SummaryAmy Jellicoe (Laura Dern), a corporate executive who suffered a breakdown, comes out of her Hawaiian mental-heath treatment center with a new outlook on life.
SummaryAmy Jellicoe (Laura Dern), a corporate executive who suffered a breakdown, comes out of her Hawaiian mental-heath treatment center with a new outlook on life.
For a needlessly precise numerical rating: 96/100
Amy Jellicoe is childish, naïve, selfish, self-centered. But she represents the dichotomy of all humans: she is noxious and enlightening, toxic and pure. She has hope. And that's a beautiful thing to have.
"Enlightened" was flawed--just like its heroine. But it was perfect at the same time. Now it's gone and we miss it because it was perfect. Just perfect.
Laura Dern and Mike White continue their bold, hilarious, tremendously moving exploration of Amy Jellicoe's ongoing attempt to give meaning to her life. [18 Jan 2013, p.74]
Self-delusion can grow fairly tiresome, in life and on TV, but what makes Amy sympathetic is that even though she almost convinces us at times that her personal fairy tale actually makes sense, we are always aware of her basic decency and, more important, her vulnerability.
Contemporary TV is suddenly filled with shows starring charismatic yet ostentatiously flawed heroines: Homeland, The Mindy Project, Girls, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. Enlightened stands out because its vision is so much wider.
9/10 but I'm giving it a ten to help cancel out Oinker and boredbychoice's semi-idiotic votes. As a man with basic needs I watch shows like The Office (10/10), Breaking Bad (10), Game of Thrones (10), Family Guy(9), Walking Dead (9), Elementary (8.5), The Americans (9) etc. I feel the need to write reviews only when a show is being discarded at first glance by men with extreme fear of the return of shows like Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives, Dharma and Greg etc. (all not really that bad). Shows that were forced on us by women. Mike white and Laura Dern have made a new piece of golden age television with Enlightened. This is a show for deep thinkers and twist lovers. Be prepared to second guess every turn and piece the enlightening puzzle together as the tale comes to light. Characters act according to a very specific timeline while the standard building process unfolds. Trust the season 2 metascore and understand this is a fast-paced and intriguing show for any viewer. Mike White and Luke Wilson keep you steady while Laura Dern goes off the rails in this epic narrative of the trials and tribulations of corporate, first-world America.
Don't you dare write a review after seeing half an episode.
What I don't understand about this show is whether it wants us to appreciate its lead character as a heroine or dismiss her us a complete train-wreck? Does it want us to laugh at her or root for her? Because frankly, I have tried and I find it increasingly difficult to root for a character so horribly self-unaware, selfish and oblivious to those around her. Clearly, it says a lot about a show where the best episodes are the ones not focused on the lead character (episode 9 in season 1 and episode 3 in season 2).
OMG, this show ****! Who wants to watch this bag full of crazy we call woman? The script is utter hippie-dippie tripe. Enlightened? No. I could feel the IQ points being **** out of me as the hour ticked away. Men, don't let your ladies talk you into this one. They slobber over the show because of a woman they can relate to and they'll want you to relate too. Yeah, right. Dern is good as the neurotic schizoid torn between her true self (read lunatic woman) and the enlightened zen-master hippie she professes to be. But the years haven't been kind to Ms. Dern. Don't be a sack-less eunuch. Turn the channel to Game of Thrones or Walking Dead instead.
PS Proof, once again, that the critics will praise any garbage about an empowered woman.
Before I talk about this show, I'm compelled to tell you what brought me to metacritic to write the review. I appreciate that metacritic leans towards a more diligent critique of media content. While Metacritic review compilation can lack the full fury of all critic consensus, the scale and users such as myself can gauge which content is worth consumption which art is worth appreciating. I hold Metacritics scale to the same standard as RottenTomatoes. I value what users on metacritic has to same more though. BUT THE REASON WHY I SIGNED UP AFTER YEARS is to say. **** this. show.
I am an avid, I mean avid admirer of HBO content. I am forgiving of some HBO programming that doesn't hit the mark every time. I was on HBO GO and realized I was a viewer of as some point with 32 of the 50 something odd shows available. I trust HBO even when their shows don't always work. The Sopranos is the greatest HBO epic, the Wire consumed me, Six Feet Under hit those emotions, True Blood allowed my masculinity to give in to the supernatural romance, Game of Thrones quenched my thirst. I've seen their mini series, I've seen HBO documentaries, I can't name all of what I love about HBO. BUT.
I was duped by metacritic scores and my some fan base for the show Enlightened. I watched it all just to cringe. I cringed from episode one to episode 18. What the **** was HBO thinking. What were the critics thinking. This is one of their weakest shows ever made. Problem: the main character has no redeemable qualities. She is this fallacy of what she wants to represent ion ever episode. I can tell HBO cancelled this **** fast because they knew it wouldn't reach their viewer base. The show is not funny aside from some of the most unassuming characters providing some laughs. Let me explain since this show has some political themes. I am a Buddhist, I am a socialist, I am America, I am white and pastey as hell. Never have I been more offended or annoyed my an annoying and anger white privleged woman with no redeemable qualities. I sympathized with her male counterpart in her affair, with her former co-workers, with her new coworkers, with the CORPORATION because she was just the most obnoxious woman. I felt sorry for her ex-husband. He probably gave the best performance in this show.
This show was so bland, so cringy, so leftist. It must have been an ironic liberal show to make new-age kombucha drinking yoga people look like jesters. The main character, who is the focal point of the WHOLE god damn show, was so ****ing dumb. I feel bad for the actress because while I admired her in other works, he character's nasty, mean spirited, sad bull**** guised in new-age happiness and endless epiphany self help self worth bull****. She has been redefined.
Maybe I'm being duped by watching this and it has become totally ironic, but this show it just strange. I have a large suspension of disbelief but nothing about this show felt realistic or insightful.
Don't waste your goddamn time. Be thankful HBO caught their error fast and cancelled after two seasons.
TL;DR. One of the worst female leads in a series, metacritic & HBO made this show. They should feel bad. I want a refund. haha there is no refund. shame on me. I'm a ****.
I will never understand how this got this high in critic scores. I just saw it really likable at first, then it just became annoying. HBO, you did a great job at first, then it just disappeared. I just don't know what to say right now.