Enlightened

[modage]

Is anyone else catching up on this right now? There have been a wave of articles calling it basically the best show on TV right now (see: The AV Club, The Atlantic, Buzzfeed) & after listening to Mike White on two podcasts recently (WTF and The Treatment) I decided to give it a try. I'm about halfway through Season 1 so far but will probably finish up in the next week or so but this show is really good. So far it's about Laura Dern's character who has some kind of mental breakdown at her corporate job and comes back from her rehab with a new outlook on life. The first handful of episodes see her positive outlook being tested by all manner of unfortunate circumstances. It's really funny but also totally sincere. I'm not sure how I forgot because "Inland Empire" wasn't that long ago but man, Laura Dern is amazing. Watch the first 4 minutes of the first ep and see if you're not already hooked/laughing out loud. I'm not sure why more people haven't been writing/praising this show until just recently but apparently Season 2 is even better.

If you're looking for something to binge watch I highly recommend this show. The Season 2 finale is tomorrow and HBO still hasn't renewed it so it's definitely "on the bubble." If you're ever going to watch, do it now.

Patton Oswalt is a big fan too.

Read this: Enlightened is TV's best show right now—and it needs more viewers

[Reel]

This is my favorite show!!! It never ceases to surprise in really subtle ways, I love it. I'm on Episode 6 of season 2 and I was looking for a place to promote those podcast interviews too, they're really great. Mike White is way underrated don't you think? I want to see Year of The Dog... anyway, thanks for making the thread, mod.

[JG]

yea its really the only show i watch every week. season 1 was great, but season 2 soars. haven't seen the finale obviously, but this season is probably the best thing of 2013, film or otherwise. season 2 is much more plotty than season 1, plays with genre a little bit, amazing supporting performances. kinda hard not to gush.

[Pubrick]

why the fuck haven't you guys said anything until now?

if i discovered something this (apparently) good early on i would be getting the word out all day every day.

instead we get endless threads about bullshit shows like the Walking Dead that jump the shark every other week yet everyone incomprehensibly continues to watch.

[Reel]

why the fuck haven't you guys said anything until now?

haha. Well, I for one started watching it during the 1st season. Really liked it, but kinda thought it was a fluke and would never be picked up again. Cancelled HBO after that and being away from the show for awhile, I forgot what it was even about. So when I watched the first eps of season 2, I wasn't even sure if I still liked it. It was listening to those interviews with Mike White that made me realize there could be something great here and more going on than at the surface level. I guess it'd been so long that I forgot Season 1 was like that too! It's really a show you gotta sit with for a couple eps to see where it's going.

season finale was last night. Now we can all catch up!

[Reel]

BOOOOOO it got cancelled ..my life is ruined . I'm grateful for two very good seasons and will be rewatching them shortly. It's still a wortwhile show!

[HeywoodRFloyd]

What a damn shame, I started watching this since you guys recommended it, really got into the groove of it, now this.

But I'm not surprised it got cancelled, I honestly didn't know of it's existence since this thread, which would lead me to believe others don't know about it, and not everyone is on Xixax so they can be ENLIGHTENED.

BOOM.

I consciously crack shit puns, I think if you know they're shit, it's justified.

Thought I'd comment while I can before the show & this thread disappears into the long forgotten annals of internet and entertainment history, because this is actually a great show guys.

[diggler]

Just got through the series and loved it. The second season has much more plot momentum, but none of it would work without the character development in Season 1. I just realized the boss was played by Marshall from Undeclared. He's the most Apatow-like character, but even he manages layers of depth beyond a caricature. I can't recommend this enough, even Luke fucking Wilson seemed engaged.

It's sad that it got cancelled, but it ends in a good place.

[diggler]

Mike White's AV Club interview about Season 2, great read.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/mike-white-walks-us-through-all-of-enlighteneds-se,95414/

[Pubrick]

i'm making my way through this and i don't like it.

i'm only on episode 2 of the first season and i want to smash laura dern in the face.

she's so full of shit, does anyone know anyone like this? i do, and they're usually ex drug users who latch on to absolutely idiotic pseudoscience and think suddenly they're gonna change the world. i can't stand her. i cheer when everyone in the office treats her with contempt. i don't think i've ever disliked a lead character in a show more than this. i am REALLY hoping that her entire character changes, from the way she talks to what she thinks to the faces she makes and her tone of voice, everything. otherwise it is pretty clear why this got cancelled.

i laughed once when the dude was playing with his little action figures and they were humping. i am guessing that she makes a little posse with the people in the basement and somehow attacks the company literally from the (sub) ground up. yeah that's all well and good plot wise but it's based on an idiotic character. she is just 100% hysterical. ugh.

[modage]

Keep watching.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I'm with modage. She is absolutely intended to be at least half obnoxious. Other shows get you to sympathize with both sides; Enlightened wraps all of that into one character. As the show begins she is at war with herself. Seeing that play out is often unpleasant and confusing, but that's what pulled me in. You're supposed to laugh at her, be annoyed by her, and sympathize with her. Occasionally all of those things at once, but more often it toggles from scene to scene. I think it works.

[diggler]

I especially love that A/V Club interview with Mike White where he talks about the viewer reaction that Dern is just crazy and annoying. The show does a great job at depicting the perception of crazy from multiple perspectives. It was at it's best when it stepped out of Dern's shoes and focused on another character's point of view. It would be easy to portray that character as victimized by her surroundings but she manages to pull that off while also being believably irritating (as self righteous people tend to be), and the alternate points of view help illustrate that. I didn't get the hype until about midway through Season 1 and Season 2 pays it all off in a fun way.

[Pubrick]

nope, sorry. i can't go on. i couldn't make it past the first minute of episode 4, she drives like a maniac into some fucking bins then gets out and starts irritating the fuck out of anyone who'll listen, in this case her mum. i just want her character to have a horrible accident, preferably one that removes her head from her body.

can you just TELL me the exact episode or moment where this is supposed to get good?

i don't care about spoilers. just explain the one clever development that happens and is so "brilliant" that it's worth trudging through more than 3 episodes of steaming shit. if it's really interesting i'll give it due credit, i may even force myself to try to watch one more ep. please tell me they kill her off, a lobotomy, anything!

i'm going to give Veep a go now. hopefully cbrad has better sense than this. shows shouldn't be so bad for so many episodes in a row and then still expect to be seen!

[©brad]

i'm going to give Veep a go now. hopefully cbrad has better sense than this. shows shouldn't be so bad for so many episodes in a row and then still expect to be seen!

Veep finds its groove quick-like. I'm confident in my endorsement and your impending approval!