Ryan Newman (Elijah Wood) is very depressed; so depressed that he tries to commit suicide with a pile of pills his physician sister gave him. Well, it doesn't kill him, but beginning the next day, he begins to see his new neighbor's dog, Wilfred (Jason Gann), as a human dressed in a ratty dog suit. He finds it odd that he is able to communicate so easily with Wilfred, but he is all too happy to help out his lovely neighbor, Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann) in the hopes of a chance with her. It's too bad that Wilfred is a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking, stuffed bear-raping perv with an Aussie accent who loves getting into trouble and hates doing it alone. And Ryan just became his new best friend.
Wilfred encourages Ryan to stay unemployed rather than go out into the workforce and become a practicing attorney again, because without Ryan there to amuse him, his supply of pot and beer would dry up. He also gets him into all sorts of mischief including pooping into a neighbor's shoe and stealing his weed plants, trying to break up Jenna and her loud-mouthed boyfriend, Drew (Chris Klein, American Pie), trading sexual favors in lieu of repairing a car he wrecked, and even summoning the spirit of his long-dead Jack Russell.
The core comedy lies in the wacky interaction between Wilfred and Ryan and both Wood and Gann are flawless in their performances. Elijah Wood isn't known for his comedic roles, but he is priceless as Ryan, trying desperately to navigate the thin line between sanity and batsh*t crazy. Supporting cast include Ryan's nagging doctor sister Kristen (Dorian Brown), his adorable neighbor Jenna, and Ryan's totally awesome but bonkers mom (Mary Steenbergen). I also love the angry Indian neighbor, Mr. Patel (Gerry Bednob). He always has some racial slur to hurl at his neighbors, and it never failed to crack me up when he called someone "snowflake." There are also lots of great guest stars including Dwight Yoakum, Ethan Suplee, Jane Kaczmarek and Rashida Jones.
Wilfred is adult comedy at its best, but I stress the word adult. There is rampant drug use and sexuality, although it's mostly Wilfred humping his large, very dirty, very sad stuffed bear. However, the show is not above tackling such subjects as a pet-molesting dog sitter, swapping out a pee sample for a drug test, murder, porn and even a little bondage sex (for Wilfred anyway).
Special features include brief mash-ups of Wilfred and Bear's sex scenes, Wilfred and Ryan's bong scenes, a handful of really funny deleted scenes, a featurette on Wilfred at Comic-Con 2011, and finally a chat between Jason Gann and three aspiring filmmaking students. All are interesting to watch and you can see them all in less than 30 minutes total.
While Wilfred: The Complete First Season looks and sounds gorgeous on Blu-ray, there are no exclusives, so you'd be fine watching it on DVD, if you don't have a high def setup. Overall, if you enjoy dark comedy, you'll love Wilfred: The Complete First Season. It's odd, but hysterical and people who have dogs that share their lives will get an extra kick out of Wilfred's antics.
