The first episode of FX’s new comedy series Wilfred is proof that television’s comedy genre is stronger than ever. Then again, a man in a dog suit is always funny. 

According to a June TvGuide.com article, the June 23 series premiere of Wilfred drew in 2.55 million viewers, making it FX’s highest-rated comedy premiere ever.

Based on the Australian series of the same name, Wilfred was adapted by David Zuckerman (Family Guy) and centers on a depressed lawyer named Ryan (Elijah Wood, The Lord of the Rings), whose botched suicide attempt leads him to see his neighbor’s dog as an oddly sweet and insightful yet slightly irritable Australian man in a cheap dog suit.

Wilfred (Jason Gann, Rats and Cats) gets thrown into Ryan’s life when his owner, and Ryan’s neighbor, Jenna (Fiona Gubelmann, Blades of Glory) needs Ryan to watch him one day. The two start an intimate friendship as Ryan creates a dependence on his furry friend for advice and guidance in his life, mostly because he is looking for someone to understand him–even if it’s a talking dog.

Ryan doesn’t know why he sees Wilfred as an unshaven Australian in a dog suit, but the two of them have an immediate chemistry. Wilfred, as it turns out, is part philosopher, part devious dog and part life coach. The two of them spend a lot of time at Ryan’s house, since Ryan quit his job and Jenna leaves Wilfred with Ryan when she goes to work.

The series probably could have coasted on all the inherently funny situations that a talking dog who loves Matt Damon movies could get into with a possibly schizophrenic neighbor, but Wilfred goes beyond that, which is why there’s more than a little hilarious genius in this series.

This isn’t a typical comedy sitcom. While there are broad laughs, the comedy is often more clever than laugh-out-loud hilarious. The humor is a little bit darker than America’s comedy viewers are used to, but there are still some very subtle compassionate layers that bring the show with its cynicism to its entirety.

Wilfred is an audacious concept that will be difficult for the literal-minded to accept. The show confusingly never specifies whether Ryan passed away in his suicide attempt or if he went insane instead. It’s all about Ryan’s perception, and the audience can draw whatever conclusions they want from Wilfred’s appearance and actions.

The success of this show comes partly from the writing, which is smart and genuinely hilarious, and partly from the stupendous casting. In particular, the character and performance of Wilfred, a completely unique television personality, really makes the show sing. Gann was born to play this role, which FX smartly recognized, since he co-created the show and co-starred as Wilfred in the Australian versions. In addition, Wood is simply fantastic as the exasperated and troubled soul who’s lost his way in life.

Essentially, Wilfred is a character right out of ancient mythology: the trickster (along with the fairy, the leprechaun, the fool and the joker-god). The job of the trickster, which appears in almost every culture, is to create chaos, to challenge the social norms and offend the authoritative. He brings total chaos, but from that chaos, something positive always arises–and that’s exactly what happens here.

Wilfred was the best show of the summer, and unless it goes off-track in later episodes, it will be one of the best, most interesting shows of the next decade. It works on many levels, something that may not be apparent until after the laughing stops.

The show was renewed for a second season on Aug. 5, and is currently being filmed. Season two is assuredly to be as good, if not better than the first with better developed characters at the end of the first season.