Wilfred Finds A Conscience

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“Conscience is the dog that can’t bite, but never stops barking.” – Proverb

Last week was arguably a high point for Wilfred in its first season. It went to a frightening level of darkness and really found it self. Black looks good on Wilfred. Its strength is finding how to add comedy to these touchy subjects like molestation and euthanizing. But when you reach that peak, you start to wonder how you could possibly top it.

“Conscience” makes the right move and doesn’t attempt to out-do the previous episode. Instead, it falls back on a safer subject that’s been seen before on many sitcoms:  how do I get rid of my crush’s boyfriend? Jenna’s man Drew is played by Chris Klein (American Pie), and he’s more than willing to make himself look like the douchey boyfriend Ryan sees him to be.

What’s great about Drew is we get to see a whole new side of Wilfred. He’s made himself the alpha male in Wilfred’s eyes, and so Wilfred listens to him, if only out of begrudging respect. This leads to some great physical comedy as Drew “wrestles” with Wilfred. Of course, Wilfred hates being dominated and hatches a plan with Ryan to get rid of Drew. The plan goes off without a hitch, and Drew is out of the picture, but not before leaving Ryan with a large amount of well-deserved guilt.

Because Wilfred is a product of Ryan’s imagination, how Ryan is feeling emotionally affects how Wilfred behaves. When Ryan begins to have a battle of conscience, Wilfred attempts to poison him. In that moment, Wilfred becomes Ryan’s guilt, which believes Ryan should suffer.

The tone was a lot lighter in “Conscience,” which is a good thing. Community is a show known for its big genre parody episodes, but it also sprinkles in regular episodes. Too much of something awesome can end up not being awesome anymore, like a giant cookie. Wilfred should by all means continue tinkering with black comedy, but that shouldn’t be its focus if it wants to last more than one season. There’s still plenty to laugh at in “Conscience,” like Wilfred’s evil Bond villain-esque voice and Drew’s tantrum after winning a ping-pong match.

Quotes:

“And here comes the part where he carries her into the house like a Viking on a rape quest.”

“Oh, I get it. Because I’m a dog, right? I can only imagine what you’d say if I was black.”

“Your death will be my holiday.”

“Wilfred what’s wrong?” “Back to back to back to back orgasms is what’s wrong.”

“I’m so emasculated I can’t even raise a fence post for good old Bear.”

“Then, just as he starts to pee himself, we take a rock and crush his skull.”