Wilfred
FX | FXX | Release Date: June 23, 2011
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RedEyeCurt WagnerAug 1, 2011
Season 1 Review: Stuffed with absurd situations and piles of bad taste, Wilfred is the strangest new show on TV. And the funniest. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandJun 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: Wilfred works on many levels, something that may not become apparent until after you stop laughing. Read full review
83
HitfixAlan SepinwallJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: It fits the channel's larger brand (in both comedy and drama) about men existing on the edges of acceptable human behavior. Read full review
83
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck BarneyJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Some viewers will delight in the edgy humor, while others undoubtedly will want to slap an extra-tight muzzle on Wilfred. Read full review
83
NewsdayVerne GayJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Fair warning, dear reader: Wilfred is intensely vulgar, and only guys around the age of 28 whose ears, and sensibilities, are covered with scar tissue will find nothing offensive. Otherwise, it's very funny. Read full review
80
Zap2it (Inside the Box)Mikey O'ConnellJun 24, 2011
Season 1 Review: It's up in the air as to how Wilfred will be perceived by viewers. The first three episodes are fantastic, but proudly off-color, like most of FX's comedy line-up. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: By not belaboring the point--Ryan is not crazy, there is nothing supernatural afoot--the show stays fresh, the gimmick fades. The humor is frequently scatological or sexual, but a mitigating sweetness enfolds it all. Read full review
80
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: There's nothing at all subtle about the gloriously absurdist Wilfred. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: While all the philosophical, existential and surprisingly intimate moments of their friendship are the wonderfully surprising backbone to Wilfred, the hook is the absurdist situations and brilliant humor. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyRay RahmanJun 23, 2014
Season 4 Review: As Wilfred begins its final season, the premiere hints it's almost ready to answer the first [question of why Ryan is the only one who can understand Wilfred). [27 Jun 2014, p.57]
75
Entertainment WeeklyDan SniersonJun 14, 2013
Season 3 Review: While the show's dog-and-mouse game of "Will Ryan finally learn what Wilfred is?" often proves an exercise in frustration, the bizarro buddy comedy is just entrancing enough to keep you on the leash. [21 Jun 2013, p.58]
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandJun 26, 2012
Season 2 Review: The second season is to explore Ryan's character and the vulnerabilities that enable him to see Wilfred as a biped. Read full review
75
USA TodayRobert BiancoJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Luckily, the last thing many of us need in summer is another show that demands our weekly attention. Entertainment we can dip in and out of will do. And if that's what you want, Wilfred is a good dog indeed. Read full review
75
New York PostLinda StasiJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Wood's puppy-dog eyes and Gann's crazy dog persona--or is that dogsona?--are a few things that make Wilfred watchable, in an existential-Johnny Depp-meets-"Monty Python" kind of way, that is. Read full review
70
SlateTroy PattersonJun 27, 2011
Season 1 Review: It borrows indiscriminately from hazy magic realism, sketch-show Dada, and underground-comics allegory according to alternating whim. If you don't give a hoot about such logistical issues--and if you're willing to forgive the half-hearted crudity that fills the space between good crude jokes and the bizarro non-jokes-then you have come to the right place. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: It seems like the show will basically be a weekly dose of two-steps-forward-one-step-back for Ryan with Wilfred as his teacher/tormentor. Wilfred certainly has moments of high (and low) comedy but it's also hard to imagine the premise won't get stale pretty fast. Read full review
70
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan StormJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: It's crude and hilarious and clearly aimed at a young male audience. Read full review
70
TimeJames PoniewozikJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: I've now seen three episodes of Wilfred, however, and I think this bizarre, dark yet oddly good-hearted series has legs. Four of them, at least. Read full review
70
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: The show has a nice sense of innocence, thanks to Wood's gentle performance and the theme of personal transformation; but it is also filled with uneven sexual and scatological jokes, delivered with a dog-like lack of modesty, so viewer be warned. For some, that level of humor is a deal breaker. Read full review
70
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Wilfred is still a work in progress; in the early stages, the relationship between the dog and the man feels a little claustrophobic, but as the episodes progress, Ryan's world begins to expand a bit, which is a good thing. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichAug 27, 2012
Season 2 Review: Wilfred, the vulgarian talking dog, [is] beginning to feel like the same lame joke repeated ad nauseam. Read full review
67
Uncle BarkyEd BarkJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: In the end, all of this may amount to little more than a one-trick dog and pony show. But Gann can be irresistibly gross at times while Wood is good at being hapless. Together they sometimes make quite a comedy team. Almost as good as Turner & Hooch. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierJun 17, 2013
Season 3 Review: Unfortunately, for every profound realization Ryan makes about himself, there's about a dozen instances of Wilfred having sex with a stuffed animal or urinating on the floor. Read full review
63
Slant MagazinePhillip MaciakJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: While squirrel-eating jokes are all well and good for now, if Wilfred is going to make it, Wood and Gann will have to develop some real chemistry and comic rhythm, especially if the show's writers continue to be so reliant on the inherent novelty of their premise. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzAug 14, 2012
Season 2 Review: Wilfred is much more pleasant and consistently enjoyable than Falling Skies, but that might be because the stakes are much lower. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierJun 28, 2012
Season 2 Review: The strain that comes with continuing to care about Ryan's sad-sack existence, one that's a direct result of his own insecurities and poor decisions, vastly outweighs the amusement packed away within the incidental laughs the series intermittently provides. Read full review
50
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: By the end of the third episode, I was tired of all the sodomy jokes. Wood is an appealing comedic lead, but he's working off scraps. Be charitable and chalk up Gann's appeal to cultural differences. Read full review
40
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanJun 21, 2012
Season 2 Review: On paper, it all appears to be functional. In reality, I find myself uninterested in Ryan's minuscule problems and Wilfred's repeated attempts to hector or nag Ryan into taking more chances with his narrow little life. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian LowryJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: While Wilfred will doubtless find cultish admirers, after previewing three episodes, the size of its pack should be limited. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: So it may develop a cult following, and whether it does or not, FX deserves continuing credit for trying different approaches to traditional TV shows. Too often, though, Wilfred makes us work a little too hard for the payout. Read full review
40
The New York TimesMike HaleJun 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Wilfred tries for a coarse sophistication that locates it somewhere between HBO's winsome "Flight of the Conchords" and FX's brutally honest "Louie" (which begins its second season on Thursday night). But it ends up muffled and not very funny. Read full review
30
Washington PostHank StueverJun 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: Wilfred would appear to be crafted from a can't-miss, indie-hipster aesthetic, which may be part of the problem: The show is cool to the point of being cold. The bark is all snark. It doesn't work. Read full review
25
People WeeklyTom GliattoJun 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: The show is The Odd Couple redefined by psychosis and whimsy. I'm not wagging my tail. [27 Jun 2011, p.46]
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