Running Wilde

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Emmy: I'm going to make you a better man.
Steve: Not if I make you a worse woman first.

A show by the creator of Arrested Development.

Steve Wilde is the filthy rich son of an oil magnate. He's giving himself an award for being the "Humanitarium of the Fiscal Year" and invites Emmy Kadubic, his crush when he was younger.

Emmy and her daughter Puddle live in the Amazon rainforest and are trying to preserve tribal land from being destroyed by WildeOil. Deciding that maybe Steve can help with this, she goes to Steve's party. Seeing that Steve hasn't changed, however, she decides to take off back to the rainforest.

Puddle, however, has other plans. She hates the rainforest and wishes to stay and be normal. With the help of Steve and Steve's equally rich neighbor Fa'ad, she finally gets her mother to stay, with Emmy convinced that she can change Steve's selfish ways.

Tropes used in Running Wilde include:
  • Actor Allusion: Another reference is made to Arrested Development when Andy says he's freezing off his "blue man group".
  • Ambiguously Gay: Fa'ad, when he is helping Steve play hide and seek (or five hundred dollars if you can find me) with Puddle by hiding in the trunk of his car and discussing Emmy.

Fa'ad: "Oh, Steve! You have a better chance at romance with me in the back of this Escalade than you do of getting that woman to go on a trip with you."
Steve: "There's just so much baggage."
Fa'ad: "We could move it."

  • Can Not Tell a Lie: Subverted. Steve and Fa'ad can tell lies, they are just really, really bad at them. (Being rich means you don't have to lie apparently.)
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Everybody except for Puddle.
  • Channel Hop: The last four episodes of the series are being dumped on FX.
  • Cute Mute: Puddle, until she starts talking. She's still cute though.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: Puddle really needs to learn this for her narration.
  • Epunymous Title: There must have been a two-for-one sale, because the show comes on right after Raising Hope.
  • Granola Girl: Emmy.
  • Hot Mom
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Puddle.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: It is heavily implied that Steve grew up as one, and this series can be interpreted as what happens if the rich kid stayed lonely through adulthood.
  • Only Sane Girl: Puddle is the only one who sees how much the rainforest sucks, how nice Steve can be, and how much of an idiot Andy is.
  • Parental Neglect: Emmy seems rather unconcerned that Puddle hasn't spoken for SIX months (She stopped speaking as she kept saying she wanted to leave the rainforest but was totally ignored)
  • Royal Brat: Steve Wilde. Young Emmy convinces him that he should tell his father that either Emmy's mother stays or they (including Steve) leave.

Emmy: "And that's the last time I saw him."
Steve: "And that's when my got my first speed boat!"

  • Shout-Out: When Steve and his dad(played by George Sr.) hug, the Arrested Development commercial break music plays.
  • Stepford Smiler: Steve does this to make Andy look like a jerk. Andy does this to Steve to secretly kidnap him. They both do it at the same time.
  • Strange Girl: Puddle (though she doesn't want to be strange, she wants to be normal).
  • Upper Class Twit: Steve Wilde.