Product Description
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Created by Mike White and Laura Dern, this half-hour HBO comedy
series centers on Amy Jellicoe (Dern), a well-intentioned
employee of a Southern California corporation who, after flipping
out and going to anger-management rehab, emerges with a singular,
if at times hilariously misguided, mission to make her company
more responsible. When we last saw her, Amy finally presented her
research outlining Abaddonn Industries’ toxic sins, but after
being laughed out of the room, she became even more determined to
expose the company not only as a polluter, but a bastion of
corporate greed and corruption. Having convinced co-worker Tyler
(White) to let her use his IT pas to retrieve incriminating
emails, Season 2 picks up with Amy immersed in gathering evidence
against Abaddonn. In this season’s eight episodes, Amy enlists
the help of journalist Jeff Flender (Dermot Mulroney), and as
they work together on a searing exposé, she dreams of a “bigger”
life and develops romantic yearnings for the handsome,
well-travelled reporter. Meanwhile, Amy’s ex Levi (Luke Wilson)
is still at Open Air Center in Hawaii, but it remains
to be seen whether he will embrace recovery and return as the man
she always wanted him to be. Touching, earnest and laugh-out-loud
funny, Season 2 of Enlightened follows Amy along her personal
journey to make change – and the unexpected impact it has on
those around her.
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The tagline for season two of the unclassifiable HBO series
Enlightened is "Peace Had Its Chance." Not that there was much
peace in the 10 episodes of season one, but in this even more
remarkably observed collection of eight half-hour installments,
battle lines come into clear focus and Amy Jellicoe's scheming
moves inexorably forward. Created by costars Laura Dern and Mike
White, Enlightened is the meandering, unhurried story of Amy
(Dern) and her mission to bring truth and beauty to the
world--enlightenment, if you will--usually at the expense of
everyone around her. She thinks she's helping them and the
universe exist in better harmony, but her actions are often as
self-serving and uncharitable as the wrongs she thinks she's
righting. Sadly, the eight episodes of season two are the end of
the show. All of them were written (and many directed) by White,
who exhibits remarkable sensitivity and grace in his nuanced
consideration of human behavior. After her meltdown and moral
awakening in season one, Amy is now toiling away in a doomed data
entry department of the evil Abaddonn Industries, conspiring with
her reluctant new friend Tyler (White) and a quirky cast that
includes her mother Helen (Diane Ladd, Dern's real mother), her
ex-husband Levi (Luke Wilson), and a hunky reporter (Dermot
Mulroney) to expose the criminal behavior of Abaddonn's
charismatic chief (James Rebhorn). The outcome is not nearly as
important as the study of these people's lives and the
compassionate, funny, heartbreaking, disjointed events that
befall them, with or without their active participation. The
episodes take time to look in other directions and consider
alternate perspectives about doing the right thing and what that
means to each individual in the cast. In one we seemingly break
away from the story to follow Levi on a trip to rehab; in another
Tyler's lonely life is explored along with his chance for
redemption. Overall, Amy has become more skilled at manipulation
even though she believes her motives are pure. She hurts people
and gets hurt, not always recognizing the difference. Laura Dern
is a wonder in perhaps the best performance of her career, and
the fine work Mike White has done in the past as a writer and
actor is fully surpassed with his deeply affecting portrayal of
life and philosophy that rings so true. A viewer campaign to save
Enlightened did not crack the cold hearts of HBO executives, but
the 18 episodes of its two seasons represent another astonishing
entry into what television can be and its power to affect us like
no other medium. The two-disc set contains limited features: a
few episode commentaries and short observations on each one in
interviews with Mike White. --Ted Fry