Enlightened

Enlightened is about a woman who was unable to cope with a series of accumulated stresses in her life and decided to seek treatment. She returns to her life with a new awareness and feels compelled to share and engage people in that awareness to effect positive change around her, but she finds herself running up against resistance due to fear of change. The people around her are all coping with stress in their lives in various other ways. It's about confronting the loneliness and isolation that you can feel when your perspective differs from those around you, and how that loneliness is at odds with your desire to connect, help, and heal those around you. At the end of the day it's about the serenity prayer, about Amy learning the wisdom to know the difference between what she can change, and what she can't. A lot of mistakes are made in the process, but her heart is in the right place, and any introspective viewer will be able to relate to the struggle. I highly recommend it.

I watched this way before White Lotus and it has stuck with me for a very long time. I don't know why I felt compelled to write a review now, perhaps just to elevate this show. The acting is perfection (as always for Dern) but if it's not obvious it's the imperfection of the characters that is so, so compelling and so, so heartbreaking. You can identify with all characters in a way, but not all ways, and also feel disappointed and at times disgusted by them. Ultimately Dern's character is a legit narcissist but you root for her and cringe at her at the same time over and over again. Underlying it all I think is a sense of humanity that gives its flawed characters substantial dignity beneath a veneer of distaste, and asks us what we see of ourselves in them.

I read somewhere that this show was one of the best new shows of the year, so I started watching it on demand. I find it to be a very interesting mix of humor, drama, and intrigue. Laura Dern is great as an almost completely unpredictable person. It's almost scary to say that her character is like more than a few people I've met in my life.

This show covers work, home, friends, and life matters in a pretty realistic way. As in life, sometimes it's the verbal and sometimes it's the nonverbal communication that conveys the best message. The actors are doing a great job with the material, and I'm now on episode 7 and the show feels like it's getting even more interesting. I have to say, I'm pretty addicted to wanting to get to know these people more...and seeing where it all goes.

The A.V. Club named this the best series of 2013, beating out popular favorite Breaking Bad and angering many readers who had never even heard of this obscure HBO series. It aired its first, 10 episode season in late 2011. Its second, 8 episode season aired at the beginning of 2013. A third season was planned, but HBO canceled it. Watching the first season, I was a little perplexed at where the praise had come from. Laura Dern is good in the lead, playing Amy Jellicoe, a woman working at a high position at a pharmaceutical company who gets fired after having an emotional breakdown. She goes to a New Age-y treatment facility in Hawaii and, six months later, returns to the company in a much lower position. She is a bit of a hippie, harping on her company's lack of ethics, which immediately gets her in trouble. I must say, the first season seems all like set-up with no pay off. If I were watching it on TV, especially if I had to wait the whole year for it to air its second season, I probably wouldn't have continued with it. But I bought both seasons at once, so eight more episodes weren't much of a commitment. And, man, that second season. It goes from a series that was decent but fairly unnotable to something truly special, something remarkably potent. Here is the pay-off in spades. The second season is so emotionally involving, so insightful into the human condition. Amy Jellicoe is a bit of a pill, but you really understand her and I really appreciated a character like her, one who is far less than perfect. The two best episodes of the series have at their center a secondary character. "Higher Power" focuses on Amy's ex-husband, Luke Wilson, as he himself goes to Amy's treatment facility and tries to get clean. Wilson has always been an undervalued actor who is often misused, and he's never been better than in this television episode. In "The Ghost Is Seen," series creator and head writer Mike White (whose directorial debut, Year of the Dog, explored similar themes to this series), who co-stars as Amy's lonely best friend at work, falls in love with Molly Shannon (who starred in Year of the Dog), while he simultaneously betrays her trust. Diane Ladd also co-stars as Amy's mother, and I loved her relationship with her daughter. It was unique in that she's severely disappointed with her daughter and kind of distrusts her.

The show is about one very flawed woman's struggle to become a better and healthier person. She's clearly lost, but dedicated and passionate in a way which makes you admire her and be annoyed by her at the same time. The show does a neat trick of manipulating the viewer into alternatively mocking her because of her naivete and flakiness, and cheering for her out of empathy, both back and forth within single episodes. You come to expect her to crash and burn in a tragic and comedic fashion. Yet in the end, she claims small victories of enlightenment that put all of us in touch with our humanity and teach us a little bit about growth. The show is not preachy, yet makes its points poignantly and powerfully.

I'm excited with anticipation as to where the show may go and hope it is renewed despite the poor ratings so far. Definitely my favorite new show of the season.