryan wake up again, as if it was a dream. (An aside: I think it really was a dream, since Ryan had just agreed to have one more snuggle with Sneakfred. It was some creative editing work to have the viewer not think that there was any time elapsed between Wilfred and Ryan hugging to Ryan holding Sneakers) This ending again makes your sort or remember that Ryan is a bit crazy, and makes you think (again) about what sort of mental state he's in.
I've been watching Wilfred since the first episode (um, Elijah Wood and a talking man-dog in a show together, duh I'm going to watch it) and reading your reviews. I agree that Wildred is, with every episode, experimenting with genre bending and I'm always interested to see what will come next for the series. I personally really enjoyed this episode because you got to look at Ryan differently. At least I did.