After reviewing, share your thoughts on the show in the comment section. Did you enjoy the absurd premise, or did it wear thin after getting over its initial inventiveness? I’ve never seen the Australian version. If you have, how doe the American version compare? Jason Gann plays the same role (Wilfred), so maybe it was Elijah Wood (Ryan) who rubbed you the wrong way. Feel free to speak openly, LOTR fans. I promise none of this will find its way back to Elijah.

The episode opens with Ryan crafting the perfect suicide note, or at least a draft he can be satisfied with before ending any and all opportunities to revise it. He’s like a tiny, clean-shaven Hemingway, concerned that every single word matters, as it’s a representation of him as a person. Then comes the pounding of the anxiety meds with a nice cough syrup chaser. Now all Ryan has to do is wait.

But the sweet relief of death never comes for Ryan. He only looks like a person who stayed up all night trying to kill themselves. A ring of the doorbell thwarts his attempts. His extremely attractive neighbor (Fiona Gubelmann) asks Ryan if he can watch her dog, Wilfred, while she’s off at work. We get our first introduction to a man in a dog suit, with a dot of black paint on his nose to complete the unsettling picture.