Enlightened: Season One (2011)

Laura Dern plays Amy, a character who got fired from her job, has a nervous breakdown, and earns a reputation for being a crazy woman. She goes off to Hawaii to a rehabilitation program for a summer and comes back reformed and a changed person, now she's ready to change the world around her. Unfortunately, changing the world around her proves to be an especially difficult task. First of all, as nice as she is to people, they can't seem to see her as the new person she is and continue to reprimand her for her past behavior. Second of all, changing the world takes sacrifice, especially financial sacrifice. Lastly, no one else seems to be interested in changing the world with her, and she can't do it by herself.




Enlightened was probably the biggest surprise this year, because it is not only a brilliant character study, but it also has amazingly sharp observations about why it's so hard for us to change our world for the better. We all know how hard it is to change, but one thing that does not get as much recognition is the difficulty that other people have when we do change. It's not just other people that make it so much more difficult, but it's the whole world. For Amy, materialism and the need for money makes things harder when she tries to do some advocacy work and help out a homeless shelter. She tries to get the corporation she works for to recognize some of the problems they contribute to and help find solutions, but it's more expensive to find solutions so why would they? This is a show that shows how hard it is to do the right thing.


The show is billed as a comedy, but honestly I don't laugh out loud much during this show, and there's nothing wrong with that. While there isn't a lot of laugh out loud comedy, there is lots of satire. Satire of the corporate structure and also satire of people who live their lives as if nothing bad is going on in the world. The tone of the show is light, but it's also very serious. I love the scenes where Amy starts her voiceover narration and the images and tone become contemplative. Each of the directors on this show are very talented and give this show a beautiful and meditative feel in places. The show is minimalist, but feels very cinematic. There is a lot that contributes to the unique feel and tone of the show, some of it is the great acting by all involved, especially Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, and much of it is also the music by Carter Burwell (in the pilot) and Mark Mothersbaugh (the rest of the episodes). The music fits so well with the show that I would say it's probably the best music on any show on television.


Enlightened is a truly unique show that seems so easy to digest but it goes into some truly difficult truths about our world. Amy is a legitimately good person now, but if no one else knows that how possible is it that she can stay this way and actually better the world? If those who want to better our world always get discouraged, then what hope do we have?


Grade: A-