There’s No Avoiding the Urge to Dance in WILFRED’s “Avoidance”

• Tweet
• Pin It

In the past I’ve expressed my love for Wilfred’s dark sense of humor. Without that weirdness, the show wouldn’t have the same appeal and hilarity. As a character, Wilfred would be less interesting if he didn’t share his deepest, most twisted thoughts to Ryan, and us by extension. “Avoidance” continues the trend of giving Wilfred these creepy monologues, this time in the context of Ryan and him sharing the stories of their first times having sex. Ryan’s is an average story of his first girlfriend and almost being caught by her dad. Wilfred’s story is said to be similar except it involved him having sex with a dog still lying in the street after being hit by a car. So romantic.

But there’s another kind of weirdness we don’t often see. Wilfred has shown it can be a dark, raunchy comedy, play around with cringe humor, and function as a regular sitcom, but it’s not too often it performs in just lighthearted zaniness. “Avoidance” puts Ryan and Wilfred together as dance partners and, following the “first time” scene, dance to their hearts content in one of the best montages I’ve seen in quite some time. Ryan is normally the straight man, only occasionally doing anything that’s not just reacting to somebody else, but here he’s just as silly as Wilfred. It was refreshing for the series, something that was definitely needed halfway through the season. And of course, the darkness of Wilfred wasn’t forgotten either, as their dancing soon turns incredibly awkward when Wilfred pulls a muscle in his groin, requiring Ryan to rub his leg. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder watching this show than when Wilfred ejaculates all over Ryan in this scene.

Normally in an episode of Wilfred, Ryan has to learn his lesson – in this case that he shouldn’t avoid James, who was once his best friend – from Wilfred’s bizarre teaching methods. This week we actually get to see Ryan work out his lesson by going through the exact same thing with Wilfred. After getting dog jizz all over him, he starts to avoid Wilfred, refusing to dance with him anymore under the assumption Wilfred will just want another handjob. Soon Wilfred is demanding they dance more, briefly turning the episode into a horror movie, leading us to believe Ryan is in danger of being raped by the way Wilfred demands for his “treat.” Of course, we learned early in the episode Wilfred has been conditioned to expect an actual treat after he’s finished dancing. He doesn’t want Ryan to jack him off; he just wants something delicious to eat.

In the end Ryan patches things up with his former friend and he and Wilfred resume their dancing. In fact, the tag turns into a weed-induced dance number you just have to watch in its entirety. You won’t regret it. Is this the best episode of Wilfred? Hardly, but it displayed a different aspect of what it’s capable of accomplishing. In its lightheartedness, it even managed to make Kristen rather enjoyable to watch as she awkwardly tried to flirt with the not-at-all-interested James. I was very pleased to see she hadn’t gone back to her overbearing ways. The experimentation is a good thing as Wilfred attempts to figure what works best for it and “Avoidance” gives me great hope that Wilfred is well on its way to working it all out.

One Comment

1. 

   Brandon

   August 4, 2012 at 7:22 pm

   Saying this show is weird would be an understatement, but I do agree that that is where Wilfred gets a lot of its appeal. I missed Bear this week and so did a few of my coworkers at Dish, but I liked seeing Wilfred bond with Ryan like the first season. The belly rub was disgusting, but like you said before Wilfred would not be the same without the dark humor. I got rained in while I was camping with my girlfriend this week so I showed my girlfriend this episode, but I don’t think she appreciates the humor like I do.

   Reply