“I lost my mind, Wilfred. Apparently for the better part of three months…I was sitting in a coat closet getting baked with a dog. That’s messed up. After you got amnesia, I tried to get down to the basement to find your will. But the basement wasn’t there. It was never there.”

 
The first season of Wilfred ended in a bit of a cliffhanger—Wilfred (Jason Gann) the dog had been in a car accident and got amnesia while Ryan (Elijah Wood) went to the coat closet to retrieve Wilfred’s will only to discover that the basement wasn’t actually there. Was his time and conversations with Wilfred all just a hallucination?

The second season starts off with an atypical episode that attempts to bridge the gap between the seasons. Ryan is trying to make sense of everything, and figure out the truth about Wilfred. He has moved on from Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann) who is still planning to marry Drew (Chris Klein). Ryan is now working as the in-house counsel for a Biotech start-up, has a demanding boss (Steven Weber), and is dating chemist Amanda (Allison Mack).

The series quickly gets back to the usual formula with some scheme of the week in which Wilfred tries to better Ryan’s life in what initially appears to be some selfish way. The action of the series branches out more this season as Ryan gets out of the house more—at his workplace, or walking near the beach. This year’s schemes include Wilfred taking steroids to impress jock Drew, Wilfred trying to figure out how to gain attention as the office dog, Wilfred figuring out ways to eliminate a baby who is taking away the attention from him, Wilfred destroying Ryan’s dinner party, Wilfred kidnapping a bunch of cats after one scratches him, Ryan seeking the advice of a spirit guide, Wilfred accidentally swallowing something important, and Wilfred getting absurdly jealous when he sees Jenna petting another dog.

There is a lot of humor in this show—though, like the first season, it might be a bit too crude for some viewers. My absolute favorite episode of the series so far has to be episode 7 of the second season, “Avoidance”—and not just because it has an awesome 80s movie style dance training montage! This episode finds Wilfred accidentally getting a bit too excited over a leg scratch from Ryan, making Ryan extremely uncomfortable around Wilfred. As with most episodes, the writers have a lot of fun with the dialog, which includes lots of double-meaning and misunderstood words and gestures.

Each episode also ends with some hilarious random couch conversation between Wilfred and Ryan. However, not everything is humorous—halfway through the season, things take a much darker turn, and some of the episodes border more on the serious drama or really dark comedy. This all culminates in an excellent and shocking season finale that once again raises the question as to who or what Wilfred actually is.

Wilfred‘s second season sees the return of Ryan’s sister Kristen (Dorian Brown) and mother Catherine (Mary Steenburgen) as well as a host of other great recurring/guest stars, including Robin Williams, Nestor Carbonell, Rob Riggle, Bob Gunton, Eugene Byrd, John Michael Higgins, and Brad Dourif.

The picture and sound on this blu-ray set is excellent—the show looks and sounds just as good if not better than it did when the season originally aired on the HD FX channel. I was a little disappointed by the lack of bonus features, which add up to under 15 minutes of material. It would have been great to have some kind of behind-the-scenes featurette or cast/creator interviews—either some sort of audio commentary or even just last year’s Comic-Con panel.

The blu-ray contains a Season Play option, which makes it really convenient to make your way through the entire season. It remembers which episode you last watched and will prompt you for the correct disc to pick up where you left off.

Overall, I really enjoyed rewatching this second season of Wilfred on Blu-ray. The season contains a lot of really fun moments and further explores this ongoing mystery about Wilfred and why Ryan can hear and talk with him. With the third season premiering soon on FX, this is a perfect time to get caught up on the series or re-watch some of your favorite moments.

What’s Included on the Blu-ray:

Episodes: (286 min)

• All 13 episodes of the second season:
  “Progress”, “Letting Go”, “Dignity”, “Guilt”, “Now”, “Control”, “Avoidance”, “Truth”, “Service”, “Honesty”, “Questions”, “Resentment”, “Secrets”
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD-MA
• English SDH, Spanish, French subtitles

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes (3:05)
  Disc 1 contains three scenes—two couch gags from “Letting Go”, and extended footage from the dance sequence at the end of “Avoidance”, while Disc 2 contains one deleted scene from “Secrets”.
• Blooper Reel (4:41)
  Fun footage of the cast forgetting their lines and cracking up on set. It finishes with a hilarious “shot” from “Avoidance”.
• Stay Exclusive Short (3:43)
  Fun mini episode where Bear tries to convince Wilfred to break in on Ryan who is trying to use the bathroom alone.
• News at Noon with Jenna (1:02)
  Jenna’s “Squishy” viral video.
• Wilfred/Ryan Mash-Up (:52)
  Compilation of clips of Ryan and Wilfred saying each other’s name. (Yes, seriously, that’s all it is!)

Final Thoughts:

The second season of Wilfred looks and sounds great on this Blu-ray release, but the bonus features are a bit meager. The episodes themselves are quite good—one of them is even my favorite of the entire series thus far. While the show is hilarious most of the time, in the second half of the season things take a slightly darker, more serious turn. Wilfred is highly rewatchable show, and this set is definitely worth picking up.