What I’m Watching: Wilfred

Wilfred: Season 1, Episode 5 “Respect” (B+)

This episode was a bit of a leap (pun intended) for this show, but I think that’s a positive thing since it was very well-executed. Wilfred winning points by getting into bed with a patient who’s about to die was an unexpected turn of events, and it’s something that turned dark rather quickly. Wilfred’s craving for pizza and Ryan’s refusal to give him cheese was rather entertaining and also led to the dark path that involved Wilfred apparently suffocating a patient with a pillow and then pushing the nurse off the roof. Ryan being upset about being perceived as a hero while he’s not is a good exploration of his character, and that confrontation on the roof played almost like a horror movie. I like how it did turn comic later with Wilfred continually tricking Ryan into thinking he killed someone without explicitly denying it. Ryan’s gullibility, mostly courtesy of Elijah Wood’s wide eyes, really sells it. It was fun to see more of Jenna in this episode, revealing herself not to be as deep as perhaps Ryan might have thought, telling him frankly that some people will like him and some people will hate him before insisting on doing an expose about the suicidal thieving nurse rather than profiling the benefits of the hospice facility. Though they didn’t have all that much to do, I was pleased to see Charles Esten as Nick and Rashida Jones as the nurse. Wilfred’s description of a walk was also rather tempting: “By definition means by destination – even a cat knows that.”