Wilfred: "Now" Review

In this week's episode "Now," Ryan and Wilfred came to yet another crossroads in behavioral philosophy. While Ryan prepared to set up a new investment opportunity with a bigwig friend of his co-worker Kevin's (Rob Riggle), Wilfred tried to convince Ryan to slow down and live in the moment. However, a traumatic run-in at gunpoint soon led Wilfred to lose his sense of smell, gradually breaking down his entire way of life.
These last few episodes in Season 2 have been largely focused on Ryan struggling to balance his working life with his personal one. We've seen a lot of Ryan taking initiative and contemplating his own methods of experiencing reality. However, in this episode, it was Wilfred's turn to suffer from an existential crisis. Without the use of his nose, we finally saw what it was like for Wilfred to lose his grip on meaning and purpose.

It's interesting, too, because the episode was initially set up to be another play on Ryan's own misplaced priorities. Wilfred's original plan to convince Ryan that he had a brain tumor offered a pretty good setup to explain his ongoing anxiety, blackouts and hallucinations -- although, to be fair, this was the type of thing we'd seen Wilfred try to do to Ryan in the past. But from the moment Wilfred said, "Gotcha," it was game over for our clueless canine as he was sentenced to a life without scent.

I think one of the most entertaining recurring bits throughout the episode was Wilfred's constant stream of epiphanies, including, "So there’s more than one UPS guy... Of course! It’s all so clear to me now. The uniform changes guys!" His increasingly broadening intellect was a nice touch. This, of course, eventually led to Wilfred's deeply seeded ennui and nihilistic depression. It was a fun process to watch, especially for a character that's usually portrayed as aloof and sage-like.

However, this didn't mean Ryan was left out of the loop completely. While his prospectus storyline wasn't quite as entertaining as Wilfred's, his few scenes with Rob Riggle had their moments, particularly Kevin's diatribe on his son. ("Ah, K.J., what have you done to your beautiful little scrotum?") Also, Ryan's scenes with Wilfred near the end -- the emo ones -- were pretty solid. It also provided a neat little bow for the conclusion.

The overarching narrative for the episode wasn't quite as strong as the others' this season, but it was definitely an interesting way to change things up for Wilfred. If nothing else, it offered a nice breakup from Ryan's usual onslaught of tedium, which can sometimes get become formulaic. However, the general lack of auxiliary characters made this episode feel a bit vacant. That's not to say an episode featuring only Ryan and Wilfred can't be good, but the absence of characters like Jenna, Kristen and Amanda this week left an overall hollow impression for the episode.

Source : feeds.ign.com