WILFRED Takes the Easy Way Out in “Control”

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Sometimes I wonder if Wilfred is afraid to really push itself. It always shows signs of being capable of going where no other comedy is willing to go – at least one terrifically dark monologue is recited in every episode it would seem – but when it comes to teaching Ryan his lessons it feels neutered. It’s like watching somebody bravely scarf down an unseemly large amount of hot dogs, but when they get down to the last one they decide they shouldn’t eat anymore. Please, you’ve come this far. Just eat the last hot dog! That’s what it was like for me watching “Control,” and I felt much the same way last week. Wilfred is going somewhere good with a story, but at the last second decides no, we’ve pushed this as far as we should. Let’s just wrap this up quickly and move on. It may put a nice bow on the end of an episode, but conflict resolved too easily doesn’t really feel like much of a conflict in hindsight.

Case in point: Amanda’s dislike of dogs. This was hinted weeks back when Ryan first brought Wilfred to work with him, but has not come up since. When Ryan invites Amanda, Jenna, and Drew over for a dinner party and to get to know one another we get to see just how much Amanda does not like dogs. When Wilfred tries to crawl on her to say hello she aggressively pushes him away. Everyone’s uncomfortable despite Ryan’s best efforts to elicit conversation – Drew does a much better job with my favorite line of the episode: “One time my roommate and I had a big argument about whether it was Monet or Manet. Turns out it was both! That’s the great thing about art.” At this point, Wilfred attempts to convince Ryan to not try so hard to make thing everyone get along. If Jenna and Amanda are going to friends, Ryan just needs to let it happen. He can’t “control” it. But this is Ryan we’re talking about. He’s neurotic, insecure, and manipulative.

His immediate reaction to being told he can’t control the situation is to blatantly try and control the situation. In order to make Amanda’s doggy dislike more understandable, he makes up a story to tell Jenna and Drew of a time when Amanda was bitten on the butt by a dog in her childhood. I’ll never understand why people think telling lie after lie will work in their benefit. Eventually they’re going to be found out, as Ryan is. Put on the spot, Amanda feels she has no choice but to tell the true story of why she doesn’t like dogs, and it’s of course much darker than Ryan’s pathetic lie. Her grandfather died of heart attack when she was younger and he wasn’t found for about week, and during that time his two dogs had begun to eat him out of hunger. Amanda was the one who found him half eaten. Everyone looks on, not knowing what to say, while Wilfred drools, his face covered in pie filling.

This is the point where Wilfred took the easy way out. Everything up to this was great. Wilfred was taking of a drunk Bear, Drew was the perfect well-meaning meathead I’ve come to enjoy, and there was a good amount of that dark humor I love so much. But when Ryan goes to check on the distraught Amanda, he finds her in the comfort of Wilfred. She tells him Wilfred came to her while she was crying and he curled up next to her and she suddenly understood what was so great about him. I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that. She went most of her life associating dogs with the death and devouring of her grandfather and now she’s okay with them? I was half expecting her to tell Ryan she made the story up to cover for the fact she simply just doesn’t like dogs. There really didn’t need to be a good reason for it. I know a ton of people who aren’t dog or cat people and and no traumatizing event made them that way. This type of conflict didn’t need to resolve perfectly. Amanda could have decided she would try be more tolerant of Wilfred for Ryan’s sake and the effect would’ve been the same. But now her grandfather story is left rather meaningless and Wilfred yet another person who finds him just adorable.

I was really hoping Amanda could be the person that tears Ryan away from Wilfred, keeping him on a healthier path. She still might end up taking on that role, but it will have less meaning now that she’s come around to liking Wilfred. I’m still looking forward to seeing more of just the two of them without anyone else. We’ve been getting short little scenes of them together – they’ve been highlights of the episodes for me – but I want something more drawn out so we can really got a solid idea of what they’re relationship is like. The little we’ve seen thus far has been promising, but there’s nothing quite like spending time with a couple on a date. I’m just not sure what you would do with Wilfred without having him stalk them and try to ruin their evening.

2 Comments

1. 

   Titanius

   July 27, 2012 at 11:13 pm

   This has been the greatest episode so far. I watched it with
   a few of my coworkers at Dish and I’m pretty sure everyone’s sides hurt by the
   end. Wilfred and Bear’s antics are always hilarious and tonight they really out
   did themselves. I don’t think Amanda will be person to tear Ryan from Wilfred
   but I do think Wilfred will be the dog that tears Ryan from Amanda. I watched
   this episode and a few other ones with my Dish Remote Access app to see if I
   could find some clues, but I still can’t figure out how it will happen.
    

   Reply
   • 

     Brody Gibson

     July 30, 2012 at 7:34 pm

     You love to mention that you work for Dish. This concerns me greatly.

     Reply