Review: Wilfred ‘Honesty’ – Who’s Meowing Now, Bitches?

Knowing tonight’s episode of Wilfred was penned by none other than Wilfred himself (Jason Gann), and also knowing that tonight’s episode involved Wilfred and cats , I was expecting ‘Avoidance’ levels of raunchiness. But ‘Honesty’ was really more indicative of season 2 of Wilfred as a whole; it spends the first three-quarters of the episode getting to the point, with a whole lot of absurdities and jokes along the way. Some work, some don’t, but the show salvages its missteps with poignant moments in the end – which in ‘Honesty’, turns out to be one of the most enjoyable moments of the series.

It was clear from the beginning that ‘Honesty’ was going to be an important episode for the season: Jenna’s been left on the sidelines for much of the season, right along with Ryan’s guilt for the situation he put her in. Thanks to his piece of pot candy, she’s become a joke on television, and is considering a depressing career in sleep apnea machine sales (depressing for her, those machines can be quite helpful in keeping one alive). This of course, inspires Ryan to try and save her career again, which walks him right into another one of Wilfred’s crazy ideas – film a cat snuff video and mail it to Jenna.

It’s in this ‘misadventure midsection’ (what an awesome phrase I just coined) where I think ‘Honesty’ became the weakest. Directors going ape shit crazy is a tired joke, and the length to which Wilfred’s rant goes on is a little unnecessary. It just felt like a drawn out attempt to make one of those Family Guy -style “It was funny, then annoying, now it’s funny again” deadpan scenes, and it just didn’t add anything to the scene.  A lot of times when a comedy show tries to revel in a joke it finds really funny (and probably is, in script), it just doesn’t translate to the screen, no matter how well its delivered.

But what I really want to talk about is the end of the episode. After the cat silliness is over with, Ryan realizes the only way to stop ruining Jenna’s career and her life is to come clean with her. And as one might expect, she gets pretty pissed about the whole thing – let’s not forget, she’s engaged because Ryan replaced her urine sample with Kristen’s.

Wilfred is capable of spinning off a breaking ball on occasion, and does so when Jenna comes back to Ryan and makes a confession of her own: when she met him, she just used him to have a baby sitter for work while her boyfriend was out of town. This really isn’t all that surprising to us as viewers, but seeing her recognize her own selfish qualities isn’t what we’d expect from the character, especially one who’s been in the background for large chunks of the season.

Sure, some might argue its just Wilfred hitting the reset button for the show moving forward – I mean, there’s no realistic way Ryan and Jenna could ever date, without that big cover-up boiling under the surface until it broke them up. However, it represents a step forward for both Ryan and Jenna as characters, giving us some nuance on a relationship dynamic we thought we already had all figured out. ‘Honesty’ may be the moment where Jenna and Ryan start moving closer and closer together, and unlike most comedies, it didn’t feel unearned or manipulative.

Why not? Because honesty is everything to Ryan’s journey to save his own life (which is what the show is essentially about, correct?). If he can’t be honest with himself and others about his actions, he’ll start to sink back into the delusions that nearly led him to suicide in the first place. Just look at Ryan’s mother – a perfect example of what will happen to Ryan if he can’t be honest with himself and the others in his life.

There’s only two episodes left in the second season of Wilfred, which hasn’t been as consistently funny as the first season, but certainly has been a lot more powerful in its emotional moments. Wilfred is a show about big, raucous jokes and small, subtle character victories, and ‘Honesty’ was an episode spattered with lots of both.

Grade: B

Other thoughts:

– First off, a round of applause for Fiona Gubelmann, who eats up the best writing her character’s had in the entire series up to this point. She gets a lot of dramatic emotions to run through in the episode, and she handles them all with a restraint I think many other actors would struggle with (especially with a character who gets so little in the way of emotional nuance). The season’s felt a little off at times without the presence of any Ryan/Jenna dynamic, and I’m hoping to see more of Gubelmann and Wood together on screen moving forward.

– I’m sure some people will say that Jenna’s admissions actually let Ryan off the hook. I don’t think that’s the case – when both characters humiliate themselves in service to be honest, that can provide an important foundation for a friendship (or a relationship, if the show decides to head there at some point). Yes, it’s convenient as fuck – but terribly accurate, when considering the type of self-serving person Jenna’s shown herself to be at times.

– On the whole, I’m usually a “journey is more important than the destination” kind of guy when it comes to story-telling, but the opposite is often true on Wilfred. I don’t think Wilfred planning to massacre cats as a way to disguise his love for them is a very good vehicle for the episode’s message. Some of Wilfred’s schemes feel like one-noted jokes that run for way too long, but I’m willing to forgive it a bit if we get the meatier parts at the end.

– brutal ending to Ryan’s job, huh?

– I took last week off for my 25th birthday, but seeing Mary Steenburgen always makes me happy. With the car heist, placenta joke, and touching tag (with Ryan and his mother painting together), ‘Service’ was as typical as any Wilfred episode this season (though the death of her cat should suggest something to us, correct?)

Been a long week, so the brain is a little empty on other thoughts for the episode. Feel free to discuss it below, and thanks for reading! I’m working on some awesome stuff for the fall, so keep your eyes peeled for updates here and the social interwebs (you can follow me @ProcessedMedia to be up on that).