What You'll Want to be Watching:

                                                     
                                              Wilfred

      Upon my weekly viewings of Season 2 of Justified, one of the better televisions shows to be released within the past 2 years (also with its Season 2 finale in a few days, and we all know Raylan is gonna bring some Hell to Mags and the Bennett clan), I have seen a number of advertisements for a quirky little comedy called Wilfred. The ads are short but amusing and funny. FX network's new comedy starting this summer, Wilfred, come to find out, is actually an American remake of a semi-popular Australian show, which--after HBO's amazing Australian series Summer Heights High--is just what viewers should be asking for: a show that's funny while also interesting and weird, something that could be called the anti-Two and a Half Men.
     The story is simple but has plenty of potential: Ryan is a young man trying to be successful in today's world to no real effect. He is depressed and feels like there is no point anything at all. (I swear this isn't about me...).  Ryan forms a promising relationship with his neighbor's dog, Wilfred.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) for Ryan, the entire world other than him sees Wilfred as the cute little dog that he is, but Ryan sees Wilfred as a vulgar and brash Australian man dressed up in a cheap dog suit. Hopefully, Hilarity ensues. According to many different synopses of the series, Wilfred leads Ryan on many different funny and existential adventures that help him discover the humor and happiness of life.
     It's quite easy to be skeptical. As one can see from the picture at the top of this blog post, Frodo himself (Elijah Wood) is the main star other than the dog. But I think that Wood gets a bad wrap as a little pussy hobbit with homo-erotic tendencies. Did you see him stand up to the scary Macaulay Culkin in 1993's The Good Son?  He was also creepy as fuck as cannibal killer Kevin in Sin City. I think he can pull off sad and depressed, due to the state of his career as a whole. Some might say that remakes of shows are never as good as the original, and that's generally a true statement (For instance, the British The Office is far superior to the dumber, less clever American version starring the one-note Steve Carell). But this remake also stars Jason Gann as Wilfred, who co-created and starred in the original series. So the talent is still there. Let us hope that the laughs are, too.