Elijah Wood Fights Crime

Last night, I spent hours alongside Elijah Wood eradicating evil from the thankless city streets. A result, I think, of watching the first three episodes of the new FX series, Wilfred, and my childhood memories of watching Scooby-Doo.

The protagonist of Wilfred is Ryan, an unemployed attorney who is disenchanted with adult responsibilities. He befriends his neighbor's dog, Wilfred, who appears to Ryan as talking, somewhat obnoxious man in a dog suit. Through Wilfred, Ryan learns several important life lessons like the importance of trust, facing your fears, and being true to yourself.

If you haven't seen the show, I highly recommend it. I rarely laugh out loud when watching TV, but the witty dialogue between Ryan and Wilfred is evidence of superior writing and the delivery is spot on. (Run, Spot, Run!) I especially appreciate how Wilfred's natural dog behavior becomes lewd or shocking because Wilfred is personified. Like trying to force a french kiss on his owner or proponing rape as an acceptable way to show dominance.Very clever.

I'm looking forward to watching episode four tonight, and I am hoping as the show continues, that we begin to see a few developments in Ryan's character. I'd like to see Ryan become less self-centered, and maybe find or start looking for work. Because most adults spend much of their week earning a paycheck, I think it's harder to relate to characters who don't work or are not striving to achieve something. (I think that is one of the many reasons Seinfeld was and remains popular: people relate to the show on many levels -- it's fine to build a show around inane occurrences, but throughout the show, the characters pay rent, go to work, have their cars repaired, notice when something is expensive. Like real people.) Also, would love to less bathroom humor in the show, but we all know dogs are obsessed with vomit, waste, and urine. It's almost integral to Wilfred's character.

After watching Wilfred, I took some time to read about Elijah Wood. The more I read, the more I liked! He's a talented actor -- I liked that movie, The Oxford Murders, and of course everyone likes The Lord of the Rings. More impressive, I think, is his ability to transfer his interests into business ventures; he's interested in music and video games so he started a record label in 2006, starred in the Beastie Boy's "Make Some Noise" video, and has done several voice-overs for video game characters. Also, he keeps a low profile, which I think shows class. And he's got style, too. The man's unstoppable! (Make some noise if you’re with me.)

And, yes, if you are wondering, Elijah and I did kick crime in the face. It was a shame to return to reality (here a DELL, there a DELL) this morning.